social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels. Journal of Consumer
Research, 35, 472–482. doi: 10.1086/586910.
write a short (i.e., about 5–7 pages, excluding title page and references) evaluation of the article’s quality, organized around
the four questions above. In addition to making an argument about each of those four areas, be
sure to use those areas to help you form a clear overall assessment of the article. That is,
overall, if you were a leader making a decision, would you accept the conclusions of the article
as valid evidence? Why or why not? Keep your evaluation to the elements addressed by these
four question and ensure that all of your claims are well-evidenced.
In the concluding section of your evaluation, reflect on the process of producing it, particularly
through the lens of the fact that you will be evaluating many articles over the next three years as
part of the program’s evidence-based research approach (including the dissertation). For
example, were you easily able to determine if the methods used were justified…or will you need
to improve your methodological acumen as you advance in the program? Additionally, reflect on
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how performing the evaluation can inform your own doctoral research work, and how it is
relevant to achievement of your own doctoral goals. Use the Discussion: Scholarly Article
Evaluation [discussion link] to ask questions, share insights, and otherwise engage your cohort
in exploration of the evaluation process.
So, to summarize, your project should have the following sections with the following headers:
• Introduction,
• Evaluation of Research Purpose,
• Evaluation of Methodology,
• Evaluation of Results,
• Evaluation of Overall Achievement of Purpose, and
• Conclusion and Reflection.
Finally, as you write the evaluation, you must adhere to doctoral-level APA format [learning
resources link] (see, especially, the learning resource titled Purdue OWL). Different disciplines
have adopted different styles by which they ask scholars to cite sources, format references, and
generally present their work. Among the social sciences, of which the study of business
administration and management is one, APA style (based on the Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association) is the most commonly used style. Adhering to APA style in
your writing signals to readers that you are serious about your scholarship and legitimizes your
writing in the discipline. So, you must pay attention to the details and apply APA style to all of
your writing in the doctoral program, beginning now, especially:
• title page;
• page format: proper placement of page number, margins, and font;
• in-text citations;
• references (note that all in-text citations should correspond to an entry in the reference
section, and all references should have at least one corresponding in-text citation);
• avoiding bias; and
• stylistics.