" IMPACT OFRECESSION ONSMALL AND MEDIUMENTERPRISES (SMEs)BUSN20016: RESEARCH INBUSINESSRESEARCH PROPOSALA Research Proposal submitted to the School ofBusiness and Law, in fulfilment of therequirements of BUSN20016 (RESEARCH INBUSINESS) for the degree of Master ofManagement for EngineersAA BB CCSTUDENT ID: *****June 2015 BUSN20016 RESEARCH PROPOSAL CONTENTSSECTION I ............................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 2 PROBLEM STATEMENT ................................................................................................... 3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES/QUESTIONS .......................................................................... 4 JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROJECT ................................................................................. 5 EXPECTED RESEARCH OUTPUT/OUTCOME............................................................... 6SECTION II ............................................................................................................................. 7 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS ................................ 7 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 11SECTION III .......................................................................................................................... 13 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY ................................................................................. 13 GANTT CHART ................................................................................................................ 14 PROJECT BUDGET AND BUDGET JUSTIFICATION ................................................. 15REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 16 1 | P a g e BUSN20016 RESEARCH PROPOSAL SECTION IINTRODUCTIONSmall and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) are the major contributors to the economy of manycountries and within the European Union (EU) itself, they produce a turnover of 50 millioneuros (Lin & Ma, 2010). They are an important part of most western countries accounting fortwo-thirds of all employment but, when Recession occurs, they face a lot of difficulties andthere are many factors that have to be considered that influence their survival (Lin & Ma, 2010;Nanto, 2009).The “Great Recession” of 2007 was sparked by the collapse of the U.S housingmarket which led many financial institutions and banks to become bankrupt and ultimatelyresulted in the overall decline of the U.S economy that forced many companies to run out ofbusiness (Athanasiu, 2010). The growth of SME’s spark an economy. When SME’s grow, jobs are created, unemploymentrates drop and the overall economy improves (Sharples, 2011). There is an understandableconnection between the struggles of SME’s and unemployment rates in many countries,more so, in the year 2007 (the “Great Depression” period) (Sharples, 2011). SME’s are themost sensitive sector and worst affected by the economic recession reducing the developmentrate and increasing the number of bankruptcies with start-ups in particular being the mostvulnerable, lacking the resources to survive the downturn (Hodorogel, 2009). Consequently, ifproper research is conducted in this area, it would be beneficial to all the SME’s in the world.The purpose of this assignment is to undertake a complete research proposal in the field ofRecession and the impacts/issues faced by SME’s so that they can safeguard themselvesagainst Recession and be better prepared whenever Recession occurs. The research proposalis centered on how Recession affected all kinds of businesses, particularly SME’s, who werethe worst hit and what strategic adaptions SME’s adopted to overcome and survive it. The organisation of this assignment is as follows. This Introduction forms Section I of thisresearch proposal. This is followed by the Problem Statement, Research Objectives,Justification of the proposed proposal and the expected outcomes which also fall under SectionI. Then, Section II comprises Conceptual Framework, Research Hypothesis and Methodology.Finally, Section III comprises Organisation of the Study, Gantt chart and the Budget requiredto carry out the proposal.2 | P a g e "