Guidelines for Writing Research Proposal

Guidelines for Writing Research Proposal

Title

• Should have a core concept you are investigating
• Should indicate the organization you have chosen
• Can be in the form of a statement or a question

Example: A study of motivational strategies in Bank Sohar

Example: Do motivations affect job performance? A study in Bank Sohar

Introduction

• Should engage the reader in an interesting way through a quote or fact
• Should define and elaborate the concept/s that you are investigating
• Should give a brief (10 lines)introduction to the chosen company
• Should give the structure of the report

Rationale

• Should identify a problem theoretically related to the chosen topic (concept) or problem in the chosen organization
• Should indicate the source of the problem
• Should provide a rationale for the study- how your research will benefit the organization. What value will the findings have for the chosen organization? (Users of the research)
• Provide data if possible to support your arguments or facts.

Example

Although creativity and innovation is a buzz word today and most firms agree that it is a very important strategic ability, few firms are found it be practising it. It is evident that most of the firms do have policies to support creative and innovative efforts but its implementation and outputs are not really seen. However with the advent of globalization (Oman became a member of WTO in 2007), and greater exposure to westerns economies and competition, the need for entrepreneurial management has been felt in the corporate sector. This has been emphasized by a number of training and consultancy firms and educational institutions that deliver programmes for the corporate sector. Orange company has taken a number of measures to promote creativity and innovation but has not succeeded as the employees have resisted change measures. The company has shown only 3 innovative outcomes which were recognized by the management and rewarded. The company market share dropped from 17%in 2010 to 12% in 2012. This study will analyze the factors that prevent employees to be creative and innovative in Orange Company. It will suggest measures to the firm to improve its innovation profile in the industry.

Research aim and objectives

Aim: The aim of the study is a one-line statement of the entire research being carried out.

Objectives:

• The objectives of the study need to be in line (linked) with the research questions in the rational.
• Should clearly state what the research aims to achieve (outcomes)
• There should not be more than 4 research objectives or less than 2 research objectives
• Research objectives can be converted to research objectives (see handout)
• Each research objective should focus on one issue

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Examples

Action verbs to be used while developing objectives.

1. To evaluate the challenges to creativity and innovation in Orange company
2. To suggest appropriate recommendations to the orange company based on the findings

More Examples

To investigate the training methods used in Oman Air

To analyze the effectiveness of training methods in Oman Air

To compare the financial performance of company x with company y

Literature Review

• The literature review is an extensive and exhaustive review of the existing literature on your chosen topic (concepts).
• Through literature review you define, explain and elaborate the relevant concepts on your topic.
• Through a literature review, you make your reader aware of the depth of knowledge that exists in your chosen area of study.
• Through literature review, you elaborate on the possible relationship between concepts that may or may not exists
• Through literature review, you appreciate the various schools of thought and disagreements that might exist within the area of your study (critical review)

The literature review should not:

• Be descriptive but should be analytical and evaluative
• Should not be disjointed but there should be a link across the discussions
• Should not be dated (very old references) but updated (most recent researches)

A good example for your reference

Cheung, Harker and Harker (2007) after a thorough review of the literature found out the consumer attitudes related to advertising have more or less remained stable over the years. Hoyer and Maclnnis (2008) defined advertisements (Aad) as ‘a predisposition to respond in a favourable or unfavourable manner to a particular advertising stimulus during a particular exposure occasion’ (p. 49). Therefore, Aad is a situation-bound construct and ‘an attitudinal reaction to the advertisement generated at the time of exposure’ MacKenzie and Lutz (1989, p. 19). Coutler et al. (2001) advanced the concept of Aad and developed a structural model that suggested that various antecedents can determine the Aad through both peripheral and central processing mechanisms. Blair (2000) identified that the antecedents of the Aad can be affected by a consumer’s level of involvement. Attitude increase in the level of advertising interactivity is likely to increase a consumer’s level of involvement during the advertising exposure. Consequently, Aad is likely to be enhanced Vlasic and Kesic (2007).

Janiszeweski and Noel (2003) found that repeated exposures to advertisements can create attitudes with a higher level of confidence. Further single exposures could create an attitude with lower confidence levels and repeated exposures would create attitudes with higher confidence levels. These hypotheses were proved to be true as the findings indicate that attitude confidence can be increased through repeated exposures.

Methodology

• The methodology gives the details of the methods and approaches you are going to use to achieve your research objectives.
• Note that references are also required in this section
• You have clearly stated the research approach you are going to use i.e.
  1. Descriptive, correlation, explanatory explorative.
  2. qualitative or quantitative
• You have justified the use of either approach or its complementary use
• In line with your research approaches, you will decide the research tools you will be used to collect the primary data
• You can use research tools such as interviews (remember there are many types of interviews), questionnaires, observation etc. You have to justify the use- in other words how a particular research tool is helpful in achieving your objectives and how are you going to use it.
• You have to discuss how you are going to design these tools, for example, the type of questions, format and measurements
• You have been very clear about your sample- in other words the participants from whom you will collect the data. Sampling method, sampling technique, population size and sample size to be discussed.
• Questionnaire design should be discussing the number and the type of questions to be used. This section should also include the scale used for collecting the responses from the target sample.
• Data analysis discussion shod specify the statically technique and the software used.

Note: You will not collect any data in RM but only make a plan for it

References (Harvard Referencing Style)

https://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/a-guide-to-referencing

1. Amabile, T.M. (1997) Motivating creativity in organizations: on doing what you love and loving what you do.” California Management Review, Fall, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 39-58

2. Burns, P. (2008) Corporate Entrepreneurship: Building an entrepreneurial organization, UK: Palgrave, Macmillan

3. Morris, M.H. and Kuratko, D.F., (2002) Corporate Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial development within organizations, UK: Harcourt College Publishers