Module Name and Code Business Research Methods (7BUSS004C)

CW weighting 10% (Individual)

Lecturer setting the task with contact
details and office hours
Type of Submission
Submission Deadline
Results date and type of feedback
Dr. Athar Hameed Butt
E-mail: a.h.butt@wiut.uz,
“Short Research Proposal” must be typed,
Word limit: 500 words.
June 6, 2023 at 11:59:59pm on WIUT intranet.
One week after submission; feedback type digital.

REQUIREMENTS AND SUBMISSION DETAILS:

You have already been given final coursework, which is developing a “research proposal”. Your final
coursework is an individual research project which is based on the following learning outcomes.

▪ LO1: Develop students’ knowledge of effective and academic research design at master’s level
and provide guidance on the purpose and design of literature reviews, strategies of research,
problem definition and ethical considerations.
▪ LO2: Ensure students have an advanced understanding of how the range of qualitative and
quantitative approaches can be most appropriately applied in business management (sub)
contexts;
▪ LO3: Develop students’ ability to identify/collect and analyse relevant data and literature sources
and reference them appropriately.
▪ LO4: Critically apply this knowledge and establish the most effectual research design and method
for their project, and write a successful research proposal.

BEFORE WRITING THE STAGE ONE SHORT RESEARCH PROPOSAL!!!

This is the first stage of writing your final coursework. Please read the details of the final project
(uploaded on the coursework section of the WIUT learning board); discuss your research with your
supervisor, take into account your supervisor’s feedback and your own research, and then carry out the
following task in the stage one research proposal.

The Task: Stage One: Short Research Proposal

- Your stage one research proposal must be typed and the word limit is within 500 words. In addition,
the research proposal should be clear and concise.

Components of the Research Proposal (Design):

Research designs are used for the following purposes (Gray, 2004):
A research design provides a proper or particular direction. It helps to clarify the focus of the study and
the motivations. The design is a reflective process from which the researchers justify their rationale and
focus of their proposed investigation through the lens of previous literature. The research proposal
articulates the reasons to undertake a particular inquiry with the methods and defines the research’s
feasibility.

Research design defines the research questions and the objective of the research.

It stands for planning the methods adopted for collecting the relevant data and the techniques to be
used in their analysis.

Research design is needed since it allows for the smooth working of many research operations. It is like
a blueprint that we need in advance to plan the methods to be adopted to collect the relevant data and
techniques.

The purpose of the research proposal is to clarify What, Why, How, and When. It should explain:

• What you will research – Topic, research questions, conceptual and analytical focus.

• Why you will research– Justifying why the research is relevant; also explaining the relevance of the
context of the study.

- You will address How and When in detail at the later stages, not in this assessment.

Your Task

The short research proposal will consist of a brief introduction covering the following components,

1. The topic/proposed title of the project

2. Why the topic is important for business management scholars and practitioners, why are you
interested in the topic?

3. To what subject areas of knowledge does the research belong

• Select research area (e.g. marketing → branding); or (HRM/OB/Organizational

Psychology→employee stress)
• Select aspect of research area (e.g. Branding→brand personality→impact on customer purchase
decisions), (Employee stress→impact on work performance/work-life balance)

4. Objectives – what are you planning to find.

5. Specific research question(s) – make sure that if you use several research questions, they complement
each other and can be answered using the same methodology.

6. Methodological approach – Deductive or Inductive and your research paradigm – Positive or

Interpretive.

7. Finally, please address Capacity and Appropriateness of your research design.

You are not required to use sources for this short proposal; but If you use in-text referencing, you will
need a complete list of references used in the review. You may also include a bibliography of additional
sources you have used which you have not referred to directly within text. References are
recommended to be done in Westminster Harvard reference style.

STAGE ONE: SHORT RESEARCH PROPOSAL

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Assessment 90-100% 80-89% 70-79% 60-60% 50-59% 40-49% <30%
Component
Not
The Exceptionally Excellent, Very good, Good, but Somewhat Inadequate presented, or
topic/proposed clear and self- clear and clear and quite requires some adequate but and requires Inadequate,
title of the evident self- self-evident, changes requires significant, needs to be
project evident requires very considerable major changes completely
minor changes changes changed
Significance of Very good, Somewhat Inadequate Not
the topic for Exceptionally Excellent, clear and quite Good, but adequate but and requires presented, or
business clear and self- clear and self-evident, requires some requires significant/ Inadequate,
management evident self- requires very improvements. considerable major needs to be
scholars and evident minor improvements improvements completely
practitioners, improvements changed

Clarity and Exceptionally Excellent, Very good, Good, but Somewhat Inadequate Not
narrowing down clear and self- clear and clear and quite requires some adequate but and requires presented, or
of topic with evident self- self-evident, improvements. requires significant/ Inadequate,
regards to the evident requires very considerable major needs to be
subject area minor improvements improvements completely
improvements changed

Exceptionally Excellent, Very good, Good, but Somewhat Inadequate, Not

clear and self- clear and clear and quite some adequate but significant presented, or
evident, based self- self-evident, disconnect considerable disconnect major
Objectives and on the topic evident, minor with prior disconnect with prior disconnect
specific research and prior based on disconnect discussion. RQ with prior literature, RO with prior
questions. discussion. the topic with the prior and RO require literature, RQ and RQ literature,
and prior discussion. RO some and RO require needs to be
discussion and RW reformulation require significant/ completely
require minor considerable major changes changed
reformulation. reformulation
Not
Exceptionally Excellent, Very good, Good, but Somewhat Inadequate, presented, or
clear and self- clear and clear and quite some adequate but significant major
evident, based self- self-evident, disconnect considerable disconnect disconnect
Methodological on the topic evident, minor with prior disconnect with prior with prior
approach and prior based on disconnect discussion. with prior literature, literature,
discussion. the topic with the prior methodology literature, methodology methodology
and prior discussion. requires some methodology requires needs to be
discussion methodology reformulation requires significant / completely
requires minor considerable major changes changed
reformulation reformulation

Capacity and Exceptionally Excellent, Very good, Good, but Somewhat Inadequate Not
Appropriateness clear and self- clear and clear and quite requires some adequate but and requires presented, or
of your research evident self- self-evident, changes requires significant, Inadequate,
design evident requires very considerable major changes needs to be
minor changes changes completely
changed