Faculty of Commerce & B.

Administration
DBA Program

Research Proposal Template for the

Registration for DBA Degree

• General methodology of the proposal

• Research Problem

• Research Objectives

• Methodology

• Theoretical framework

• Empirical framework

• Research Structure
General methodology of the Research Proposal

The development of the research proposal is a requirement for the

fulfillment of the DBA degree. The output of such perpetration is a valid
scientific document required to pass the course of "Research Seminar”.
In this template, the general philosophy of developing the research
proposal is presented so as to assist DBA students to prepare an accepted
Reseatch Proposal valid to be approved and registered by the Faculty
Board.

The philosophy of the proposal development process depends on the

professional and empirical nature of the "DBA" This means that the main
concern of the research proposal submitted by DBA students ought to be
based on a Business Problem which may have a managerial, economic
or accounting dimension.

The starting point of the research proposal development process is to

identify a research point expressing a real business problem exits in an
organization or a sector. Having done so, the student should explain the
methodology used in handling the problem through a methodological
framework. Such a framework integrates both the intellectual and
empirical aspects of the proposed related to the chosen studied problem.
After that, the student should proceed in translating the research problem
into research objectives, then suggesting a scientific methodology
required to achieve research objectives, developing research hypotheses
and how to test those hypotheses empirically. This is done by showing
the empirical procedures related to the data collection and analysis.

The study problem chosen by student should indicate the presence of a

gap between what is (real practices) and what should be (theories &
conceptual models) What follows is to treat this problem through actual
data and evidences of the studied organization using an integrated

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methodology so as to abstract valid findings and operational and
recommendations.

The following is a detailed elaboration the research proposal

process supported by business examples in the fields of Management,
Economics and Accounting. This process begins by the research problem
then the theoretical framework and the empirical framework.

First: Research problem:

This part presents the general framework of the research problem where
the student should choose a research point expressing the presence of an
actual and researchable problem in any field of business disciplines. The
researcher then, presents a background of the problem and its dimensions
The research problem should be shown by delivering evidences as
statistics, tables, models and results of literature proves that there is a
researchable problem can be studied through a scientific methodology.

The selected problem should be in the form of a gap and represents a

challenge to the studied organization. The following are examples of
some business research problems:

- Disruption of the company financial structure

- Ineffective of the advertising activity of the company

- Manpower planning deficiency

- Supplying chain problem

- Absence of strategic management

- Deficiency of performance appraisal system

- Low logistic performance of business organizations.

- Inefficient management information system.

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 - Problems in cost management.

- Ineffective pricing decisions in light of different market structures

Having handled the research problem and its different dimensions, the
researcher should end this part with a clear problem identification. This
may be in the form a report statement, research questions or a quantitative
model.

Examples of expressing the research problem in the form of report

statement include:

• There is a gab between actual practices of the HRM strategic

management of the human resources and conceptual requirements
of the organization life cycle.

• The applied governmental accounting system in service institutions

restricts application of the rational management of the public
money.

• Insufficient financial disclosure and transparency related to

financial tools derived in the commercial banks.

• The managerial system in the company suffers from financial

problems and restricted its development.

• The evaluation system of customs suffers from problems lead to

decrease in the custom clearance.

• Exporting organizations suffer from a problem of absence of

sufficient studies from the external markets and lack of information
related to it.

• Exporting organizations suffer from shortage in its quality system

which negatively impacts on its exporting capabilities.

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Second: The theoretical framework
After define the research by the researcher he should put a theoretical
framework to the problem which means a scientific rooting of the studied
problem. The theoretical framework includes the scientific theories
related to subject of the study then he should write a summary for this
theoretical framework (3-5 pages). This could be done through inspect
the literatures, reviews, scientific articles and databases to determine the
research gab which will be treated by the researcher. After that, the
researcher should present conclusion of the results related to the
literatures. He could write this part on basis of the historical sequence or
the objective order of the literature.

Presenting of any study should contain the following:

• Author or researcher name.

• year/ date

• title of the study

• The main contents of the study.

• Used methodology.

• Results of the study.

Presenting of the literatures should be ended by comment explains the

relation of these results with the research problem.

Third: Research Objectives

In the light of the research problem, the researcher states the objectives of
the research. These objectives should be expressed in words such as:

- To reach a model solving the problem of ……….

- Providing a systematic knowledge in the field of ……

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 - Suggesting operational recommendations to fill the gap of….

Having stated the research objectives, the importance of the research

should be clarified. This is done by focusing on the expected
contribution of the research such as filling the research gap, solving a
problem, providing a documented knowledge in a certain filed which
suffers from a lack of science or extending the theory to a new
empirical field.

Fourth: Research methodology

This is the most important part of research design. The methodology is
the methodological vision of the research to achieve research purposes.
This could be done through present the logical procedures and
methodological tools which should include research method, style,
hypotheses, theoretical framework and applicable framework. So, we
propose different methodologies which detail each item of research
methodology and present it individually although these contents integrate
with each other to form the theoretical vision of the researcher to achieve
its purposes.

1/4: research strategy and method

Here we mean the strategy of induction which used in preparing the
intellectual framework which used to build the theory adopted by the
researcher through reaching some theoretical concepts. These theoretical
concepts will be subjected to the applicable test and deduction strategy
which used to execute applicable study through test the theory adopted by
the researcher.

After researcher has stated the research strategy, he should define the
scientific method that he will use. In many cases the researcher tends to
combine more than one method of the methods used in management

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researches as: the analytical descriptive, comparative, historical and
experimental methods.

2/4: Research hypotheses:

A group of research hypotheses in the form of claims could be subjected
to applicable test. It is preferred to be formulated in evaluative sentences
express the probable results to research questions. We should emphasis
that the researcher should put suitable number of hypotheses (3-5). This
means that the researcher shouldn't exaggerate and increase its number
without any essential reason. We note that many researches depend on
one main hypothesis and this main hypothesis could be branched into
many sub-hypotheses for example:

* There is a relationship between ownership pattern and level of

employee empowerment.

* It is expected that there is a significant relationship between the

company volume and value of the market share.

* The organization structure of the company doesn't support the thought

of total quality management.

4/4: The Empirical framework:

The empirical framework expresses a group of procedures, tools and
methods that followed to execute the applied study. We here are talking
about the application field, research population, research sample, data
source, data collection and analysis.

4-4-1: Application field

It is the first component of the applicable framework. It means the sector
or field where the researcher will test the concepts and theories he will
adopt. If the researcher has freedom of choice in the application field

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(according to his supervisor directions) so, the scientific research obliges
the researcher to mention reasons of choice to this sector to prevent the
control choice. So, it is important to mention objective reasons could
conceive arbitrators with the importance of application of the study in
specific sector. For example, a researcher could choose bank sector to test
theory of workers empowerment in this case the researcher could present
the following causes:

• The bank sector contains 10% of the Egyptian labor power.

• This sector is a vital sector for the Egyptian economy where it

provides finance for Egyptian internal and external commerce.

• This sector enjoys with the biggest growth ratios after information
technology sector.

4-4-2: Study population and sample

It is known that scientific research is an intellectual activity on a raw
material which is the data. So, we should say from where the researcher
could get these data. Here we don't mean what is known with the primary
and secondary sources but we mean define the studied individuals
(directors, workers, clients, organizations, states, regions…). To define
these individuals the researcher may select the comprehensive survey
method or sample survey method.

• Comprehensive survey method: this method used in cases where

there is limited number of population's individuals for example
study of leadership patterns of Egyptian governmental head of
universities. Here we are talking about 18 heads of universities.
This number allows using the comprehensive survey method.

• Sample survey method: the researcher uses this manner in cases of

large populations which makes it is difficult or impossible to study

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 all individuals of the research population for example study of
attitudes of staff members in universities towards the program
project of staff members capabilities development. In this case, the
researcher has no choice except using sample manner so, he should
type and volume of the sample by using a way permits to all
individuals a chance to appear in the sample. In this way, the
sample will be representative which means it carries all dominant
characteristics in the research population.

4-4-3: Data collection

This content concerns how to provide the raw materials which the
researcher needs to fulfill his researcher. To provide these data, the
researcher should deal with the following issues:

• Determine needed data.

• Determine nature of these data (data express realities or attitudes).

• Determine data source: primary or secondary data

• Determine suitable statistical method to treat the data.

4-4-4-4: Statistical analysis

After collecting necessary data either through data expresses realities
(factual data) or data expresses attitudes (attitude data) from different
sources either primary or secondary sources. This data will be subjected
to statistical analysis to extract some indicators which have specific
meaning will be important in testing hypotheses and uncover ambiguity
in the research problem so; we could achieve purposes of the research.
There are group of statistical packages used in data analysis one of these
packages mostly used in the managerial sciences that known with SPSS
(statistical package for social sciences).

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Fifth: Research Boundaries
This part concerns to explain the dimensions which determine limits of
research scope. It is preferred that the researcher should explain these
limits to make the reader or the arbitrator of this scientific work full
understand to it and don't diminish the value of the research as in cases
where the researcher neglects to mention these limits. The academic
customs in the field of business classify these limits into three types of
limits as follows:

• Objective limits: in this item the research should explain the

scientific limits which the research deals with. For example a
researcher may mention that the organizational development in air
transport sector in Egypt is a wide and very branched subject which
makes difficult on one researcher to deal with all dimensions of it
so, the current researcher will concentrate on the dimension related
to human resources.

• Application limits: in this part the researcher should indicate to

limit of application the applicable study on specific field as in the
last example it will be air transport sector.

• Time limits: the purpose of it is to make the researcher determine

the time period covered by the research. For example the
researcher could mention that he will study period from 2010 till
2016.

Sixth: The proposed contents of the research:

After the researcher present research problem, purposes, methodology
and limits he could determine the proposed contents of the research. This
means the research division in form of divisions (parts and chapters). One
of the most common faults that some researchers called this part as

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"research plan" which is fault because this name is for all parts of all the
research project with all items previously mentioned. I could present the
following example which typical to the international customs. The
research should be divided into chapters as follows:

The first chapter: Research overview and methodology.

- Introduction
- Literature review
- Pilot study
- General frame of the research problem
- Research objectives and importance.
- Research methodology
• The second chapter: the research theoretical framework

- The concept and characteristics of workers empowerment.

- Requirements of input of workers empowerment application
- Historical roots of workers empowerment thought.
- Application requirements of workers empowerment input.
- Successful experiments in empowerment application.
- Role of the organizational culture in deepening workers empowerment
thought.
• The third chapter: field study (1)

• The fourth chapter: field study (2)

• The fifth chapter: Findings and recommendations

Seventh: Documentation and writing references

The researcher should make citation to everything he writes especially in
the theoretical framework and the theoretical chapter in the thesis later.
The most common way in the field of business disciplines is APA manner
(American psychology association). According to this manner the
references should be written as follows:

• Inside the text:

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 (Bryman, 2008) mentioned that management researches have …… (1)

• In the final reference list:

Beyman, A (2008). Business research methods. NY: oxford

University press.

We should consider that reference should be ranked according to order

of its presence in the research text (not in the page footnote bottom of the
page which is a traditional way).

A) Dessler, J (2014), Op. cit, P…. ( HIIJK‫ى و‬NO‫ة أ‬NR STNR ‫ام‬WJXY‫ ا‬Z[\] ^_
(‫ى‬NO‫ ا‬ST‫ا‬NR N`‫ذ‬

B) Ibid, P….. ( NO‫ آ‬STNR HIIJXc d[‫ و‬STNR ‫ام‬WJXY‫ار ا‬NfK Z[\] ^_)

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