2- Business Research Report

Guidance on the preparation of the Business Research Report
Whilst the structure of Management Research Reports may vary according to the nature of the subject
matter, the following represents a typical structure of a Research Report which you may find useful to
consider. A typical structure is likely to consist of the following chapters:
1. Introduction
2. Literature review
3. Methodology
4. Research and Findings
5. Conclusions
6. Recommendations
7. References 8. Appendices

A typical framework of a Research Report designed to meet the University’s requirements is as follows:

1. Introduction

This need not be long (around one page, confirm with your Topic Lead), but it performs several
important functions regarding the Report as a whole.

Introduction should cover the following:

• Clear statement of aims for the research
• Brief but relevant background about the organisational context (further detail can go into the
Appendices), with the business rationale for selecting the topic (i.e. the need for the
investigation) ‘thoroughly critiqued’
• A set of clear research questions (commencing why?, what?, etc.) or research objectives
(commencing with an active verb e.g. ‘to investigate’ or ‘to evaluate’, etc.).
• A summary of the overall structure to be employed in the report.
The specification of your research questions/objectives is particularly critical. You may initially select
these based on your perceptions of the organisational issues. These initial perceptions may, however, change once you have completed your Literature Review and you may wish to revisit and refine your research questions/objectives as part of an iterative and reflexive process that synthesises concepts and practice. The specification of research questions/objectives is also important because they ‘drive’
and give coherence to the remainder of your report. How you plan to research empirically your
research questions/objectives will also feature in your Methodology chapter. Each of your research
questions/objectives will also form the basis of your research and will be revisited in your Conclusions

and addressed in your Recommendations.

2. Literature review
The usual practice in most research projects is to commence with a literature review: this is known as a
‘deductive’ approach in which the researcher uses theories, concepts, etc. to structure their primary research. It is also possible to adopt an ‘inductive’ approach which reverses this process i.e. primary data are gathered first and then the literature is used to contextualise and integrate the results of the
primary research. The latter approach is less frequently used in management research and carries
considerable challenges for the researcher: you are strongly advised to discuss the latter option with your allocated topic lead.
The starting point for investigating an issue is to carry out a review of the literature relevant to the topic
in hand.
Some of the broad aims of the literature review may be summarised as follows:
• Helps you to refine your research questions
• Increases your knowledge/expertise in your chosen topic area • Locates your research in the
context of what is already known,
• Aims to ensure that your knowledge on the topic area is up to date
• Helps to identify current trends, issues, and debates in your chosen topic area
• Helps to identify thinking about ‘best practice’
• Helps to identify relevant theories, models, and key concepts for application to your topic area
and the leading authors associated with them
• May generate themes which will be followed in both the literature review and throughout the rest
of the report
Students sometimes ask how many literature sources should be referred to in a Management
Research Report. There is no definitive answer to this, since it will depend (amongst other things) on
how extensive the literature is in each field. However, a minimum number of is likely to be in the range of 20-30 in order to do some justice to the literature in your chosen subject area, but a more thorough exploration of the literature in a high quality Management Research Report might refer to over 30.

3. Methodology
Methodology is defined by Jankowicz (2005: 387) as “the analysis of and rationale for the particular
[research] method(s) used in a project”.
The writing of the methodology chapter requires you to read relevant texts on business and social
science research methods, weigh and discuss what is contained in these sources about alternative
research methods and apply these to the decisions made about your selected methods, their strengths
and weaknesses and why certain methods were selected and others rejected, thus providing a
rationale for the methods used. More details about this section will be provided by the tutor during the workshops.

4. Research and Findings

Typically, a good findings chapter is likely to:
• Be closely structured around the research questions/objectives
• Report findings clearly, possibly (where appropriate) using tables, charts, or other pictorial
devices • Provide a written interpretation and analysis of the findings (i.e. not allow tables,
charts, etc. to speak for themselves)
• Report all findings faithfully (and not consign important data to Appendices)
• Provide integrating reference to the literature

5. Conclusions
It is important to note that conclusions precede recommendations, not the other way round. The
conclusions should specifically address each of your research questions/objectives, providing a
summary analysis of what has been found out from the research, with integrated reflections on how the
findings either compliment or differ from those reported in the literature. Conclusions also provide a logical bridge between the body of the report and any recommendations. It is important to note that
conclusions (and recommendations) should not contain any material or ideas, either from the literature
or primary research, which have not already been presented in the body of the report. If you find it
necessary to raise something of significance in your conclusions not already discussed in the body,
then the body of the report needs adjusting to take account of this: no ideas should appear ‘out of the
blue’ at this stage of your report. Your conclusions need not be long, but they should do justice to all the important points raised in the body of the report.

6. Recommendations
Research Reports should finish with recommendations for action. Ensure they are clear, precise, and
pragmatic, with, at minimum some cost implications.
Research Reports should finish with recommendations for action. Ensure they are clear, precise, and
pragmatic, with, at minimum some cost implications. Recommendations need to address all the issues
identified in the conclusions, unless they are thought to be impractical or unfeasible in the current
organisational context (and if this is the case, this needs to be stated, since it may represent a limitation
to what might ideally be achievable). Logically, the recommendations should address the research
questions/objectives that have been the drivers of the report. Recommendations should contain a clear action plan, stating what should be done, in what timescale (if appropriate) and, if further investigation is
thought necessary, this should be explicitly stated. Recommendations should contain some cost and,
ideally, some estimates of potential cost benefits (although it is recognised that the latter may not
always be possible). In many organisations, proposals without costs are unlikely to be acceptable. It is
also important to note that recommendations never appear ‘out of the blue’. Only issues specifically addressed, and data specifically generated in the research and summarised in the conclusions can legitimately appear in the recommendations.

7. References
This should appear after the recommendations and before, not after, the appendices (if there are any).
It should contain all the sources referred to in the report, no more and no less. It should not consist of a
list of sources of reading which you have picked up during the course of the project which you may

have browsed, but have not actually referred to specifically in your report. Following the ‘Harvard’
convention, referred to earlier, your references to books consulted should ideally be presented in
alphabetical order by author or first author surname as follows:
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2012), Research Methods for Business Students, 6th ed,
Harlow, FT Prentice Hall.
The convention, therefore, is author(s) name(s), date of publication in brackets, title of publication
underlined, place of publication and publisher name.
If you have quoted from an authored chapter in a book of edited readings, the convention is as follows:
Wilkinson, S. (2003), ‘Focus groups’, in JA Smith, ed., Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to
Research Methods, London, Sage, pp. 184-204
In this case, the named chapter author comes first, then date of publication, then chapter title in
inverted commas, then name of editor of the book of readings, book title underlined, place and name of publisher If known).
If you have quoted from an article, the convention is slightly different e.g.
Fletcher, C. and Williams, R. (1992), ‘The route to performance management’, Personnel
Management, October, pp. 42-44
Here, the article title is put in inverted commas, the journal title is underlined, the date (e.g. month or
volume or edition number) is quoted and the page numbers (if known).

8. Appendices
These are not, of course, compulsory, but will often be appropriate in Research Reports especially in
word constrained projects. The question that students often ask is what should go into appendices and
what should go into the body of the report. Generally, the appendices should contain detailed
documents or tables which, if placed in the body of the report, would have the effect of breaking up the logical structure and flow of the discussion. Examples include copies of company policy documents or
lengthy or detailed statistical tables. In the case of the latter, it may need to be decided which data
tables belong in the body of the report and which in the appendices. There is no absolute rule about this, but where statistics arising out of your findings are central to your discussion in the body of the
report, tables may belong there if they are not long and complex. Alternatively, you may use the body of
the report to summarise the main findings and cross-refer the reader to detailed tables in the
Appendices. Whichever of these is chosen, it is important that your statistical findings are discussed somewhere in the body and are not just consigned to Appendices where they may not be read by a busy manager and their impact will be lost. All Appendices must be relevant to the discussion in the
report and all must be cross-referred to and explained in the report. If they are not relevant, do not include them.