Introductory research project

The Research Proposal

Submission details

Hand-in deadline: 2pm Tuesday 8th January 2019

Word limit: 2,000 – 2,500 words maximum (excluding title, contents page, references and appendices) There is NO plus 10% available.

Spacing: 1 ½ or double line spacing

Font size: 12 font size

Contribution to module grade: 75%

Objectives/ Learning Outcomes

The coursework assessment is designed to enable you to partially demonstrate the learning outcomes required for the successful completion of the module, with particular reference to the business/market/academic research skills development outcomes for this component as detailed in the module specification and module handbook:

· Evaluating secondary data sources such as academic literature and market research reports to frame research question

· Demonstrating understanding of development, conduct, analysis and interpretation of business, market and academic research to propose a research plan

· Working creatively with qualitative and quantitative (and potentially alternative research methods)

· Understanding of ethical issues in business, market and academic research that apply to your proposal

· Producing a succinct, well-argued and well-presented research proposal.

This Research Proposal is mostly based on topics you have covered over your degree programme so far. This gives you a choice of topics to focus upon (see below): a list of potential topic choices is given in this module handbook to help those undecided about what to focus on. Groups are free to choose a topic that is not on the list (as long as it is ethically sound).

You are asked to play the part of a business researcher or market research agency, submitting a proposal document to the client for their approval of your plan to research the question you choose. In order to create an appropriate proposal, you are required to analyse the existing academic and practitioner literature in the area, identify an aim and objectives, develop a strategy for sampling, collecting, analysing and interpreting data, and discuss the ethical and other limitations of your research. The research proposal is to outline a mixed methods (qualitative AND quantitative) research project.

Although practically-focused, this assessment requires an academic slant uniting academic and practitioner knowledge. You are expected to integrate academic concepts and theories from your other modules, and your own reading, to underpin your work and support the judgements you are making. In this regard it is essential that you properly reference all books, academic articles, websites and other reference sources used in your report.

Your Research Proposal is expected to cover the following (N.B. Word counts given here are approximate guidelines only):

· Introduction briefly covering justification for research (approx. 100 words)

· A short literature review identifying clear gap in theoretical and practical knowledge (approx. 500 words)

· Aim and objectives (approx. 75 words)

· Research methods covering both quantitative and qualitative approaches in a mixed methods study. These approaches should be covered separately (in whichever order you prefer and which makes sense for your study) and in each of the two sections should cover:

· Clear sampling plan for each stage, including sampling frame, sample size, intended recruitment methods and any requirements for incentives (approx. 200 words i.e. approximately 100 words on the qualitative and 100 words on the quantitative sampling plan)

· Outline of data collection methods for each approach, and commentary on how any surveys or moderators guides will be developed. This should include consideration of issues such as socially desirable responding, issues with literacy etc. Details about conducting the research (e.g. environment, recording data, any materials required) should be covered (approx. 400 words for EACH of quantitative and qualitative)

· Plans for data presentation, coding, analysis and interpretation suitable for each research approach (approx. 200 words for EACH of quantitative and qualitative).

· Consideration of ethics issues arising from the research and how you would address these (approx. 200 words)

· Description of any limitations of the research (approx. 100 words)

· Proposed time frame for the research, ideally using Gantt chart (max. 100 words) and brief closing summary

More detail is provided below about content for each section and marking criteria.

Formatting

The report should

· Be in a Microsoft Word format (i.e. a .doc or .docx file) to allow feedback, with 1.5 or double line spacing and 12 sized font.

· Be submitted online via Blackboard

· Use headings and subheadings to provide a clear structure

· Use diagrams, charts or images where they help support your argument

· Spellcheck your work

· Use UWE Harvard referencing style (see Library website for details)

· Anything in the main body of the report beyond this word limit of 2,000-2,500 words runs the risk of not being read or marked. The word count includes everything in (but is not limited to) the main body of the text listed here: abstract, text, headings, tables, citations, quotes, lists, acronyms and numbers expressed as digits or in words. It does NOT include the contents page, the references section or the appendices.

Choose any one topic.

You have a choice of suggested topics for your research proposal, as listed below. Your group can choose any one topic or you can link your research proposal to an area associated with your degree programme. You are advised to do so before the library tutorial in the second week, when you will start doing background research into the topic. This will give the maximum amount of time to work on your Group Presentation and your Research Proposal.

For all proposals, you are expected to follow the assignment guidelines (see the Assessments folder on Blackboard) and identify and apply key academic theories, identify aims and objectives, and describe sampling, data collection, proposed data analysis and presentation methods for an integrated mixed methods (i.e. quantitative and qualitative) approach.

NOTE: these topic choices are just suggestions. Not all the details of the completed research proposal are included as deciding those are a large part of the research proposal assessment. When collecting data, remember that valid information may be found from management, staff, customers and potential customers.

Suitability of Capacity Strategies

There are several different capacity strategies open to organisations e.g. level capacity plan, different types of chase demand plan, demand management, a combination of two or more of those plans (i.e. a mixed plan) and in some isolated cases, yield management (Slack et al, 2013). Your research proposal is to look at the suitability of an organisation’s choice of capacity strategy. You may wish to carry out qualitative data to find the experience of staff or customers to the organisation’s choice.

Reference: Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. & Johnston, R., (2013) Operations Management. 7th ed. Harlow: Pearson. [Please note: Any edition of Slack et al (2013) covers the topic area of capacity strategies]

Company Performance

One way of rating a company’s performance is to look how it focuses on the Five Performance Objectives (quality, speed, flexibility, dependability, cost) (Slack et al, 2013). Your research proposal could look at a local business and business to see on which of these – or other – objectives it focuses and how well it performs to those objectives. In one of the tutorial exercises, we’ve touched on the new M3 MetroBus service as an example of such an operation, but other organisations would be equally suitable.

Reference: Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. & Johnston, R., (2013) Operations Management. 7th ed. Harlow: Pearson. [Please note: Any edition of Slack et al (2013) covers the topic area of capacity strategies]

RMB Student Satisfaction

One of the main ways to judge the quality of modules, programmes and universities is through student satisfaction surveys. Using both qualitative and quantitative data these seek students’ views on areas such as teaching on courses, learning opportunites, level of feedback and assessment, academic support, course management, student voice and learning resources. Some of the nationally distributed surveys focus on courses alone while internal university surveys fail to get significant respondents. Focusing on the RMB module, students could research how a particular module fairs in terms of student satisfaction.

Reference:

thestudentsurvey.com (2018a) NSS2017_Core_Questionnaire.pdf Available from: https://www.thestudentsurvey.com/content/NSS2017_Core_Questionnaire.pdf [Accessed 7 September 2018]thestudentsurvey.com (2018b) The National Student Survey. Available from: https://www.thestudentsurvey.com/about.php [Accessed 7 September 2018] [Please note: These two references give links to the National Student Survey rather than the BMR theory on student satisfaction]

Creating New Products or Services

The final year dissertation option ‘Enterprise Project’ requires students to prepare a professional quality business plan, detailing the potential demand, capacity and other operations issues, and costs and revenue for a new product or service. Your research proposal is to find out what new product or service could be provided for either near or within the university premises (that would be on the Frenchay, Bower Ashton or Glenside campuses for UWE Bristol).

Reference: Karlsson, T. & Honig, B. (2009) Judging a business by its cover: An institutional perspective on new ventures and the business plan. Journal of Business Venturing. 24(1), pp. 27-45.

Process Design Innovations and Environmental Wastes

The focus of much of the literature on lean thinking, process activity mapping and value stream mapping is on reducing waste, and redesigning processes so that customers, materials and staff flow seamlessly from one operation to the next. One of the difficulties in convincing organisations to undertake this change is that they may easily see the short-term costs without being convinced by the long term benefits of reducing environmental wastes. Draft a research proposal that aims to quantify the benefits brought about when firms employ these innovations and tools. Also include details on how organisations are able to carry out the reduction of environmental wastes.

Reference: R.T. White, G.R.T. & James, P.C., 2014. Extension of process mapping to identify “green waste”. Benchmarking: An International Journal. 21 (5), 835 – 850. [Available via UWE Library: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/BIJ-07-2012-0047 ]

Hines, P. & Rich, N. (1997) The seven value stream mapping tools. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 17 (1), pp. 46-64.

Womack, J.P. & Jones, D.T. (1996) Beyond Toyota: How to root out waste and pursue perfection. Harvard Business Review, September-October, pp. 140-158.

Purchasing: The importance of purchasing

The subject of purchasing is one of the key areas of business and management; however it remains relatively under-researched. “The average purchasing value in relation to cost of goods sold is approximately 50%” (van Weele, 2010, p12). For this research proposal, you’ll need to set out how you are going to judge importance in terms of purchasing, and then how you will collect data to see how important purchasing is to organisations in the public and/or private sectors.

Reference: van Weele, A.J. (2010) Purchasing and Supply Chain Management. Hampshire: Cengage. [Available in the UWE Library as an electronic copy]

[Further reading: Kludge, J.N. (1996) Simply Superior Sourcing. 5th International Annual IPSERA Conference, Eindhoven, Netherlands (1996)].

Consumer behaviour and customer attitudes to buying music

“Since the rise of music on the internet the record industry has reported falling total sales revenues. This has occurred at a time when technology has radically increased choice, availability and the opportunity for the consumer to purchase music” (Parry et al, 2012, p320). Your research is to find out what buying patterns customers take when buying music (e.g. buying everything by one particular artist) and what market segments these purchasers fall into. Additional areas to study could include why they purchase music in that way.

NOTE: Do NOT right a significant amount of content in the literature review about the different ways of buying music – this is the CONTEXT not the THEORY.

References: Parry, G., Bustinza, O.F. & Vendrell-Herrero, F. (2012) Servitisation and value co-production in the UK music industry: An empirical study of consumer attitudes. International Journal of Production Economics. 135. 320-332.

Ethical purchasing and the role of the consumer

Increasingly, companies are being judged not just by the ethical behaviour within their own organisation, but also by how ethical are their supply chain relationships and partners. Your research project is to measure the impact on buyer behaviour (on the part of the individual customers) of the existence of an ethical supply chain and why customers pay that much attention to the concept.

Reference: Roberts, S. (2003) Supply chain specific? Understanding the patchy success of ethical sourcing initiatives. Journal of Business Ethics. 44(2), 159-170.

Seuring, S. & Müller, M. (2008) From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production. 16, pp. 1699-1710.

Marketing and Segmentation: Using IT to aid learning

Tablet-based technology now has a firm position within the IT market. One manufacturer is looking to break more into a new demographic, namely for students to use within lectures or seminars, which they see as a lucrative market. You have been asked to outline a marketing research proposal for a project to explore the lives and needs of students and to further understand this segmentation in the context of using IT in the classroom. The project would be used to develop recommendations for either hardware or apps that could be incorporated into future tablets. [Please note: the academic literature on this subject should not limit itself to a descriptive history of tablet devices]

Reference: Anderson, J.E., Schwager, P.H. & Kerns, R. (2006) The drivers for acceptance of tablet PCs by faculty in a college of business. Journal of Information Systems Education. Winter, 429-440.

Lean thinking: The move to the service sector.

Lean thinking (and Just-in-Time) originated within large scale, automotive manufacturing firms in Japan, building on quality and efficiency tools and techniques that were already available at the time. Since then the innovation has moved to other manufacturing sectors and has started to be diffused among the service sector. This research proposal aims to answer the questions of how applicable is this concept to the new service environments that are trying to adapt it, and what are the major barriers to its implementation.

References: Womack, J.P. and Jones, D.T., (1994). From Lean Production to the Lean Enterprise Harvard Business Review, March-April, 93-103.

Womack, J.P., Jones, D.T., (2003). Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Organisation. London, Simon & Schuster.

Hines, P. and Lethbridge, S., (2008). New Development: Creating a Lean University. Public Money & Management. February. 53-56.

Improving the success rates of project management

The success of a project is traditionally judged on whether this one-off, complex operation reaches quality targets, is produced on deadline and under budget (Slack et al, 2007 in James et al, 2009; Slack et al, 2013, pp 497, 504-505). This research project sets to find out what percentage of projects fail to reach these three targets and outline suggested measures to increase the rate of success in projects.

[You may wish to suggest measures that lie within the HRM literature]

References: Slack, N., Chambers, S., and Johnston, R., (2007). Operations Management. 5th ed. London: Pitman Publishing.

James, P., Rowland-Jones, R. and O’Brien, L. (eds.) (2009). Operations and Business Systems Management. 2nd ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. & Johnston, R., (2013). Operations Management. 7th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Consumption rituals of Christmas Day or Other Feast Days

In a paper employing in-depth, qualitative data collection, Wallendorf & Arnould (1991) look to see how individuals and groups both behave and consume during Thanksgiving Day in the USA. Basing your research on that paper, write out a proposal for carrying out a comparative study on how Christmas Day or another feast day is celebrated. You are free to carry out the research in the UK or to compare celebrations between several countries.

Reference: Wallendorf, M. & Arnould, E.J. (1991) “We gather together”: Consumption rituals of Thanksgiving Day. Journal of Consumer Research. 18 (June), pp. 13-31

The resource-based view in differing industry sectors.

In a paper employing in-depth, largely secondary, quantitative data collection, Miller & Shamsie (1996) were among the first authors to look at the resource-based view of the firm. It studies which type of resources within a firm lead to success in different market situations (i.e. stable vs unstable periods). While Miller & Shamsie’s paper addressed the issue by looking at historical data from the US film industry, your proposal is to outline how you would replicate and test the study in a different industry sector today. In addition, your proposal is looking to address how resources may interact together.

Reference: Miller, D. & Shamsie, J. (1996) The resource-based view of the firm in two environments: The Hollywood film studios from 1936 to 1965. Academy of Management Journal. 39 (3), pp. 519-543