BUSN20016: RESEARCH IN BUSINESS Refining Problem Statement and General Guidelines for Project Proposal Dr. Delwar Akbar School of Business and Law Email: [email protected] 1Refining problem statement • Introduction of the study VS problem statement • Background of the study VS problem statement • Issues VS problem • Symptom VS problem • Topic VS problem 2Refining problem statement ALWAYS REMEMBER • Identifying the problem is the key for any research. It will direct you to identify your research aim, objectives, methodology and so on. • If you have identified the problem, then it means you have done half of your research. • So it’s very very --- important!!! 3Refining problem statement • Introduction – Depends on introduction of what? If it is a technical report of a business research, then you should say – what’s overall purpose of the study and how did you organise the whole report. • Background of the study – This is about the context and issues of the study; for example what sector (for example, small business), which geographic area (such as Brisbane), which issue (such as sale), which type of small business (such as fashion shop), what types of entity (such as Children’s fashion shop) so on. 4Refining problem statement • Specific issues can be - more new companies are selling the same product; or there are available alternative products in the market; and/or traditional way of product advertisements have been changed due to the emergence of ICT and Internet; quality of the product etc. • Symptom is a consequence of the issues. For example, decline in sales of a particular product of a company • Problem statement should answer why this symptom is? 5Refining problem statement • Problem: why this symptom is? What are the evidence that you have to answer this question? • Without evidence, it is a fruitless problem statement. • However, answer can be multi-faceted • For example: reasons of the symptom of sales decline – Struggling with leadership style that effect to the staff motivation to work efficiently to maintain product quality – Because of many companies supplying the same product, the original companies did not diversify their promotion strategies – Or, simply they did not design and promote their BRAND properly, and so on 6Refining problem statement • Now the question is - do you need to deal with all reasons of the symptom or just one or couple. • Good research is mostly deal with one reason i.e., one problem. • Sometimes it depends what type of research you are doing: – For example – if you are doing research/consultancy for a company but as an independent researcher- then you should suggest them what is the key problem out of all problems; now the company may ask you either to deal with the key problem or all problem; again this would depend on their budget and time frame. – Sometimes, if you address the key problem, then other problem can be addressed over time 7Refining problem statement • For example – if you are doing pure academic research for government or research organisation, then you should identify all problems, then you need to do extensive literature review on studies that have done on these problems; • Then on this stage - your job is to identify what had not been done on “which problem” or what had not been done adequately on “which problem” - this would be your problem statement. 8Refining problem statement • After a rigorous problem statement, you may need to refine your “initial topic” to reflect the problem that you will deal with and it may be restructuring of the topic but not a complete change. • This has been happened in many case of business research and consultancy works. 9Refining problem statement • Refining problem statement is not a very easy task • Don’t feel uncomfortable at the beginning of your project and it takes bit of time to come up with a good problem statement • You have received written and/or verbal comments of your “Project Outline” from your tutors and you should have a quick chat with them again – how to refine your problem statement • Always be specific with the problem that you like to examine further and the problem should be supported by evidence 10General guidelines for project proposal (Assessment 3) • Topic of this assignment should be consistent with the topic of your Assignment 1. • If you like to change your topic, you MUST need permission from your course class lecturer. • However changing topic is not worth because you have limited time to complete this task • Up to 3000 words for this assignment (except references and appendix) 11Structure of the Assignment • A cover page with assessment criteria • A table of content with topic • Introduction • Problem Statement • Research aim and objectives • Justification of the project • Potential research output • Conceptual framework • Methodology • Organisation of the study • Project budget and budget justification • Gantt chart • References • Appendix (if any) 12A cover page – an example Criteria Total marks Marks obtain ed A statement of the problem, research aim, objectives and research questions All criteria are equally Justification and potential output of the weighted research Conceptual framework Methodology, organisation of the study, project budget and schedule Accurate referencing, use of correct English and logical sequences between sentences and paragraphs and a good introduction Grand total = 50 13 A cover page – can be simple but should be smart looking Examining Consumer Willingness to Pay (WTP) for Local Food Products in Australia: A Case Study of Brisbane’s Customers Name of the Student (MBA Student, Student ID.*****) SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND LAW CQUNIVERSITY AUSTRALIA ROCKHAMPTON A research proposal submitted to the School of Business and Law, in fulfilment of the requirements of BUSN20016 (Research in Business) for the degree of Master of Business Administration June 2015Introduction • Purpose of this assignment, highlights the issues that you will further explore in your current study followed by organisation of this assignment • Note that purpose of the assignment is different from purpose of the study. Purpose of this assignment is to write or present a complete research proposal for any business research but purpose of the study refers to aim of the study that will be presented in the “aim and objective” section of this proposal • Note that organisation of the study is different from organisation of the assignment. Organisation of the assignment is how you will organise this Assignment-3 but organisation of the study is how you will organise the whole study • About half a page or a maximum one page for an introduction 14Problem statement • You have already provided a “Problem statement” section in your Assignment 1 (i.e., Project Outline) and you just need to elaborate this here by considering the feedback you received from the assessment of your Assignment 1 • Also after completing a rigorous literature review on the issues or attributes of your research problem area, you may need to review your problem statement again • However a problem statement should follow: – A discussion of current practices or state of knowledge of the issue that you have highlighted in the introduction section followed by exploring what is the main problem within the issue – For example, a fall in sales of a food product can be an issue of a company but quality of the product or the product promotion and management within the industry/company is a problem that needs to be addressed – Therefore you need to substantiate the problem with evidence and logical arguments 15Research aim and objectives • You have already provided a “Research aim and objectives” section in your Assignment 1 (i.e., Project Outline) and you just need to revise these (if necessary) here by considering the feedback you received from the assessment of your Assignment 1 • Also after completing a rigorous literature review on the issues or attributes of your research problem area, you may need to review your research aim and objectives again 16Research aim and objectives • Reviewing this section, you should know: – Research aim and objectives are often confused to each other. – Research aim is what your overall goal of the study is and then you need to consider some objectives or tasks that help to achieve your goal. – However, your overall aim of the study should be to explore or examine the problem that you identified in your problem statement section – Some researchers like to use research questions instead of research objectives. – However both are interlinked and each research objectives can have one or more than one research questions. 17Justification of the project and potential research outcome • First Project justification is about trying to explain why the problem is so important that it requires further investigation followed by why the whole study would be so important • Second how your study objectives can bring some reasonable solution(s) to address the problem • Third how will the expected outputs of the study be used and who will be the beneficiaries 18Conceptual framework • Here you need to do an in-depth literature review on: – Prior ‘related’ theory – concepts and relationships that are used to represent the world, what is happening and why. – Prior ‘related’ research – how people have tackled ‘similar’ problems and what they have learned. – Other theory and research - approaches, lines of investigation and theory that are not obviously relevant/previously used. • However, you should have logical flow between your problem statement, research objectives and conceptual framework. If not, then you must need to review your problem statement, research objectives in terms of your conceptual framework. 19Methodology • You have already provided a “brief methodology” in your Assignment 1 (i.e., Project Outline) and you just need to elaborate this here by considering the feedback you received from the assessment of your Assignment 1 – If you have changed something significantly in your problem statement or research aim and objective sections while you have completed a rigorous literature review, then you may need to change or elaborate your methodology • However a “Methodology” section should follow: – First you need to tell what methodology you will consider for this study such as quantitative, qualitative or a mixed methodology – Second you should provide some details of data collection and data analysis methods – Third provide a direction about how you will discuss your research findings 20Organisation of the study • As described above, how you will organise the whole study such as first you will do a project proposal, second you will do conceptual framework and methodology of the study, and third you will do data analysis and discussion and at the end of the project you will do a chapter on conclusion and recommendations based on your study findings. 21Gantt chart Project name Start date Finish date Task 2017 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4--- up to Week 12 Task 1----- Task 2----- Task 3----- Task 4----- Task 5----- Task 6----- Task 7----- Task 8----- 22 It’s a simple example, but you can find many sophisticated examples online Again, it’s a Gantt chart for completing the whole research but not for this assignmentReferences and appendix • References • Appendix 23Assessment criteria – Must read 24 Criteria • A statement of the problem, research aim, objectives and research questions • Justification and potential output of the research • Conceptual framework • Methodology, organisation of the study, project budget and schedule • Accurate referencing, use of correct English and logical sequences between • sentences and paragraphs and a good introduction • All criteria are equally weighted • Total marks = 50Assessment criteria – Must read 25 Key to grading and corresponding marking scale: HD (84.5% to 100% marks): Student demonstrates outstanding understanding and interpretation of all aspects of the criteria. D (74.5% to 84.4% marks): Student demonstrates excellence in understanding and interpretation of almost all aspects of the criteria with some minor corrections or additions needed. C (64.5% to 74.4% marks): Student demonstrates very good understanding and interpretation of most aspects of the criteria with some need for additional work, additions or improvement. P (49.5% to 64.4% marks): Student demonstrates good understanding and interpretation of the criteria to warrant the award of a Pass but requires considerable additional work, additions or improvement. F (below 49.5%): Student demonstrates an unsatisfactory understanding and interpretation of the criteria and requires major additional work, additions or improvement to achieve a passing grade.Tutorial 10 26 • Student should bring hard copy of their marked Assignment 1 or their draft Assignment 3 • Tutor will provide one-to-one feedback on their (students) draft Assignment 3, especially should discuss – Is the current topic and problem statement is specific enough with evidence? Checking with given feedback on Assignment 1 and provide further advise to the student. – How they (students) will build their conceptual framework that lead to methodology of the study – Overall structure of the assignment (given in the lecture note) – Reminding about the assessment criteria (given in the lecture note)If you have any query about any content of this lecture note, please put it into the weekly discussion forum Thank you Dr Delwar Akbar School of Business and Law [email protected] BUSN 20016