Research Methodology RESEARCH METHODS ASSESSMENT INFORMATION Research proposal/Project Scoping Report(2500 words). The report will identify the research project topic, the scope of the project, relevant primary and secondary sources of information

Research Methodology

RESEARCH METHODS

ASSESSMENT INFORMATION

Research proposal/Project Scoping Report(2500 words). The report will identify the research project topic, the scope of the project, relevant primary and secondary sources of information about the project area, consider appropriate research methodology/methods to use when researching in the project area, reflect on ethical issues to be considered when exploring the project area. Further information on the Research Proposal can be found on the next page.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

You are to produce a concise Project Proposal (2500 words +/-10%) identifying the aims, objectives, and scope of your Research Project.

To assist you we provide a list of content you should include in your proposal, however the exact structure of the proposal is up to you to decide depending on what is required for your specific project.

The proposal should contain statements in relation to:

Research Project Title

It is often good practice to use the Research Question as your title, though not essential.

Background and Importance

Why is the research useful, significant, and important? To whom? How will it help the organisation and/or our general understanding of this particular issue?(Use Section 2 of the workbook to help.)

Aim and Objectives

What research problem or question are you trying to answer what is the Research Question? What are you aiming to achieve? What objectives do you need to achieve in order to achieve your aims and answer the overall research question?(Use Section 2 of the workbook to help.)

Indicative Literature

What potential theories and concepts could be used to frame the research? Provide a brief summary of key authors and/or main books/articles on the topic?(Use Section 3 of the workbook to help.)

Research Design and Methods (The majority of the proposal should explain this)

Critically discussTHREEdifferent research methods that you will use to answer your research question and explain their relevance and suitability. Discuss the primary and secondary sources of information do you need to collect and analyse using these research methods.(Use Sections 3 and 4 of the workbook to help.)

Ethics and Confidentiality

What issues regarding validity and reliability are likely to be important in your research? Are there other criteria of research quality that you need to consider for your research? What challenges or objections might you have when trying to collect the data? Have you considered the willingness and ability of respondents to provide the required data? How will you preserve confidentiality

for your respondents? Are there any restrictions on access to data or the publication of your results?(Use Section 5 of the workbook to help.)

Risks and Contingencies

What factors might potentially prevent or slow your research progress? What contingency plans will you put in place? Are you confident you will be able to complete your project on time? Create a Gantt chart to produce a schedule of the research project to help plan and manage the project.

Please make sure that you correctly cite and reference all secondary sources you use, and include a reference list. The reference list will not be included in your final word count. Follow the Harvard referencing

WorkBook :

Section 2 – Ask an Appropriate Question

Research questions help writers focus their research by providing a path through the research and writing process. The specificity of a well-developed research question helps writers avoid an all-about research paper and work toward supporting a specific, arguable thesis in their project.

The research question is the question around which you centre your research. It should be:

• clear: provides enough specifics for the reader to easily understand its purpose without needing additional explanation;
• focused: narrow enough that it can be answered thoroughly in the space the writing task allows;
• concise: it is expressed in the fewest possible words;
• complex: it is not answerable with a simple yes or no, but rather requires synthesis and analysis of ideas and sources prior to composition of an answer; and
• arguable: its potential answers are open to debate rather than accepted facts.

You should ask a question about an issue that you are genuinely curious and/or passionate about.

2.A What is your overall research question? (No more than 30 words)

2.B How will answering this question give insight to the problem? So what? How will this insight be helpful? (Aim to write 100 200 words)

2.C Try and list the Aims of the project. Aims areWHATyou want to achieve. (Try to write at least 2 aims and no more than 5)

2.D Try and list the Objectives of the project. Objectives areHOWyou are going to achieve the Aims. (Try to identify a couple of objectives for each aim)

You may want to try and put the Aims and Objectives in a tabular form.

AIMS	OBJECTIVES
Aim 1	Objective 1.1: Objective 1.2: Objective 1.3:
Aim 2	Objective 2.1: Objective 2.2: Objective 2.3:
Aim 3	Objective 3.1: Objective 3.2: Objective 3.3:

Section 3 – Locate the Phenomena Theoretically

Theory is formulated to explain, predict, and understand phenomena and, in many cases, to challenge and extend existing knowledge within the limits of critical bounding assumptions. The theoretical framework is the structure that can hold or support a theory of a research study. The theoretical framework introduces and describes the theory that explains why the research problem under study exists.

The theoretical framework strengthens the study in the following ways:

• An explicit statement of theoretical assumptions permits the reader to evaluate them critically;
• The theoretical framework connects the researcher to existing knowledge. Guided by a relevant theory, you are given a basis for your choice of research methods.
• Articulating the theoretical assumptions of a research study forces you to address questions of why and how. It permits you to intellectually transition from simply describing a phenomenon you have observed to insight about various aspects of that phenomenon.
• Having a theory helps you identify the limits to those insights. A theoretical framework specifies which key variables influence a phenomenon of interest and highlights the need to examine how those key variables might differ and under what circumstances.

By virtue of its applicative nature, good theory in the social sciences is of value precisely because it fulfils one primary purpose: to explain the meaning, nature, and challenges associated with a phenomenon, often experienced but unexplained in the world in which we live, so that we may use that knowledge and understanding to act in more informed and effective ways.

3.1 Identifying relevant theories

3.A What theories do the two papers use to underpin their research? Can you use some of these theories for your own research question? (Aim to write 100 200 words)

3.B How will these theories help to give insight to your phenomena? (Try to identify and discuss 2 to 5 insights you can take from these studies.)

3.2 Development of theory

3.C Make a list of the research questions, aims and objectives of the two studies.

3.D Comparing the list in the box above, comment on how the specific questions the two papers ask differ, and why a qualitative approach is more suited to certain questions and a quantitative approach to others. (Aim to write 100 200 words but feel free to write more if necessary)

3.3 Reflecting on your own preferences

The questionnaire is aimed to getting you to reflect on your own preferences regarding what constitutes good research and high-quality data.

3.E Looking at your answers to the questionnaire, how strong is your preference for one research design over another? From the 9 statements, are there any that you feel most strongly about (whether in agreement or disagreement)? How will these preferences and inclinations affect your research approach? (Aim to write 100 200 words but feel free to write more in necessary)

3.F Given your preferences, are there any research designs or methods you may have dismissed but could be useful in answering your research question? (Try to discuss at least two research designs or methods).

Section 4 – Determine an Appropriate Method

The 10 research methods are listed below:

1. Qualitative Data Analysis
2. Interviews and Focus Groups
3. Observations
4. Content Analysis
5. Sampling
6. Collecting Secondary Data
7. Documentary Evidence
8. Questionnaires
9. Quantitative Data Analysis
10. Specialist Software

This section should be completed as you work thought the deep dive into the 10 research methods andselect the fivemost appropriate to your research question. To understand your research work and, therefore, to select/design an appropriate and effective methodology, you will be asked to reflect on the assumptions the method requires as well as its strengths and weaknesses.

For each of the methods you will be asked the following questions:

1. Which philosophical position (Positivism, Interpretivism, Critical Realism, Postmodernism, Pragmatism) is this method most closely aligned to. Hence what are its ontological, epistemological, and axiological underpinnings?
2. Is the method more suited to an inductive or deductive approach and which research design is most appropriate (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed)? Why?
3. What types of research questions is this method good at answering? Are these the questions you want to ask in your research project?
4. What types of research questions is this method unable to address? Are any of these questions important for your research questions?
5. What are the main pros and cons of using this method for your research project?

   Research Method 1:Qualitative Data Analysis

4.1A Which philosophical position (Positivism, Interpretivism, Critical Realism, Postmodernism, Pragmatism) is this method most closely aligned to. Hence what are its ontological, epistemological, and axiological underpinnings?

4.1B Is the method more suited to an inductive or deductive approach and which research design is most appropriate (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed)? Why?

4.1C What types of research questions is this method good at answering? Are these the questions you want to ask in your research project?

4.1D What types of research questions is this method unable to address? Are any of these questions important for your research questions?

4.1E What are the main pros and cons of using this method for your research project?

Research Method 2:Quantitative Data Analysis

4.2A Which philosophical position (Positivism, Interpretivism, Critical Realism, Postmodernism, Pragmatism) is this method most closely aligned to. Hence what are its ontological, epistemological, and axiological underpinnings?

4.2B Is the method more suited to an inductive or deductive approach and which research design is most appropriate (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed)? Why?

4.2C What types of research questions is this method good at answering? Are these the questions you want to ask in your research project?

4.2D What types of research questions is this method unable to address? Are any of these questions important for your research questions?

4.2E What are the main pros and cons of using this method for your research project?

Research Method 3:Interviews and Focus Groups

4.3A Which philosophical position (Positivism, Interpretivism, Critical Realism, Postmodernism, Pragmatism) is this method most closely aligned to. Hence what are its ontological, epistemological, and axiological underpinnings?

4.3B Is the method more suited to an inductive or deductive approach and which research design is most appropriate (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed)? Why?

4.3C What types of research questions is this method good at answering? Are these the questions you want to ask in your research project?

4.3D What types of research questions is this method unable to address? Are any of these questions important for your research questions?

4.3E What are the main pros and cons of using this method for your research project?

Section 5 Ethics
5.1 Research Ethics

For the purposes of this policy, the expression research on human subjects/participants covers:

• experimentation on human beings;
• observation of human beings for research purposes, and the recording, storage, or use of personal data for research purposes;

The expression personal data covers all information, including data obtained from interviews, (excluding that already in the public domain) about existing individual persons or those who have died within living memory.

Purely documentary or financial/actuarial data already in the public domain and other research sources that are already in the public domain will not normally require ethical review. Historical, literary, and theoretical research (etc.) will not normally require ethical review (unless it makes use of personal data, as defined above).

Breaches of good ethics practice in research will be treated as a serious matter by the Business School and the University. When these occur the researcher and supervisor will be called to account by the School Ethics Subcommittee and sanctions may apply depending on the severity of the breach. These could result in the immediate suspension of the individual project.

5.A. Are there potential ethical issues regarding harm, consent, and deception in your research? Are there any challenges/objections to the data you collect from participants? Will participants be willing to provide the data you want?

5.B What privacy and confidentially issues may arise from the data you collect? – How will you preserve the privacy and confidentiality of your participants? – Do you have permission to access the data and publish it? – Will you be able to securely store sensitive personal data?

5.C What issues regarding the reliability and validity of your research are likely to be important for the data you collect and the research methods you intend to use? What other quality criteria (bias, trustworthiness, credibility, transferability, dependability etc.) do you need to consider for your research?

5.2 Checklist and Proforma

This pro forma contains the literature and methodology elements of the project and its design. This should be used to prompt a discussion of the ethical implications of the project. The following are a series of questions that should be asked by the supervisor of the project under scrutiny. The primary question should be:

• Does the project involve the participation of human subjects?

If no, then the project can be approved, else the project should be interrogated using the following as a guide:

• Does the project include covert observation?
• Does the project include any people or groups that could be considered vulnerable?

If either of these questions is yes then this must be passed to the Ethics Subcommittee for scrutiny. If no then the following checklist should be deployed:

• Is the research designed and undertaken so as to ensure integrity, quality, and transparency?
• Are the researcher and participants informed fully about the purpose, methods, and intended possible uses of the research?
• Are the participants in the research aware of what it entails and what risks, if any, are involved?
• Is the confidentiality of information supplied by research participants and the anonymity of respondents respected?
• Is research participation voluntarily and free from any coercion?
• Is the independence of the research clear, and any conflicts of interest explicit?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then the matter must be addressed with the student involved.

Your project may require redesign and adaptation to the research proposal to avoid any ethical complication. This decision is primarily one for the research student to make with guidance from their supervisor. If the supervisor still has concerns, then this must be escalated to the School Sub-committee for Ethics.

Any other ethical disputes concerns or any issues that the supervisor, student or participant feels uncomfortable in tackling can be escalated to the School Learning and Teaching Committee Sub-committee for Ethics.

Reference Books:

Saunders, MNK., Thornhill, A. & Lewis, P (2019). Research Methods for Business Students (8th edition). Harlow: Pearson.

• Chapter 1, sections 1.1 1.4 (WO1)
• Chapter 4, sections 4.1 4.4 (WO3)
• Chapter 2 (WO2)
• Chapter 4, sections 4.5 4.6 (WO1)
• Chapter 5, sections 5.1-5.6 (WO2)
• Chapter 5, sections 5.7 5.8 (WO3)
• Chapter 5, sections 5.9 5.13 (WO1)
• Chapter 6 (WO2)
• Chapter 2, sections 2.5 2.6 (WO3)
• Chapter 12, sections 12.4 (WO1)
• Chapter 1, sections 1.4 1.5 (WO3)
• Chapter 13, sections 13.5 (WO3)