Research Methods for Managers

In an International Context

Research Proposal

Table of Content

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Content

Research Title -----------------------------------------------------------------------Supervisor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Introduction -----------------------------------------------------------------------2. Research Question & Objectives
--------------------------------------------2.1. Question ---------------------------------------------------------------------2.2. Objectives -------------------------------------------------------------------3. Literature Review
----------------------------------------------------------------3.1. Internet and New Media -------------------------------------------------3.2. New Media Marketing ----------------------------------------------------3.3. Private Commercial Banks of Bangladesh

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--------------------------4. Methodology
----------------------------------------------------------------------4.1. Primary Data
----------------------------------------------------------------4.2. Secondary Data
------------------------------------------------------------4.3. Phases of Work ------------------------------------------------------------4.4. Ethical Issues
---------------------------------------------------------------5. Time Plan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------6. Benefits ----------------------------------------------------------------------------7. Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------Bibliography
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Research Title
To research on the approaches taken for new media marketing in the private
commercial banking sector of Bangladesh.

Supervisor

1. Introduction
The research will focus on the effective use of new media marketing, which
principally comprises internet marketing, in the field of commercial banks in
Bangladesh. Aim of the research will be to have an insightful understanding of the
ongoing use of internet marketing in Bangladeshi commercial banks by in-depth data
collection methods, which will allow the author to recommend on certain aspects of
the issue to enhance the use of internet marketing in the sector.
Private commercial banks (PCBs) play the dominant role in the competitive banking
industry of Bangladesh from the perspective of retail banking. The financial sector in
Bangladesh that consists of four government-owned commercial banks, five
government-owned specialised banks, thirty domestic private commercial banks, ten
foreign commercial banks and twenty nine non-banking financial institutions- had its
assets as the source of 69 per cent of the countrys GDP, of which 56 per cent was
the contribution of the private commercial banks (IMF, 2007)
The topic of the research is internet marketing. Given the vigorous growth of internet
users worldwide including Bangladesh and rapidly growing means of its use through
evolving technologies and web services, internet has appeared as an effective tool to
reach the customers for over a decade. To be more focused in the present days,
which marks the emergence of the new media- evolution and innovativeness in
communication technologies as well as web services are quite adding to the number
of internet users, at the same time are enhancing the means of essential uses for the
existing users. In Bangladesh, given the perspectively similar developments,
commercial banks are concentrating on new media marketing like others in the
retailer and consumer goods manufacturing and service sectors.
The authors objective through this research- with a systematic approach of in-depth
interviews with the sample set of a number of business development and marketing
executives working in the private commercial banking sector, borrowing of
information from the existing works in relevant fields,and review of the both primary
and secondary data collected-is to come at decisions about the effective approaches
taken by the sector in internet marketing. The author also sets objective to be
enabled at the end of the research to set recommendations that how those
approaches can be improved and made more effective in the foreseeable future.

2. Research Question& Objectives

2.1. Question
What are the effective approaches taken in the private
commercial banking sector in Bangladesh for new media
marketing?

2.2. Objectives
Derived from the above question, four objectives have been set those would mark
the ultimate goal of this research that the author would aspire to achieve.

To identify the approaches private commercial banks in Bangladesh

take for marketing and business development in internet

To identify what banks strategize to exclusively achieve by marketing

and business development through internet marketing

To identify the limitations faced by the banks while planning and

executing those plans for internet marketing

To make recommendations in light of outcome in the preceding

objectives

The qualitative primary data collection efforts, which will be principally done by indepth interviewing of a sample set of chief executives and business development
and marketing executives from a number of private commercial banks, followed by
review of existing works and evaluation of all data with theoretical frameworks- will
be made in a way so that the objectives above, derived from the research questions,
will categorically made to meet the above objectives.

3. Literature Review
This section contains a review of the relevant theories which will be the basis of
research as well as the evaluation of the information that the author will get hold
on.As the topic- new media marketing or internet marketing,is about a fairly new and
vigorously emerging concept, the interfacing of the understanding of theory and the
data collected will be principally empirical. This interfacing will add to another
segment of the literature review dedicated to the key information on the emergence,
structure and dynamics of Bangladeshi banking sector, that of the PCBs in particular.

3.1. Internet and New Media

As said before, conventional internet marketing which is less than two decades old
has evolved vigorously in consistence with the innovativeness of both
communication technology industry and web service providers.
It is necessary that we define the term internet with what it is entitled to cover in the
notion of new media. Borrowing from Green (2010), internet is used to cover,

A technological infrastructure, subject to networking and interconnectivity,

which supports the World Wide Web;
Proprietary sites linked into the web;
Software- both open source and closed source;
Medium of one-to-one communication- email, chat, instant messaging and
calling;
Blogging, micro-blogging and social networking websites;
Community-specific websites;
The many ways in which digitally mediated communication has become
domesticated and pervasive with the everyday.

When we are theorizing the dynamics of new media and business activities within it,
the aspects noted above might not get equal attention or concentration always at the
same time.
Now, what is the new media?
New media refers to an anytime-anywhere access to content and interconnectivity by
the users, in an on-demand basis, through individual use of range of convergent
communication devices (Flew, 2008).

The notion of convergence in this expression is vital for the understanding of new
media. As we see in the definition that we rephrase after borrowing from Flew
(2008), it is understandable that appropriate communication devices are what make
up the technological basis of the concept of new media. In other words,
communication devices, or more simplistically the mobile communication devices,
have to have certain features without which they do not stand as the basis of the
concept of new media. Here enters the concept of convergence focally for
communication technology- it is the tendency ofexisting technologies to merge into
newer forms that allows their users to experience as much types of media and
applicationsas possible in individual devices (Hacklin, 2010).

3.2. New Media Marketing

Internet marketing or new media marketing presently is the most vigorously growing
and the most exciting area of marketing. As internet based networking,
interconnectivity and use of relevantly multitasking communication devices have
become widespread, the medium as internet marketing or new media marketing has
become vital for businesses to reach new customers.
How can we define internet marketing?
Internet marketing is any marketing activity that is done online by using internet and
its supportive devices and applications (Jones, et al., 2010).
Namely internet marketing can be presumed by many to principally consist of
designing, planning and executing advertisements in internet mediums, which is not
the case at all. As the concept of new media emerges, putting up advertisements
online occupies a comparatively very small part of the new media marketing
strategies for different businesses. Predominantly occupied by social networks now
days, the concept of internet marketing at the present days cover a range of new
media issues starting from blogs, popular third party websites to built-in-device web
applications (Henning-Thurau, et al., 2010).
New media marketing is based on principles (2010),

Immediacy
Personalization
Relevance

Noted the blistering pace in which the key components in the case of web
interactivities change, it is expected that a medium taking position into the new
media is able to maintain on-the-minute updates considering that the attention spans

for the online audiences are short. This is what is contained into the notion of
immediacy.
The key aspects of the new media dynamics are thought of considering the users as
individual entities, where optimum behaviour implies the most effective means in
which a user is able to do as much as possible in the internet putting as less as
possible efforts. Personalization is a vital factor in new media marketing in that
respect (Dasgupta and Mathew, 2012).
Communication with users or within the users in internet has to be qualitatively
consistent with the interest and likenesses of the individual users (Mangold, et al.,
2009).It is useful to know that what content and what features of a communication
effectively draw users attention and more will importantly retain that attention. So
relevance is one of the cornerstone principles

3.3. Private Commercial

Banks of Bangladesh
The history of banking in Bangladesh began with a decree in 1972, weeks after the
country was liberated, that nationalized all operational but foreign banks in the
country and converted them into six different institutions. In 1983, in addition to
privatizing two of the six state-owned banks, commercial banking was made open to
the private sector. Hence was introduced the new form of banking with the notion of
Private Commercial Banks or PCBs which today dominates the banking sector in
Bangladesh (Hussain, 2010).
Now there are 53 banks operating- among them 4 are state owned, 30 are private
commercial, 10 are foreign, 5 are development and 4 are specialized banksAll but
the 5 development banks and 4 specialized banks are entitled for commercial
baking, that is to perform corporate and retail banking activities. The state owned
banks serve in transactions of wide range of government departmental and office
activities along with traditional retail banking (Chowdhury and Ahmed, 2009). The
private commercial banksare, entitled to operate in both corporate and retail banking
like the state owned banks, have their ownership in the private sector. However the
PCBs dominate in the retail banking sector. Foreign commercial banks conduct
mostly corporate banking with a limited presence in retail banking. The specialized
banks are meant for industry specific government projects like in agriculture,
manufacturing industries and microloans.
Though namely, as the banks we consider as the subjects of this research, are
private commercial banks, the area where they require reaching the mass customer
baseextensively from among the public, is the area of retail baking. Given that this

particular sector of commercial banking in Bangladesh is vigorously growing, the

expansion of the middle class in the country is seen as a key contributory factor. The
expansion happened along with a growth in the purchasing power, coupled with
diversely liberal attitudes toward personal financial transactions, credit transactions
in particular, which opened new avenues for expanding the retail banking sector,
bringing in other industries like consumer goods retailers into the scenario (Yeshmin
and Nasrin, 2010). At this point our research to work on the new media accessibility
toward the noted customer base, along with review and understanding of the growth
of internet presence of the similar class, can be hypothesized to bring out a broad
insight of how effectively those emerging communication tools can be used for
marketing and business development.

4. Methodology
4.1. Primary Data
This research is going to be principally based on in-depth interviewing of a sample
set of a number of business development and marketing executives working in the
private commercial banking sector of Bangladesh. Prior to evaluation along with
existing works in the relevant fields as well as with respect academic literatures on
the segments of this researchs focus, the primary data will be obtained from those
interviews based on qualitatively set questions.
The sample size of banking executives is preliminarily set as 12. Four of them are
chief executives, four are heads of marketing and four are other executives among
the top marketing strategists from the countrys market leading private commercial
banks. The number may rise in consistence with how many individuals the author
finally becomes able to get hold of.
As the author will be working from Cambridge, United Kingdom and the subject
individuals are mostly stationed in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, they will be
reached through telephone calls or online teleconferencing. The medium of
interviewing will also depend on the individual wish of the interviewees. However
there will an issue of audio recording the conversations, which might need certain
specifications. So the interviewees will be given options to choose the mediums and
priority will be given on their choice of convenience among the given options.
Considering the business of the individuals chosen, the author will make
appointments with the individuals. Once contacts are purposely established with the
interviewees, they will be sent a prepared framework which will be later the basis of
in-depth interview with them. The framework will contain notes on specifically what
questions should be expected and what quantitative information might need to be
added. The individuals will be requested to prepare for the interview in consistence
with the queries mentioned in the framework.
The next stage of the prior communication will be making appointments, that is
setting times for the targeted in-depth interview. The interviewees convenience in
this case will be given the highest priority. The duration requested for will be 30
minutes but the conversation may last shorter or even longer than this depending on
how the subject executive responds.
While setting up the time and other trivial details for interview, the subject executives
will be explicitly asked for permission for audio recording of the conversations. The
recorded audio will be meant for the authors explicit use for the analysis and storage

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of the primary data. The request will also include a nondisclosure agreement to
protect the interviewees privacy, voice and any sensitive information providedwhich
will have to be categorically informed to the interviewee and abode by the author.

4.2. Secondary Data

As described in the last section, it is understandable that the process of taking the indepth interviews will be done by a few steps thus will require a fairly longer time.
Besides collecting and analysing the collected, the work on secondary data will
progress simultaneously.
The secondary data that the author will need to collect for this research are

Financial data of the banks whose executives will be interviewed

Facts and figures about internet usage in Bangladesh
Global new media marketing trends and spending

The principal role of the secondary data will be to support the arguments those the
author will attempt to make on the basis of the primary data. If the secondary data is
divided into qualitative and quantitative parts, the qualitative part will mostly consist
of notions and information about the global new media market trends, improvements,
those can also include information about the technologies. Whereas the quantitative
part will comprise information about the subject institutions, the industry that they
belong in, relevant performance parameters and indicators and other industry
information both in domestic and global contexts.
Generally listed sources of the secondary data are

Websites of the subject institutions

Annual reports of the subject institutions
Website of Bangladesh Bank (central bank of Bangladesh)
Marketing Charts:new media marketing industry insight website
Marketing Sherpa: marketing industry insight website
Journal articles
Books
Newspaper articles

In order to give a clearer picture of the methodology of this research, in light of the so
far mentioned about primary and secondary data, can be listed below:

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The primary data which, because of the in-depth and qualitatively set interviews, will
contain the principal part of this researchs key decision making criterions, those data
will be thoroughly reviewed and analysed.
The basis of those analyses will be the prior literature reviews, theoretical
frameworks and supportive secondary data.
As there have been four objectives derived from the research questions which is
going to principally inspire the structure of what the interviews will consist of, the
analyses of them as well as their evaluation with the theories too will be done with
respect to the four objectives set in prior.
The entire research work has been divided into four phases based on the volume
and type of effort needed to be given at different parts of it. The phases are:

4.3. Phases of Work

Phase 1
This phase is principally dominated by collection of primary data, but also comprises
bureaucratic works like crosschecking of a number of issues with the supervisor. To
see in a list, this part comprises the following:

Preparation of query framework for in-depth interviews;

Finalization of appointments with subject private banking sector executivestentative is 12 but author will be sincere in raising the number;
Making prior communication with the executives once finalized and making
them aware of what questions to be expected and what information to be
needed to be given to support that;
Making appointments for in-depth interviewing
Taking the interviews

Phase 2
This phase is dedicated to re-determining what secondary data will be required and
having that verified with the supervisor. Once the data needed to be collected is put
into in a to-do list, the phase then continues with the collection of those data from a
list of secondary data sources listed in a previous paragraph.

Phase 3

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Phase three consists of accumulation of all the data collected and their preparation
for thorough evaluation with pre-set theoretical frameworks and literature reviews. It
can be noted that when we move into the timescale, at some point for a few days the
first to phases get to get along together for a few weeks. But this phase begins only
after the first two phases are exquisitely finished. This particular coordination and
distribution of the work will require authors candid management so that the phases
and their timescales are abode by in practice when the real work begins.
This phase is, from a research point of view, the most vital phase for the outcome of
the research because what is going to take place in the research paper will
principally depend on how the author designs, plans and works out this phase. This
is the phase where all sorts of data collected and all literature reviews required come
along altogether for effective and relevant evaluation. The decisions those will be
made in the research, the recommendations those the author plans put and the
benefits this research paper is hypothesized to be of once it is commenced will
principally depend on the authors efforts given in this phase.

Writing Up
This phase begins with a fresh and new Microsoft Word document to be openedwhichamid hundreds if not a thousand edits eventually-will stand to be the final
research paper for this author. This final phase to take input of various degrees from
all three phases described above, but presumably will be the most contributed by the
Phase-3. It is important that information collected in through primary and secondary
means are put into the paper in an efficient way which makes it easier for the reader
to understand them. So this part needs some significant efforts even before the
Phase-3 begins. But once the Phase-3 begins, writing up is expected to progress
vigorously as the principal input for this stage is going to be made once the author
put his collected information and literature review or theoretical frameworks together
and analyse them accordingly.

4.4. Ethical Issues

Extensive ethical complications and commitments are not expected to be
encountered in this particular research. Yet the author plans to list twoissues those
might appear relevant as he will approach the research:

There is an issue of the privacy of the interviewees as well as their

voices, which will have to be sorted out through an agreement with the
individual interviewee in prior.

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The interviewees might need to provide some information to support their

input to the interview which might be sensitive for their respective
institutions to some point. The agreements with the authors will include
this too.

5. Time Plan
This section comprises the ultimatetimeframeplanning of the world along with a
declared timescale to which the author will give significant priority once the research
begins. It is important to have a categorical timescale declared at the beginning to
segment the research into goals and steps and set individual personal deadline for
them, to maintain harmony in the work.
Continuing from the last part of the previous section, where we described the
phases, here those phrases will be put into a planned timeframe.

Figure: Projection of the timeframe of the phases using Gantt Chart.

Phase 1: This phase, entitled to begin once the research officially starts at some
point of the first two weeks of August 2013, is planned by the author to start as soon
as the immediate last commitment before the research commences. So in the
proposed timeframe this phase will begin in August, 2013, but will be attempted to
begin as early as possible before that.This phase is set to last up to the mid-October
2013.

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Phase 2: This part could include library visits or physical present in places though a
major part would have been done in the internet. As the data collected is dominantly
going to be about Bangladesh, this phase comprises mostly desk works in the needto-do basis, depending somewhat on the progresses of the Phase-1 and the
requirement of the Phase-3 as will be planned before. This phase is planned to begin
September to October.
Phase 3: As described in previous section, key efforts for the research are going to
be made in this phase, which is planned to take place between October to end of
November.
Writing-up: Writing up will be taking inputs in different degrees from all the phases
above, so the author plans to start this stage from September which would last up to
the last week of December.

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6. Benefits
The author hypothesizes the following benefits if the research is accomplished:

The research will be able to bring out an insight of the effectiveness of

new media marketing in the private commercial banking sector of
Bangladesh.

The research will be able to provide a pathway for the industry

members to strategize their own new media marketing plans and
policies more effectively.

For the existing users of new media marketing in the private

commercial banking sector in Bangladesh, findings of this research will
be useful to them to make their strategies more effective and more
efficient.

Considering the field of new media marketing, particularly its

introduction and applications in Bangladesh, to be fairly new, this
research will be able to bring out issues those have not been
systematically looked into before.

Considering that certain social classes are more likely to subscribe the
private commercial banking serviceswhich are also prospective
customer bases to other industries operating in Bangladesh, this
researchs focus on the new media marketing accessibility to those
customers will be helpful for other industries to approach these
customers by the use of new media marketing.

Continuing from the last point, the insight that the author will be able to
get about the new media marketing field in Bangladesh, will be useful
for him to apply the knowledge to strategize and investigate in other
industries taking fairly similar marketing methods.

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7. Conclusion
This research proposal was meant for providing an insight of whats, hows and
whys of his research that is going to be commenced as the dissertation for the
Master of Business Administration course. The proposal is structured in a way that
the author can consider it also as a precise plan to take approaches to the research.
Attempts were made to connect the descriptions of the work-plan and the timeframes so that a reader can look through them to understand the implication of
different durations of the phases. Prior to that, the literature review was meant for
somewhat a theoretical basis for the core aspects those the author will touch on
during the research.Arguments built in the theoretical review were attempted to be
connected with the benefits listed at the end of this proposal, as an attempt to exhibit
the motivation for this research as well as the inspirational components within it.

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Selected Private Commercial Banks in Bangladesh. International Journal of
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Dasgupta, P. and Mathew, J., 2012. Social media marketing at Reebok
India.Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies Collection, pp.1-19.
Dewdney, Drew and Ride, Peter, 2006.The New Media Handbook. Oxford:
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Flew, Terry, 2008.New Media: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Green, Lelia, 2010. The Internet, An Introduction to New Media. Oxford: Berg.
Hacklin, Fredrik, 2010. Management of Convergence in Innovation. Berlin:
Physica-Verlag.
Haidar, M.I. and Islam, M.S., 2011. Determination of Service Quality Factors of
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Henning-Thurau, T., Malthouse, E.C., Friege, C., Gensler, S., Lobschat, L.,
Rangaswamy, A. and Skiera, B., 2010.The Impact of New Media on Customer
Relationships.Journal of Service Research, 13(3), pp.311-330.
Hussain, Emran, 2010. Analysis of Credit Department of Dhaka Bank
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2, 2010]
Jones, A.T., Malczyk, Anna and Beneke, Justin, 2010.Internet Marketing. Cape
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of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), pp.357-365.
Siddiqi, Kazi O., 2011. The Drivers of Customer Loyalty to Retail Banks: An
Empirical Study in Bangladesh. Industrial Engineering Letters, 1(1), pp.40-56
Yeshmin, Farjana and Nasrin, Mahmuda, 2010. Enhancement of Retail Banking
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