Successfully Completing MBA

Research Proposal: A practical

approach
Prof. Bandara Wanninayake
PhD (TBU – Czech), MBA (Colombo), Bsc. Mktg (Sp) – USJ, Dip. In mktg (UK), Dip.
In. Acco.
Professor in Marketing
Dept. of Marketing Management
University of Kelaniya
 Common misconception
• Conducting research and writing report

• Newness

• Research concepts Vs. research context

• Supervisor Role

• Outcome rationale
 What is Research
• Re + Search

• Re means (once more, afresh, anew)

OR (back; with return to a previous state)

• Search means (look thorough or go over

thoroughly to look something) OR (examine
to find anything concealed)
 What is Research
• A movement from unknown to known.

• Simply, the process of finding solutions to a problem

after thorough study and analysis of the situational
factors.

• A collection of methods and methodologies that

researchers apply systematically to produce
scientifically based knowledge about the social world.
(Neuman)
 What is Research
• “Organized, systematic, data-based, critical,
objective, scientific inquiry or investigation
into a specific problem, undertaken with the
purpose or finding answers or solution to it.”
Uma Sakaran
 Main purpose of research
• The main purpose of research is to discover
answers through the application of scientific
procedure.
 What is Business Research
• “Systematic and objective process of
gathering, recording and analyzing data for aid
in making business decisions.”
William G. Zikmund
 Scope of Business Research
• Domain of social sciences
• How to define scope of business
• Research concept and context
• Main areas of business research
– Marketing – Branding, Consumer behaviour,
Advertising, Online mktg and social media, Marketing
Mgt, CSR, International mktg, tourism etc.
– Finance – Corporate finance, Stock market
operations, financial intermediation, financial
reporting etc.
 Scope of Business Research
• HRM and OB – employee motivation, organizational
commitment, employer branding, organizational
citizenship, performance appraisals etc.

• Production – Quality management, SCM and

logistics, Inventory mgt etc.

• Strategic Management – Leadership, Corporate

governance, organizational culture, change mgt.
 Scope of the task
• Applied research Vs. Academic research

• New and creative contribution to a field of

study

• Scientific investigation

• It is not a consulting project

 Academic research
• Academic research is scholarly or scientific
investigation or inquiry

• Main features of scientific research

– Purposiveness - Should start the research with a
definite aim or purpose.

– Rigor - Research should involve in a good theoretical

base and a carefully thought-out methodology
 Main features of scientific research
• Testability - Leads to test logically developed
hypotheses/assumptions.

• Replicability - The results of the tests of the hypotheses

should be supported again and yet again when the same
type of research is repeated in other similar circumstances.

• Precision - Closeness of the findings to reality based on a

sample.

• Confidence - Probability that one’s estimations are correct.

 Main features of scientific research
• Generalizability - The scope of applicability of
the research findings in one organizational
setting to other settings.

• Parsimony - Simplicity in explaining the

phenomena or problems that occur. In other
words, ability to explain the variance using
less number of variables.
 Philosophies of the Research
• Nobody really knows how we can best
understand the world

• Philosophers have been arguing about it for

1000s of years,

• For us, as researchers, need to consider how

we know about the world around us. What is
our philosophical approach to knowledge?
 Ontology
• Ontology comes from the Greek words
onto which means something that exists,
and logos which means logical knowledge.
• Researchers philosophical assumptions
about the nature of reality.
• The question of “what reality is like, the
basic elements it contains” (Silverman,
2010: 109)
 Ontology
• Ontology is the starting point of all research,
after which one’s epistemological and
methodological positions logically follow. A
dictionary definition of the term may describe
it as the image of social reality upon which a
theory is based.
• It has two opposite points such as Objectivism
and Constructivism.
 Opposite Ontological Stances
• Objectivism presupposes that social reality has an
autonomous existence outside the knower
(researcher).
Eriksson & Kovalainen (2008)
Bryman & Bell (2007)
• Constructionism (also known as subjectivism) is an
ontological position asserting that social phenomenon
and their meaning are continually being accomplished
by social actors, and that they are in constant
construction and revision.
(Bryman, 2008:19).
 Epistemology
• A Researcher’s Epistemology is a result of
his/her Ontological Position
• His/Her Assumptions about the Best Ways of
Inquiring into the Nature of the World and
Establishing ‘Truth’.
• Positivism and interpretivism are two extreme
mutually exclusive paradigms about the
nature and sources of knowledge.
• Pragmatism- Mix approch
 The Main Epistemological Positions in
Management Research
• Positivism: The Researcher as Scientist
– The Natural Sciences as a Model
– The Quest for Objective Knowledge
– A Deductive or Theory-Testing Approach
• Interpretivism: Researcher as Detective
– Arises from a Critique of Using the Natural
Sciences as a Model for Social Research
– The Quest for Subjective Knowledge
– An Inductive or Theory-Building Approach
 Main research approaches
• There are two research approaches of scientific
investigation
– Deductive approach/ The Rationalist's approach

– Inductive approach/ The Empiricist’s approach

• Answers to issues can be found either by the

process of induction or the process of deduction, or
by a combination of the two.

• Pluralist: A mix of the above 2 strategies.

 Deductive method
• Top- down approach
• The process by which we arrive at a reasoned
conclusion by logical generalization of a
known fact.
• Going from general to specific
 Inductive Approach
• Process where we observe certain
phenomena and on this basis arrive at
conclusions.
• “ Bottom- up approach”
• Going from specific to general
 Research strategy
• Qualitative Research
A non-quantitative type of analysis which is
aimed at finding out the quality of a particular
phenomenon.

• Quantitative Research
Employed for measuring the quantity or
amount of a particular phenomena by the use
of statistical analysis.
 Research Process
• Define Research Problem and objectives
• Literature review
– Review concept and theories
– Review previous research findings
• Developing research model and formulating hypotheses
• Research design (writing research proposal)
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Interpret the findings and compile the report
(final dissertation)
 Define Research Problem
Think!!!
• In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , Alice asks
the Cheshire Cat (Carroll, 1989:63-): (Part of Alice
conversation with Cheshire Cat)
– ‘Would you tell me please, which way I want to walk
from here ?’
– ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to go,’
said the Cat.
– ‘I don’t much care where,’ said Alice.
– ‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,’ said the
Cat.
Research methods for business students - Mark Saunders (pp : 20)
 Define Research Problem
• Research topic is initially developed from research
problem
• Simply, the gap between actual and the desired ideal
states.
• Research Problem refers to some difficulty /need which
a researcher experiences in the context of either
theoretical or practical situation and wants to obtain a
solution for the same.
• It should be not have common acceptable solution
 How to find research problem?
• Identify broad problem area - it refers to the entire
situation where one sees a possible need for research and
problem solving.

• Broader Problem should be narrow down into

specific problem

• Broader Problem can be identified in many

sources
 Sources of broader problem
• Reading - literature and Theory
• Academic and Personal Experience
• Puzzles
• New developments in organizations
• Organizational problems.
• Exposure to Field Situations
• Consultations
• Brainstorming
• Exploratory Research
• Intuition
 Finding Research Problem
• The broader problem area would be narrowed
down to specific issue for investigation based
on followings,
– Gathering preliminary data from exploratory
research.
– Literature review in relevant areas.
– Identify research questions based on primary and
secondary data (one approach)
 Selection of Research Problem

• The selection of one appropriate researchable problem

out of the identified problems requires evaluation of
those alternatives against certain criteria. They are:
• Internal / Personal criteria – Researcher’s Interest,
Researcher’s Competence, Researcher’s own Resource:
finance and time.
• External Criteria or Factors – Researchability of the
problem, Importance and Urgency, Novelty of the
Problem, Feasibility, Facilities, Usefulness and Social
Relevance, Research Personnel.
 Problem statement
• Problem definition or problem statement, is a
clear, precise, and brief statement of the
question or issue that is to be investigated
with the goal of finding an answer or solution.

• The problem statement should be justified

through research gap
 Problem statement

• Four wives and a husband (one

approach)
– What ?
– Why ?
– Where ?
– When ?
– How ?
 Problem statement
There are two ways of stating a problem:
(a) Posting question / questions
E.g.: How does knowledge sharing culture
affects organizational performance at XY
Company?
(b) Making declarative statement / statements
E.g.: Assessing the impact of knowledge sharing
culture in improving organization performance
at XY Company.
 Justification of the research problem
• Research problem can be justified by research gap
• Research gap is a research question or problem which has
not been answered appropriately or at all in a given field
of study.
• Research gap is actually what makes your research
publishable, why? Because it shows you are not just
duplicating existing research; it shows you have a deep
understanding of the status of the body of knowledge in
your chosen field; and finally it shows that you have
conducted a research which fulfills that gap in the
literature.
 Research Gap
• In the Post graduate studies, you need to
contribute some new knowledge about
something. That means you need to be able to
establish what is usually referred to as "a gap in
the literature" i.e. something that has not yet
been researched.
• Mapping out the literature is a major job in itself.
You need to be able to articulate what previous
studies have shown and use this as the means of
pointing toward things that are not yet known.
 Types of Research Gaps
• Theoretical gap
• Literature gap or Empirical gap
• Practice gap
• Methodological gap
 Literature Review
• Literature Review is the documentation of a
comprehensive review of the published and
unpublished work from secondary sources of data in
the areas of specific interest to the researcher.
• It is an extensive survey of all available past studies
relevant to the field of investigation.

• It gives us knowledge about what others have found

out in the related field of study and how they have
done so.
 Purpose of Literature review
• To gain a background knowledge of the research topic.
• To Identify the literature and empirical gap
• To identify the concepts relating to it, potential
relationships between them and to formulate
researchable hypothesis.
• To identify appropriate methodology, research design,
methods of measuring concepts and techniques of
analysis.
• To identify data sources used by other researchers.
• To learn how others structured their reports.
 How to conduct the literature survey
• Identify the relevant sources.

• Extract and Record relevant information.

• Write-up the Literature Review and decide

relevant sections in the report.
 Sources of Literature
• Books and Journals
• Abstract Databases (e.g. E Repository in UOK)
• Full-Text Databases
• Govt. and Industry Reports
• Internet (Open source)
• Research Dissertations/Thesis
• Media or reliable information sources (if any)
 Developing research model and
formulating hypotheses
• Variables should be identified to develop
conceptual framework

• A variable is anything that varies or changes in value.

• The values can differ at various times for the same object or
person or at the same time for different objects or persons.

• E.g.: Production units, absenteeism, motivation, gender,

income, height, weight etc.
 Types of Variables

Dependent Variable/ Criterion Variable

• A variable to be predicted or explained.
• The dependent variable is the variable of
primary interest.
• The researcher’ s goal is to understand and
describe the dependent variable or to explain
its variability or predict it.
 Types of Variables
Independent Variable/ Predictor Variable
• An independent variable is the one that
influences the dependent variable in either
positive or negative way.

• E.g.: Impact of video gaming habits on the

academic performance of undergraduates.
• Independent Variable? Video gaming habits
 Types of Variables
Moderating Variable
• Moderating variable is the one that has a
strong conditional effect on the independent-
dependent variable relationship.
• Moderating variable modifies the relationship
between the dependent and independent
variables.
 Types of Variables
Intervening Variables (Mediating variable)
• An intervening variable is a variable that helps
explain the relationship between two variables
• A variable that explains a relation or provides a
causal link between other variables.
• Intervening variables are hypothetical internal
states that are used to explain relationships
between observed variables, such independent
and dependent variables.
Moderating Vs. Mediating Variable
 Developing research model (Conceptual
Framework)
• What is a conceptual framework?

A written or visual presentation that:

– “explains either graphically, or in narrative form, the main
things to be studied – the key factors, concepts or
variables -
– and the presumed relationship among them”.

(Miles and Huberman, 1994, P18)

 Conceptual framework
• It is a conceptual model of how one
speculates or makes logical sense of the
relationships among the several factors that
have been identified as important to the
problem.

• Simply, it discusses the interrelationships

among variables under the given context.
 Conceptual framework
• From the theoretical framework, testable
hypotheses can be developed to examine
whether the theory formulated is valid or not.
• The hypothesized relationships can thereafter
be tested through appropriate statistical
analyses.
• The entire research rests on the basis of the
conceptual framework.
 What is a hypothesis?
• A hypothesis is an assumption about relations
between variables.
• Hypothesis can be defined as a logically assumed
relationship between two or more variables
expressed in the form of a testable statement.
• Relationships are assumed on the basis of the
network of associations established in the theoretical
framework formulated for the research study.
• Hypothesis must contain at least one independent
variable and one dependant variable.
 Sources of Hypothesis
• You can’t hypothesize hypotheses
• Should have strong evidences to justify by
– Examination of data and records (facts and
figures) for possible trends, peculiarities.
– Review of similar studies (Literature review).
– Exploratory personal investigation / Observation.
– Logical deduction from the existing theory.
 Research design
• It is the detailed plan of an investigation.

• It is the conceptual structure within which the

research is conducted.

• It constitutes the blue print for the collection,

measurement and analysis of data.
• Answers the questions of What – Why – Where
– When etc.
 Elements of research design
• Research philosophy and approach and
strategy
• Research method
• Unit of analysis
• Time horizon
• Data collection procedure
• Sampling plan
• Methods of data analysis
 Research Proposal
• Document that is typically written by a scientist or academic which
describes the ideas for an investigation on a certain topic.

• The research proposal outlines the process from beginning to end

and may be used as a required task before beginning a doctoral
thesis.

• Once complete the proposal, 50% of the research is done

• Source document to select supervisor

• Proposal should be approved by study board for continue the

project
 Research Proposal
• The proposal plays a central role in the research
process. The purpose of the proposal is four fold:
– To present clearly and unambiguously the problem
to be researched
– To discuss the research efforts of the others who
have worked on collateral or related problems
– To set forth precisely the data necessary for solving
the problem and
– To indicate specifically how these data will be treated
and interpreted
 Format of Research Proposal

• Please refer page 9 - Guidelines for Writing

MBA Kelaniya Dissertation Proposals
Questions????????