CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
 3.1. WHAT IS RESEARCH PROPOSAL?
A research proposal is a simply a structured, formal document that
explains
➢what you plan to research (i.e. your research topic),
➢why it’s worth researching (i.e. your justification), and
➢how you plan to investigate it (i.e. your practical approach).

❖The research proposal is a detailed plan of a study or research.

• The objective in writing a proposal is to describe:

•what you will do?
•why it should be done?
•how you will do it?
✓ A research proposal is your PLAN
• It describes in detail your study
• Decisions about your study are based on the quality of the
proposal
 3.2. Components of a research proposal
• The basic components of a research proposal are very much similar in
many fields.
• However, how they are phrased and presented may vary among
disciplines.
• The following components may be taken as the usual ones.
 General contents

1.Cover page
2.Acknowledgment
3.Abstract
4.Table of contents
5.Acronyms, list of tables, list of figures
 CHAPTER ONE:

1.Background of the study

2.Statement of the problem
3.Objectives of the study
4.Hypothesis of the study
5.Significance of the study
6.Scope of the study
7.Organization of the paper
 CHAPTER TWO
1.Literature review (Theoretical and empirical)
2.Literature summary and Gap
3.Conceptual framework
 CHAPTER THREE
1.Research approach
2.Research design
3.Type and source of data
4.Method of data collection
5.Population, target population, and sample size
6.Sampling technique
7.Model specification
8.Ethical consideration
9.Reference
 CHAPTER FOUR:

1.Cost budget
2.Time plan
 1.Cover page
➢ Cover page is the first page of your paper that provides
some formal information on your research.
➢ It includes
• Title of the research paper
• Researcher affiliation
• Researcher name
• Name of advisor
• Date and place
NB: cover page should not be numbered
 Example
Title […………]

DIRE DAWA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
A RESEARCH PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO DIRE DAWA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND
ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENT FOR BACHELOR OF ART (BA) DEGREE IN ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE

PREPARED BY : xxx xxx XXX, 2022

ADVISOR: xxx x. DIRE DAWA, ETHIOPIA
 2. Acknowledgment
• Acknowledgements enable you to thank all those who have helped
in carrying out the research.
 3. Abstract
• An abstract is an outline/brief summary of your paper and your whole
research paper.
• It should have an intro, body and conclusion. ...
• Abstracts highlight major points of your research and explain
➢ why your work is important;
➢ what your purpose is,
➢ how you will conduct your research,
➢ what you learned, and under the final paper
➢ what you concluded.
 4. Table of contents
• The table of contents is an organized listing of your document's
chapters, sections and, often, figures, clearly labelled by page
number.
 Steps to prepare table of contents
Step 1: identify every words, phrases, titles, sentences, and anything that should be included in table of contents by using Heading.
menu.

Step 2: Put your cursor where you want to add the table of contents.
Step 3: Go to References > Table of Contents. and choose an automatic style.
 5. Acronyms, list of tables, list of figures

• Put any acronym, table list (with page number), and figure list (with
page number) if your research proposal and main research includes it.
 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
 1.1. Background of the study
• The background of the study provides context to the information that
you are discussing in your paper.
• Thus, the background of the study generates the reader's interest in
your research question and helps them understand why your study is
important.
 1.2. Statement of the problem
• A statement of the problem is used in research work as a claim that
outlines the problem addressed by a study.
• A good research problem should address an existing gap in
knowledge in the field and lead to further research.
• Basically the SOP include the following
➢ Practical problem (must supported with data and evidence)
➢ Research Gap (theoretical problem) or what makes your research
unique from previous researches’…. but here you have to
summarize previous researches before listing their weakness and
how you are going to fill that Gap.
 1.3 Objectives of the study
• In general, research objectives describe what we expect to achieve from
the research.
• Research objectives may be linked with a hypothesis or used as a
statement of purpose in a study that does not have a hypothesis.
• Objectives of the study can be divided in to two:
A. General objective (related to your title)
B. Specific objective (related to you research questions, hypothesis, or
variables)
 1.4. Hypothesis of the study
• A research hypothesis is a statement of expectation or prediction
that will be tested by research.
• Before formulating your research hypothesis, read about the topic of
interest to you.
• In your hypothesis, you are predicting the relationship between
variables (dependent and independent).
 1.5. Significance of the study
• In simple terms, the significance of the study is basically the importance
of your research.
Theoretical significance
➢ To develop new theory
➢ To test theory
➢ Can be a reference to other researchers
 1.6. Scope of the study
• The scope of a study explains the extent to which the research area will
be explored in the work and specifies the parameters within the study
will be operating.
• Basically, this means that you will have to define what the study is going
to cover and what it is focusing on.
 1.7. Organization of the paper

• Describe the content of each chapter under your research.

• Refer page 6 on the attached material.
 CHAPTER TWO;
LITERATURE REVIEW
• A literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any
other sources relevant to a your research.
• Literature review comprises
1.Literature review :Theoretical and empirical (previous researches)
2.Literature summary and Gap (previous literature problems)
3.Conceptual framework (shows a relation between variables)
 Example: Conceptual framework
Institutional variables
•Political instability (Erbas
& Sayers, 2006; Kjosevski,
2012)

Demographic variables Macroeconomic variables

•Total population growth Life insurance •Growth in per capita income
(Mantis & Farmer, 1968; Schlag, demand in (Beck &Webb, 2003; Meko, Lemie, &
2003) Ethiopia Worku, 2019)
•urbanization (Simona Laura •Savings (Abdullah, 2012; Redzuan
Dragos, 2014; Outreville, 1996) et al., 2009; Savvides, 2006)

Social security variables

•Health expenditure to
GDP (Beenstock et al., 1986;
Ward & Zurbruegg, 2002)
• Stop!!!
• Remember the basic points
• And try to apply what you understand
• To be continued
 CHAPTER THREE;
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 3.1. Research approach
Research approaches

• are strategies and procedures for research that cover the steps from broad
assumptions to detailed methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation
(Creswell, 2017).

• Is blueprint or plan for the collection, measurement, and analysis of data, and it’s
created to answer research questions.

• is the plan or proposal to conduct research, involves the intersection of philosophy,

research designs, and specific methods,
Types of research approaches
There are three types of research approaches namely Qualitative,
Quantitative, and mixed approaches
1. Qualitative research approach
• The qualitative research approach is a process of exploring and
understanding the meaning individuals or groups attribute to a social or
human problem.
• It follows an inductive approach (simple to general) and focuses on the
development of theories (Kothari, 2004).
• Use interview, open ended questionaries, and observation as data
collection methods
2. Quantitative research process
• Quantitative research approach use a deductive approach (general to
simple)
• it’s a means for testing objective theories by examining the relationship
among variables
✓ that can be measured numerically and can be analyzed statistically.
• Use close ended questionaries and quantitative data
3. Mixed research approach
• As its name indicates it is an approach to research that combines or
mix both qualitative and quantitative forms and aims to capture the
strength of both methods (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).
N.B. When you select one of them you have to apply the
following rule
✓Definition
✓Alternative
✓Selection
✓Reasoning
 3.2. Research design
• the research design is a framework for planning inquiry or research and
shows how research questions, hypothesis, and objectives will be
answered.
• Exploratory research design can be defined as a research design used to
explore a problem that is not clearly defined or known.
• It is inductive and uses a qualitative approach and conducted to have a
better understanding of the current problem or aims to seek new insights,
but will not provide decisive results.
• Descriptive research design is a research method that describes the
characteristics of the population or phenomenon studied.
• Descriptive research design can answer ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, and ‘how’
questions, but not ‘why’ questions
• Explanatory research design is conducted to identify the extent and nature
of cause-and-effect relationships between dependent and independent
variables or patterns of relationships between variables.
N.B. When you select one of them you have to apply the
following rule
✓Definition
✓Alternative
✓Selection
✓Reasoning
 3.3. Type and source of data
To solve the research problem, to answer the research questions, to test the
research hypothesis, and to meet the research objectives, the researcher have
to collect and analyse data.
Types of data
1. Time series: Time series data is a collection of observations obtained
through repeated measurements over time.
2. Cross sectional: Cross-sectional data refer to observations of many
different individuals (subjects, objects) at a given time, each observation
belonging to a different individual.
3. Panel : sometimes referred to as longitudinal data, is data that contains
observations about different cross sections across time.
Sources of data
A. Primary: Primary data is a type of data that is collected by
researchers directly from main sources through interviews,
surveys, experiments, etc.
B. Secondary: Secondary data is the data that has been
collected in the past by someone else but made available
for others to use.
• They are usually once primary data but become
secondary when used by a third party.
N.B. When you select one of them you have to apply the
following rule
✓Definition
✓Alternative
✓Selection
✓Reasoning
3.4. Method of data collection

N.B. When you select one of them

you have to apply the following
rule
✓Definition
✓Alternative
✓Selection
✓Reasoning
 3.5. Population, target population, and sample size
Each study has
• Total population,
• Target population (a portion of total population which have a
direct relation with the problem being studied, and
• Sample size (a part of total and target population which are used
as a sample of the study)
✓ It is better to determine Sample size by using sample size
determination formulas to minimize sample size determination
related questions and biases.
 3.6. Sampling technique
• Deals about how the predetermined number of samples are to be
selected from the target population
• Comprises probabilistic and non probabilistic methods
• Sampling technique is determined based on population, study,
researcher, and accuracy characteristics.
 3.7. Model specification

• Here the researcher should show the relationship between the

dependent and independent variables by using regression model.
Example :
LID= β0+ β1INCt+ β2POSt+β3HEXt+ β4URBt+ β5SAVt+β6TOPt+ et
 3.8. Reference
• Referencing can be described as giving credit, with citation, to the
source of information used in one's work.
• Research is a buildup on what other people have previously done thus
referencing helps to relate your own work to previous work.
• In referencing you to apply Paraphrasing (write others work in your way
of wording or simply avoid direct copy and paste)
• The most common citation styles are the following:
✓ MLA style in the humanities (e.g. literature or languages).
✓ APA style in the social sciences (e.g. psychology or education).
✓ Chicago notes and bibliography in history.
✓ Chicago author-date in the sciences.
• Use APA style.
• How to cite? Refer the file I sent to you.
Parenthetical Vs Narrative citation
• In parenthetical citations, the author name and publication date appear in
parentheses. (Abebe, 2010)
• In narrative citations, the author name is incorporated into the text as
part of the sentence and the year follows in parentheses. Abebe (2010)
4.1. Time plan
4.2. Cost budget