Business Research Methods

For the midterm exam, each student is expected to submit a sound proposal regarding the final project that will be submitted at the end of the semester. The proposal should be between 1500-2000 words. Framing the proposal: The research proposal will include an initial draft of the introductory section which will include:

• Literature review • Scope and objectives and • Methodology, reviewing methods used in other similar studies and presenting the

rationale for the methodology to be used for the specific project. NOTES:

• The topic must receive instructor approval before any work is done. • Meeting time will be scheduled with each student to monitor progress on the

project. Evaluation Criteria

1. Selecting a research topic (20 points). Present scope and research objectives and explain the research topic in terms of capability and appropriateness. Highlight the relevance of your topic in today’s business environment

2. Clarifying the research design (40 points). 1) Present possible exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research that can be reasonably accomplished and 2) Explain the intended data collection methods, e.g., experiments, surveys, simulations, secondary data collection and analysis, case studies/action research.

3. Producing an annotated bibliography (40 points). Look through academic journals that relate to your subject area. Identify a few papers that did similar research as the one suggested by your topics and produce an

annotated bibliography, summarizing the findings of those papers and how they relate to your research.

Submission guidelines

ü The report should be typed in a 12pt font, double spaced and justified. ü A word count should also be included. ü The file should be named after your last name as: RES299_PROPOSAL_MYLASTNAME ü A cover page should be provided including the student’s name, student number,

course, semester and title of the assignment. ü Please spell check your report before submission ü Students are expected to use academic references in the report. Powerpoint slides,

blogs, student papers/theses, youtube videos or Wikipedia are not academic sources.

ü Academic references should be provided both in-text and at the bibliography section following Harvard Style For more information please visit: https://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/documents/Harvard_citation_hlp.pdf

ü Students should submit the Proposal online through an official Turnitin submission point on Moodle.

ü Students should submit the proposal in word format only (.docx or .doc, no pdfs)