Refer Defer. Short Research Proposal
Refer Defer. Short Research Proposal
Refer Defer. Short Research Proposal
You have already been given final coursework, which is developing a “research proposal”. Your final
coursework is an individual research project which is based on the following learning outcomes.
▪ LO1: Develop students’ knowledge of effective and academic research design at master’s level
and provide guidance on the purpose and design of literature reviews, strategies of research,
problem definition and ethical considerations.
▪ LO2: Ensure students have an advanced understanding of how the range of qualitative and
quantitative approaches can be most appropriately applied in business management (sub)
contexts;
▪ LO3: Develop students’ ability to identify/collect and analyse relevant data and literature sources
and reference them appropriately.
▪ LO4: Critically apply this knowledge and establish the most effectual research design and method
for their project, and write a successful research proposal.
This is the first stage of writing your final coursework. Please read the details of the final project
(uploaded on the coursework section of the WIUT learning board); discuss your research with your
supervisor, take into account your supervisor’s feedback and your own research, and then carry out the
following task in the stage one research proposal.
- Your stage one research proposal must be typed and the word limit is within 500 words. In addition,
the research proposal should be clear and concise.
Research designs are used for the following purposes (Gray, 2004):
A research design provides a proper or particular direction. It helps to clarify the focus of the study and
the motivations. The design is a reflective process from which the researchers justify their rationale and
focus of their proposed investigation through the lens of previous literature. The research proposal
articulates the reasons to undertake a particular inquiry with the methods and defines the research’s
feasibility.
Research design defines the research questions and the objective of the research.
It stands for planning the methods adopted for collecting the relevant data and the techniques to be
used in their analysis.
Research design is needed since it allows for the smooth working of many research operations. It is like
a blueprint that we need in advance to plan the methods to be adopted to collect the relevant data and
techniques.
The purpose of the research proposal is to clarify What, Why, How, and When. It should explain:
• What you will research – Topic, research questions, conceptual and analytical focus.
• Why you will research– Justifying why the research is relevant; also explaining the relevance of the
context of the study.
- You will address How and When in detail at the later stages, not in this assessment.
Your Task
The short research proposal will consist of a brief introduction covering the following components,
2. Why the topic is important for business management scholars and practitioners, why are you
interested in the topic?
5. Specific research question(s) – make sure that if you use several research questions, they complement
each other and can be answered using the same methodology.
Clarity and Exceptionally Excellent, Very good, Good, but Somewhat Inadequate Not
narrowing down clear and self- clear and clear and quite requires some adequate but and requires presented, or
of topic with evident self- self-evident, improvements. requires significant/ Inadequate,
regards to the evident requires very considerable major needs to be
subject area minor improvements improvements completely
improvements changed
Capacity and Exceptionally Excellent, Very good, Good, but Somewhat Inadequate Not
Appropriateness clear and self- clear and clear and quite requires some adequate but and requires presented, or
of your research evident self- self-evident, changes requires significant, Inadequate,
design evident requires very considerable major changes needs to be
minor changes changes completely
changed