DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

 
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

E-mail: sundaeromba2019@gmail.com
Password: sundaero

1
 Chapter Three
Research Proposal
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
• Understand the meaning and significance of a research
proposal
• Know the contents of a research proposal
• Prepare a review of the literature related to the topic
• Produce a complete research proposal
 Definition
•Various terminologies are used to mean a research
proposal depending on why the research is carried out.
Research outline
Synopsis of research
Plan of research
Research/project proposal
Thesis plan etc
Cont’d
• It is an overall plan, scheme, structure and strategy
designed to obtain answers to the research questions or
problems that make up your research study.
• is the detailed plan of study.
• A kind of blueprint that researchers prepare before
actually carrying out research.
• A written document that showing how the research will
be carried out.
• It is a systematically prepared outline starting the
manner in which you plan to carry out your research.
Cont’d
• A proposal tells us:
• What will be done?
• Why it will be done?
• How it will be done?
• Where it will be done?
• To whom it will be done?, and
• What is the benefit of doing it?
 Importance of Research Proposal
It provides a systematic plan of procedures for the researcher to follow.

To convince your audience.

It reduces the possibility of costly mistakes.

It is also necessary to submit for applying grants to any agency. i.e. To contract
with your client.

serves as a contract between the researcher and sponsors and serves as a planning
tool for the researcher.

It gives the research supervisor a basis for guiding the researcher while conducting
the study.
The Logic of Research Proposals
 Components of a Research Proposal
1. Title page
2. Abstract
3. Introduction/Background
4. Statement of the problem
5. Hypotheses /Questions
6. Objectives of the study
7. Significance of the study
8. Scopes of the study
9. Literature review
10. Conceptual framework
11. Research methods, materials and procedures
 • Study area
• Study design
• Study subjects
• Eligibility Criteria (if any)
• Sample size
• Sampling methods
• Method of data collection
• Description of variables
• Data quality assurance
• Operational definitions
• Plan of data analysis
12. Work plan
13. Budget
14. References
15. Appendices/Annexes
 1. Title
• Be brief and avoid wasting words, eliminate unnecessary words such
as "An Approach to" or "A study of”, “An investigation on”…
• Should not be too long (recommended if it is between 12- 15 words).
• Use a single title or a double title. An example of a double title is
“Master of Business Administration Program: Roles in Creating
Entrepreneurial Orientation.”
• Put your name, the name of your department/faculty/college, the name
of your advisor(s) and date of delivery under the title.
• Title is a label: it is not a sentence.
• Titles should almost never contain abbreviations.
• Should not include terms of unscientific, argumentative, emotional, or
biased nature.
• The title page has no page number and it is not counted in any page
numbering.
 2. Abstract
• The abstract is a one page brief summary of the research
proposal.
• Specify the question that your research will answer,
establish why it is a significant question; show how you
are going to answer the question.
 3. Introduction
• The introduction also should address the following
points:
• A historical perspective (development, growth, etc.) pertinent to the study
area;
• Philosophical or ideological issues relating to the topic;
• Trends in terms of prevalence, if appropriate;
• Major theories, if any;
• The main issues, problems and advances in the subject area under study;
• Important theoretical and practical issues relating to the central problem
under study;
• The main findings relating to the core issue(s).
 Example
• Suppose that you are conducting a study to investigate the impact of
immigration on the family. The introduction should include a brief
description of the following:
• The origins of migratory movements in the world.
• General theories developed to explain migratory behavior.
• The reasons for migration.
• Current trends in migration (national and state).
• The impact of immigration on family roles and relationships (e.g.
on husband and wife, on children and parents, on parental
expectations of children, etc.).
 4. Statement of the Problem
• A problem might be defined as the issue that exists in the literature,
theory, or practice that leads to a need for the study and wants to
obtain an explanation of the same.
• A clearly stated problem is research half done.
• Effective problem statements answer the question “Why does this
research need to be conducted.”
 Points to Consider
• Identify the issues that are the basis of your study;
• Specify the various aspects of/ perspectives on these issues;
• Identify the main gaps in the existing body of knowledge;
• Theoretical gap - gap in the theories
• Empirical gap - gap in researches made by others
• Practical gap – gap between principles, strategies, policies, plans and their
implementations
• Raise some of the main research questions that you want to answer through
your study;
• Identify what knowledge is available concerning your questions, specifying the
differences of opinion in the literature regarding these questions if differences
exist;
• Develop a rationale for your study with particular reference to how your study
will fill the identified gaps.
 Example
• What settlement process does a family go through after immigration?
• What adjustments do immigrants have to make?
• What types of change can occur in family members’ attitudes?
• What is the possible impact of settlement on family roles and relationships?
• in terms of impact, what specific questions do you want to answer through the study?
• What does the literature say about these questions? What are the different viewpoints
on these issues? What are your own ideas about these questions?
• What do you think will be the relevance of the findings of your study to the existing
body of knowledge and to your profession?
• How will the findings add to the body of knowledge and be useful to professionals in
your field?
• etc.
 5. The Research Questions
• The researcher need to clearly state the research questions
in the light of the problems, topic and the theoretical
foundations on which it rests.
 Rules for formulating a Good Research Question
1. Be Sincere
• Choose something that you are genuinely curious about and to which
you really do not know the answer.
2. Be Focused
• Narrow and specific
• But your proposal should show connections how your question is
related to
• Broader context Historical trends
• Intellectual concerns Social patterns
3. Be Clear
• Precise, concrete, and jargon free
• Lucid and simple- write and rewrite to do so
4. Be Connected
• Be connected with established theory and knowledge
5. Be Practical
• Ask yourself if your research is too expensive or expensive to be ‘do-able’
• Identify possible obstacles or constraints in conducting your research
• Possible constraints
Fund Time
distance Access to data
Work overload Response bias
Quantitative skills
6. Be Flexible
• A research question can change, shift, evolve and develop based on literature,
rethinking, etc
• Five W’s and H – A Heuristic
What Who
Where Why
When How
• WHAT do you plan to investigate?
Problem Event
People Circumstances
Relationship Mystery
WHERE WILL YOU MAKE THE INVESTIGATION?
Country Region Neighborhood Organization Department etc
WHEN – time/period
WHO – Target Population
• Individuals
• Groups
• Organizations
WHY
• Reason, importance, significance
HOW ?
• To gain access and collect data
• To find out
• To analyze
• To finance
• Find an answer in a given time
 Hypothesis
• A hypothesis is a statement of your assumptions about the prevalence
of a phenomenon or about a relationship between two variables that
you plan to test within the framework of the study.
• a tentative assumption made in order to test its logical or empirical
consequences.
• Should be related to a theoretical base and should be used whenever
there is a basis for prediction.
• If you are going to test hypotheses, list them in this section.

N.B. Hypotheses are not constructed in qualitative research.

Cont’d
• You need to systematically ask analytical questions such as:
• The compositions of the topic, i.e. what are the different parts
of the topic and how do they relate to one another? How the
topic is part of a larger system?
• The value of the topic, i.e, what values the topic add in terms of
contributing to existing knowledge and as well its implications
for practical applicability.
• The history of the topic, i.e. how and why the topic changed
through time; how have different stories developed differently?
 6. Objectives of the study
• Summarizes what is to be achieved by the study.
• Should be closely related to the statement of the problem.
• Form the basis for judging the remainder of the proposal.
• It sets the stage for showing how one intends to solve or
contribute to the problem, which has been set.
Cont’d
• Are classified into general objectives and specific objectives.
• The general and specific objectives are logically connected to each other.
General Objective
• Broader terms of desired outcomes
Specific Objectives
• Smaller portions of the general objectives.
• Should be
• Specific,
• Measurable,
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Closely related or interlinked
• Show more immediate outcomes
 For example
• Analyze:
• consider the various components of the objects in question and try to describe
the inter-relationship between them.
• Compare:
• examine the characteristics of the objects in question with a view to
demonstrating their similarities and their differences.
• Define:
• give a definition or state terms of reference.
• Describe:
• give an account for.
• Discuss:
• present the different aspects of a question and try to reach a judgment.
• Enumerate:
• give a listing
Cont’d
• Evaluate:
• examine the various sides of a question and try to reach a judgment
• Examine critically:
• act as a judge or critic, appraise.
• Illustrate:
• give and example, explain, draw a figure.
• Prove:
• demonstrate or show by logical argument.
• Summarize:
• examine the main points briefly.

N.B. Consult dictionary to define all terms.

 7. Significance of the study

• Who may use the findings

• User organizations
• The society/the community/the country
• Other researchers
 8. Scope of the study

• Before starting with data collection you have to identify the

universe and the unit of study.
• The identification of the universe implies demarcation of
the physical area (Geography) and social unit of study.
• Furthermore, scope provides the boundary or framework.
• Theoretical/Conceptual
• Methodological
• Temporal
 9. Significance of the study
This entails the contribution of the research.
Who may use the findings?
User organizations (solve practical problems)
The society/the community/the country
Other researchers
Theoretical or conceptual benefits
 10. Literature Review
• A literature review is a description of the literature
relevant to a particular field or topic.
• It gives an overview of;
• what has been said,
• who the key writers are,
• what are the prevailing theories and hypotheses,
• what questions are being asked, and
• what methods and methodologies are appropriate and
useful.
• A literature review must do the following things:
• be organized around and related directly to the research
question you are developing.
• synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known.

• identify areas of controversy in the literature.

• formulate questions that need further research.

 11. Methodology
• The heart of the research proposal.
• The proposal should describe in detail the general research plan
Description of study area
• E.g. the main services provided by the agency, office or
organization; its administrative structure; the type of clients
served; information about the issues that are central to your
research.
Description of study design
Description of study participants
 CONT’D
• Determination of sample size (if any)
• Description of selection process (sampling method)
• Methods of data collection
• Operational definition
• Presentation of the data analysis methods
 Study design

• The type of research design chosen depends on:

• the type of problem;
• the knowledge already available about the problem; and
• The resources available for the study.
• Your study design should include information about the following:
• Who makes up the study population?
• Can each element of the study population be identified? If yes, how?
• Will a sample or the total population be studied?
• How will you get in touch with the selected sample?
• How will the sample’s consent to participate in the study be sought?
• How will the data be collected (e.g. by interview, questionnaire or observation)?
• in the case of a mailed questionnaire, to what address should the questionnaire be
returned?
• are you planning to send a reminder regarding the return of questionnaires?
• How will confidentiality be preserved?
• How and where can respondents contact you if they have queries?
 Example
• The study is primarily designed to find out from a cross-section of
immigrants from ...,and ... (names of the towns) the perceived
impact of immigration on family roles.
• Initial contact with the ethnic associations for these townswill be
made through the elected office bearers to obtain a list of
members.
• Five immigrants will be selected from the list at random, and will
be contacted by phone to explain the purpose of the study and its
relevance, and to seek their agreement to participate in the study.
• Those who give their consent will be interviewed at their homes or
any other convenient place.
• To select a further sample, a snowball sampling technique will be
used until the desired sample size is obtained.
12. Work plan
 13. Bibliography/ References
• Related documents to be consulted/studies.
• Follow technicalities in writing bibliography/ references.
• To be presented in alphabetic order.
• To be presented in classified manner viz., manuscripts,
books, journals, commission reports, newspapers, etc
 13. Definition of key Terminologies and
Concepts (Optional)

• Conceptual– general and related to their contextual

meaning
• Operational – in the context of the research paper and
in measurable terms.
 Common Mistakes in Proposal Writing
• Failure to provide the proper context to frame the research
question.
• Failure to delimit the boundary conditions for your research
• Failure to accurately present the theoretical and empirical
contributions by other researchers.
• Failure to stay focused on the research question/s.
• Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the
proposed research.
• Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on major
issues.
• Too many citation lapses and incorrect references
• Too long or too short.
 DOs
Produce/prepare a professional looking proposal
Make it interesting
Make it informative, meaningful
Write easy way to read
Present content in a page
Use clear headings/sub-headings
Be concise, precise.
Check spelling, grammar.
Present in accurate/acceptable format.

//=//
 Group Assignment
Form a group of five students.
Review an article (to be E-mailed to each group).
There will be a presentation.