Reference no: EM133163341

MAT 6001 Research Methods for Business Decision Making - Zayed University Abu Dhabi

Step 1: Identify area of research and tentative Title.
Each group member, based on his/her academic and professional understanding, knowledge, experience and passion need to shortlist two to three topics related to business or management issue. You can take help of your seniors/mentors/peers or internet sources such as

Latest research papers in pro quest database (access through portal -> library)

Discuss within your group, develop consensus and finalize any ONE topic for preparing this research proposal.

Develop a tentative title on the topic for scope and direction of the research. After preparing complete proposal review initial title and modify/change if required.

Step 2: Describe Importance and relevance of the topic under heading "Introduction" Introduction is a preliminary overview of research idea, which sets the scene and place the research in a context. It should be designed and written in such a way that it creates interest in the reader about the topic and the proposal. It should clearly convey the reader about what is going to be researched, along with scientific motivation or rationale and significance of the research. How this research is going to add value, to the body of knowledge, practice or policy in this area?

Step 3: Do Literature Review
It is a comprehensive summary of previous research on the topic. It acknowledges the work of previous researchers and provide a landscape to the reader. It assures that developments on the research topic has been taken care off and make sure that proposal is well conceived. The progression of review should be either historical or from more general to more focused. The purpose is to present the arguments related to your study in relation to the research work done by other researchers. This may include supporting data, disagreements and controversies also. Following Five "C"s may be kept in mind while writing it.

Step 4: Frame Research Questions and Develop Research Objectives
After having a contemporary literature review in step-3, researcher(s) have fairly good idea that what and how other researcher have addressed the issue in their investigation. It also helps in identifying the gaps and/or opportunities for further exploration/investigation by the researcher. Researcher need to identify and write them, as well as other challenging and novel questions as research questions. Since answer to these questions are not readily available, it requires a proper planning and approach for investigation to develop insights for answering these questions. They need to be transformed into research objectives. A research objective may address more than one research questions.

Step 5: Identify Theoretical Support to your Research
After developing research objectives, it is necessary to search for theory(ies) which relates to your research. Its purpose is to provide a theoretical foundation, a strong scientific justification to your research proposal. A research framework based on relevant theory(ies), will help to build a strong case for investigation. It helps in finding epistemological, methodological and analytical grounds for the research. Some of the popular theories across all disciplines are, Behavioral, Cognitive, Transformational, Critical, Situational, Feminist, Gender, Marxist etc.

Step 6: Describe Methodology
The objective of this section is to provide a strong justification for chosen research design, data requirement, data collection method, questionnaire and sampling design (if applicable), with respect to each research objective. This section shows, how the research outcomes at the end can be obtained in line with meeting each objectives of the research. Since this section decides the reliability and validity of your research, it is must to have it highly pragmatic. It is quite possible that different objectives of the research may require different research design, data and analysis techniques. All of them need to be described in this section.

Step 7: Ethics, rigor and Limitations
These issues address the strength and limitations of the proposed research. Ethics and rigor must be reflected throughout the proposal by values, neutrality, consistency and applicability. Ethical considerations refer to the protection of the participant's rights, obtaining informed consent and institutional review process. Proposal need to provide adequate information on each of these applicable aspects.

Step 8: Describe Expected Analysis
Briefly describe the analysis techniques (quantitative and or qualitative) is planned to address each objective. This step is required to make sure the researcher foresee the possible analysis techniques, which can help to fulfill the objectives of the proposed research work. Do not explain identified analysis techniques.

Step 9: Describe Expected Outcomes
Briefly describe the expected outcomes of this proposed research and its usefulness.

Step 10: References
Provide reference of all information included in the proposal from other sources in strictly American Psychological Association (APA) style under heading "REFERENCES".

Step 11: Develop Research Proposal in Template given below from next page
Complete details of cover page
A suitable Title of the Research Proposal (Max. in 20 words)
Introduction
Literature Review
Research questions and Research Objectives (max 200 words)
Theoretical Support (max 200 words)
Research Methodology (max 300 words)
Ethical Consideration and Limitations (max 200 words)
Expected analysis (max 100 words)
Expected outcomes (max 100 words)
All references.

Step 12: Check before submission
Your research proposal should include only cover page and pages with contents in suggested heading from "Title" to "References".
Review tentative title (change if required), check order of heading, consistency and coherence of contents including grammar and spellings.
Include page number in bottom of page (excluding cover page) as "Page X of X" style.
Use one inch margin each side of the page and single line spacing.
Use "Times New Roman" 16 and Bold for Title, 14 and Bold for Heading, 12 and Bold for Sub-Heading, 12 normal for contents

Attachment:- Research Methods for Business Decision Making.rar