Full Title of Your PROJECT REPORT. [Put your full name here] [student number] [date] [Course Code – e.g. MGT726 Managerial Project] School of Business Faculty of Arts and Business   Executive Summary Put your Executive Summary here (do this last). Make sure you actually summarise and cover all areas of your project. Refer to the BUS703 Toolkit Section 10.6 for tips on preparing a good Executive Summary. As suggested in the Tips, one approach would be to have five paragraphs in the Summary, one for each of the major sections in the report. For a 5,000 word report this summary should be about one page long. Table of Contents Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…i List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...iii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….iv List of Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..v 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1 1.1 Purpose…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..1 1.2 Background and significance………………………………………………………………………………………….1 1.3 Management problem and research question……………………………………………………………..…1 1.4 Research boundaries…………………………………………………...………………………………………………….1 1.5 Report outline……………………………………………………………….………………………………………………..1 2. Literature Review/Theoretical Framework…………………………………………….…………………..2 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..2 2.2 Topic 1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 2.3 Topic 2……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3 2.4 Topic 3……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3 2.5 Implications……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3 3. Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4 3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4 3.2 Sources of data and justification……………………………………………………………………………………4 3.3 Details of specific techniques………………………………………………………………………………………..4 4. Proposed Analysis of Results………………………………………………………… …………………………5 References…………………………………………………………………….…...……………………………………………………7 Appendices…………………………………………………………………….…...…………………………………………………..8 Appendix A: TITLE…………………………………………………………………….…...…………………………….8 List of Figures [This is optional and I would only use if you had more than 5 figures in the report] List of Tables [This is optional and I would only use if I had more than 5 Tables in the report] List of Abbreviations [Optional - If appropriate, list any abbreviations used in the report.] 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose Clearly state purpose of the report 1.2 Background and significance Background to the research problem. Briefly present the circumstances that have led to the immediate problem. Why is it worthy of investigation - expected benefits? 1.3 Research question and objectives Clearly state the research question you are addressing and your specific research (information) objectives. 1.4 Research boundaries Note any boundaries of your topic e.g. only looking at a specific product within a product range or only looking at a certain group of customers. May also be a geographic boundary eg only looking at a certain market, state or province. 1.5 Report outline Let your reader know what is coming, e.g.: After this Introduction, this report reviews the relevant existing literature (Section 2) before then outlining the methodology used to gather data to address the research objectives (Section 3). Section 4 reports the results while the final section 5 draws conclusions and makes recommendation to address the management issue 2. Literature Review/Theoretical Framework The literature review should demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the area and provide arguments to support the study focus. The aim of the literature review is to set up the research question. The literature review needs to: 1) Critically evaluate the literature rather than merely describe previous literature (i.e., what is good/bad about the body of literature?). 2) Show a synthesis and be integrated rather than being more like an annotated bibliography. 3) Identify key authors and the key works in the area. 4) Constitute an argument. 5) Clearly identify the gap in the literature that is being addressed by the research question. NOTE: in some cases the literature review may vary in format and focus more on selection of a theoretical framework. To illustrate, in the example project about New Product Development, the literature review served to identify existing theories and models of NPD and identify which was most appropriate to apply to the case study. Similarly in the example of the use of environmental analyses to assist in identifying markets, or in the case where a product range may be analysed to assist in decided which products to drop, the literature review will focus more on justifying why the theoretical framework or tool is the most appropriate to address the research question. 2.1 Introduction Start with an overview of this section by outlining the topics to be discussed. For example: This section will review literature on the following topics: Topic 1 (Section 2.2) [briefly describe the topic]; Topic 2 (Section 2.3) [briefly describe the topic]; and Topic 3 (Section 2.4) [briefly describe the topic]. Section 2.4 highlights the implications from the literature impacting on this study. 2.2 Topic 1 Present and discuss your first topic. 2.3 Topic 2 Present and discuss your second topic. 2.4 Topic 3 Present and discuss your third topic. 2.5 Implications Discuss the implications from the literature for your study – the theoretical framework for your study. Highlight gaps in the existing literature that you will now fill. 3. Methodology This section of the report should outline the design and methodology of your project. The basis for the choice of research method should be about how and why it will help you answer your research question. 3.1 Introduction Give an overview of what is to be included in this section. For example: This section describes the design adopted by this study to achieve the aims and process objectives stated in Section 1.3. Section 3.2 discusses the methodology (or sources of data) to be used in the study ……. 3.2 Sources of data and justification Discuss the methodology you will use in your study. If using stages, outline them here. The methods used must link explicitly to the research question and must be suited to the nature of the question. If applicable give details of who will be the participants in your study (including, if applicable, sample type and size, reasons for the number selected and the basis for selection). 3.3 Details of specific techniques List all the instruments to be used in your study for data collection and discuss their theoretical underpinnings, that is, justify why you will be using these instruments. Outline the procedure to be used in your study (the techniques to be used for the data collection) and the rationale for that procedure. If this is done in stages, give a timeline for the completion of each stage. 4. Analysis of Results Section 4 details the results of your study. In this progress report you will only be outlining your proposed analysis. Think about setting up dummy tables or figures that you will use in your final report. In a final report you can put the analysis of the results here. The analysis needs to be done for each of your research objectives. In cases where you have gathered primary data through focus groups, interviews or surveys, this section will begin with a profile of respondents so your reader knows ‘who’ has provided the data.. 5. Conclusions and Recommendations This section contains conclusions, limitations, implications and recommendations and should link back to your Research Question and Management Decision, that is, take the results from section 4 and apply them. You will not have this section in your progress report. References [Use Harvard style. Make sure all sources used in the report are listed here] Appendices Appendix A: TITLE [This section is optional and should only be used for supplementary information that you want to include to support your report]