Business and Management Research

For a project management topic of your choice produce a research proposal which addresses the key elements required to ensure the research is considered credible.

Please note that this proposal will form the basis for your Business and Management Research Report. You should, therefore, think carefully about the research topic you select for your proposal as this will have a further impact on your studies.

You should focus your work upon addressing:

Introduction (5% of the total mark)
This should be kept very brief and outline what is to be addressed, what the purpose of the proposed research is, and where the research is located (context).

Research Questions & Objectives (15% of the total mark)
A clearly specified research question providing a focus for the research. The research question should be narrow and deep. One research question is preferred, but a maximum of two may be suitable if the questions are closely related. Objectives should be specified using the SMART or similar criteria.

Literature Review (30% of the total mark)
This should be a mini literature review which seeks to identify the current state of knowledge of the literature in the area within which your research question is located. You should identify key themes, strengths and limitations of existing literature and communicate an understanding of where your research fits within this wider context.

Methodology (35% of the total mark)
This section needs to identify the key area areas that a methodology should address. This includes research philosophy (ontology and epistemology), the research approach, the research design, the research strategy, time horizons and the data collection and analysis methods to be adopted. The work also needs to consider issues relating to reliability and validity (or their qualitative equivalents) and ethics.

Reflections (5% of the total mark)
You should provide a brief reflection concerning how you have developed during the construction of your research proposal.

Presentation (10% of the total mark)
The work should be professionally presented. Citation support and references should be Harvard style. The structure of the work should be logical and clear.