MBA Research Methods - Coursework

Assignment 1: Research Proposal In this task you are required to identify a general business and management area of research that interests you. It would be a good idea if the proposal is consistent with your expected specialism/pathway, e.g. finance, hospitality, information systems, marketing, human resources for your dissertation. Your choice of business and management area may be based on curiosity, and may involve resolving a problem, explaining a phenomenon, uncovering a process by which something occurs, demonstrating the truth of a hidden fact, building, re-evaluating or testing some theory in your field. You will write a research proposal describing the problem that you want to investigate, the questions that you want to address, the research aims, the methods that you hope to use, the data collection techniques you will use. Also outline the data analysis techniques that you hope to use, how you hope to address research ethical issues and finally comment on your contribution of the research. The following structure is recommended for the proposal: Title Background and research problem definition Research Questions Research Objectives Literature review Theoretical framework Outline of research method and sampling techniques Data collection and analysis techniques Data validity and reliability Ethical issues Research contribution Project Plan References (Harvard Reference system)

The proposal must be related to Assignments 2 and 3. The proposal should be 1500 words long. Submission date is Feb 21st, 2011

Assignment 2: Mini Literature Review In this task, you are required to select three (3) academic journal papers/articles from any journal of your choice, e.g. human resources, management, management science, or information systems, accounting and marketing, hospitality etc etc for the review . The papers/articles must be relevant to your research topic and the research problem you are trying to address with this study as noted in your Research Proposal, Assignment 1. Read and evaluate the papers/articles and write up the critical review. In writing up the review, your arguments must be logical, coherent and conclusive. You should identify strengths and limitations of the ideas in the articles. You should also comment on methods, theories and models that the researchers in the articles you have selected have used. Write the critical review in the form of an essay, organized in a logical and coherent manner and demonstrating original thinking. The word count for this Assignment 2 is 2000 words. Submission date is March 15th, 2011 1

Assignment 3: Mini Research Project In this assignment, you will design and carry out a small scale research study. (This should preferably be linked to Assignment 1, Research Proposal.) You will design and conduct the small scale research study using a questionnaire or an unstructured interview. Collect relevant and appropriate data, analyse the data, obtain results and draw conclusions from the study. Write up this mini study using the following structure: Title Background and research problem definition Research Questions Research Objectives Literature review Theoretical framework Research design and methodology Data collection and analysis techniques Data validity and reliability Ethical issues Research conclusions and recommendations References (Harvard Reference system)

In writing up this study, you must clearly show the storyline and the synergy between the sections and the paragraphs. All references should be integrated into the text; ensure pages are clearly numbered. Use MS Word Spelling & Grammar checker to check the grammar and correct spelling mistakes. The word count for this Assignment 3 is 2000 words; the submission date is April 8th, 2011