BML246 - TOPIC 2 -

BML246

Research Skills Session 2:

Formulating Your Research - Topic / Strategy / Objectives Tutors: Dr Andy Clegg and Dr Jorge Gutic

Learning Outcomes Aims: At the end of this session, you should be able to: 혰 Identify a research problem 혰 Formulate a viable research topic or question 혰 Decide an appropriate research strategy 혰 Formulate specific research objectives

Deciding on a Research Topic

Developing a Research Topic Strategies for Developing a Research Topic Burning desire – a inspiring topic of your interest Replication strategy – why might this be easier?

Align with career goals – note difference between organisation

needs and yours

Convenient access – what networks do you have? Compromise?

Development of earlier work Important problem/ current issue – where would you find these?

(Adapted from Horn, 2009)

Developing a Research Topic

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What Makes a Good Research Topic?

Within a good research topic, you will generally be able to identify

the answer to the following ‘W’ questions: What?

Who? Where?

When?

Why?

Answering the last question is indispensable in order to have an applied research topic, i.e. one that provides a solution to a practical problem.

What Makes a Good Research Topic?

A good research project should be: Specific: the organisation or activity being researched and the

group / type of people involved are clearly identified: Good:

‘effect of high interest rates in couples buying new houses’

Bad:

'effect of economic changes in UK house buying’

What Makes a Good Research Topic?

A good research project should be: Measurable: it identifies a narrow aspect of the organisation or

the activity that can be observed and measured.

Good:

‘effect of high interest rates on the saving behaviour of retired couples buying new houses’

Bad:

‘effect of high interest rates on people buying new houses’

What Makes a Good Research Topic?

A good research project should be: Time-constrained: a timeframe is provided when information is

being collected or behaviours are being observed.

Good:

‘effect of high interest rates on the saving behaviour of retired couples buying new houses in 2013’

Bad:

‘effect of high interest rates on the saving behaviour of retired couples buying new houses in the last 10 years’

What Makes a Good Research Topic?

A good research project should be: Localised: a very specific and generally small area is chosen to

focus the research and collect data.

Good:

‘effect of high interest rates on the saving behaviour of retired couples buying new houses in Bognor Regis postcode PO21 in 2013’

Bad:

‘effect of high interest rates on the saving behaviour of retired couples buying new houses in the UK’

What Makes a Good Research Topic?

A good research project should have: A clear outcome: An outcome, benefit or reason to do the

research is clearly identified.

Good:

‘effect of high interest rates on the saving behaviour of retired couples buying new houses in Bognor Regis postcode PO21 in 2013, in order to develop new savings banking products’

Accessible information: Not necessarily reflected in the topic, but

without easily accessible information even the best research topic becomes a non-starter!

Choosing a Research Topic Check the academic literature for a topic: — In order to ensure that your topic can be researched on, you need

to engage with the academic literature

— You need to search for your topic on electronic resources such as

Business Source Premier, E-Journals, Dawson Era, Ebrary and Google Scholar to ensure that sufficient academic research exist on it

Choosing a Research Topic Check the academic literature for a topic: — Select and read those articles and books that appear to be highly

related to your topic in order to gain an understanding of the issues relating to it.

— A word of warning!

Students that fail to do this review, or that limit themselves to Google, can spent months without a research topic, or have to repeat the process of topic selection several times because they chose unworkable topics.

Examples of Research Questions/Titles Check the academic literature for a topic: — Select and read those articles and books that appear to be highly

related to your topic in order to gain an understanding of the issues relating to it.

— A word of warning!

Students that fail to do this review, or that limit themselves to Google, can spent months without a research topic, or have to repeat the process of topic selection several times because they chose unworkable topics.

Examples of Research Questions/Titles Activity 1 • Please look at the management project copies provides and decide which of them have ‘good’ titles.

• Remember: a good title would usually answers the 5 ‘W’ questions: What? Who? Where? When? Why?

Choosing Your Research Topic Activity 2 • Working individually, and using the guidelines provided today to identify a research topic, write a draft research title / question that you could develop for your final year management project • Identify an area of interest: inspiring topic / replication strategy / career goals / convenient access / earlier work / current issue • Ensure to answer the 5 ‘w’ questions: What?

Who? Where? When? Why?

Developing Your Research Strategy

Research Strategy

What is a Research Strategy?

A discussion that explain what research methods were chosen to

complete the research, and why they were selected. It normally involves taking and explaining the following decisions: if the research follows a deductive, inductive, or a mixed

approach

if the type of information required is qualitative or quantitative if primary or secondary data is required what is the sample size how will data be collected and analysed what are the potential research limitations

Deduction — Deduction is the process by which a theory or a know fact are

tested during a research process, to check if the theory or fact apply to the context being researched

— A deductive methodological approach normally requires the

collection of large quantities of quantitative data, and attempts to generalise study findings to other populations or settings

— Example:

Colour perception theory says most people tend to be very sensitive when making decisions that involve choosing colours.

This can be tested by asking respondents to rank how important was the colour of the handset among the factors that they considered when buying a mobile

Induction Induction is the process where certain behaviour or occurrence is

observed and based on those observations, conclusions are drawn and /or new theory are formulated

An inductive methodological approach normally involves the

collection of qualitative data, and it is less concerned with the need to generalise, instead emphasising understanding of the observed phenomena

Example:

Asking a group of UoC mobile phone users to discuss in which context they feel their mobile’s looks and features will be noticed by other people.

Mixed Approach Depending of the research topic and context, there will be

occasions when the researcher needs to apply both Deductive and Inductive approaches in their research

A mixed approach can provide robust evidence to both identify

the behaviour of a group and understand the reasons why they do so

Example:

A travel company undertakes a large-scale questionnaire of all their customers to identify which is their most booked destination, and then conducts focus groups both with customers that have booked this destination many times and with some that never have done so, in order to understand their reasons to select / not select the company’s most booked destination.

Deductive or Inductive?

Activity 3 •

Thinking about your teamwork research project, please decide what type of research strategy is best suited to achieve the results you need:

•

Do you need to apply a deductive approach? [i.e. check if a theory or fact apply to the context being researched by collecting large quantities of quantitative data? Do you need to generalise your findings to other populations or settings?]

•

Do you need to apply a inductive approach? [i.e. observe certain behaviour / occurrence by collecting qualitative data, and based on those observations, drawn conclusions that allow you to understand the observed behaviour / occurrence ?]

•

Do you require a mixed approach? (inductive>deductive approach).

Research Objectives

What is a Research Objective?

The important questions that the research need to answer.

Written as an action statement: ‘to list / to identify / to assess / to

measure / to evaluate / to develop’

Often confused the research activities required to achieve the

aim, e.g. ‘I will find information about Company X website’ or ‘I will make a survey of Company X employees’.

An objective is the reason why you want to know about Company

X or survey their employees, but doing a survey isn’t an objective!

Writing Research Objectives Research objectives reflect the specific issues identified in the

research title

For the title ‘Identify which type of content marketing is most

effective at increasing customer engagement with Company X’s products’, relevant objectives could be the following: What type of content marketing are Company X’s customers

currently engaging with?

Which factors influence Company X’s customers engagement

with content marketing?

Which type of content marketing maximises Company X’s

customers engagement with their products?

Writing Research Objectives Make a list of the questions you need to answer in order to

achieve your research aim

Now turn these questions into research objectives, by writing

short action statements that explain what are the specific issues you will be researching (i.e. ‘To assess why issue X affects the engagement of company Z’s customers with their digital campaign')

Please refer to the list of action statements for objectives

available in Moodle

Writing Research Objectives The Rules!

When writing objectives: Avoid the use of the 1st person (I, you, your, us, we, etc.)

Don't explain how are they going to be achieved or what

information will be collected (the Methodology chapter does that)

Only one issue or problem per objective Language should be clear and self-explanatory

Writing Research Objectives The Rules! 혰 When writing objectives: 혰 Avoid ambiguous timeframes, locations, or issues 혰 Minimum amount of words possible 혰 Ideally you should have four / five objectives or less, never

more than six

Writing Research Objectives The Rules!

Research objectives are

usually headed by an infinitive verb

Research objectives should

be met

• To identify • To establish • To describe • To determine • To estimate • To develop • To compare • To analyse • To collect

Research Ideas and their Research Aims

Formulating Research Aims as Research Objectives

Writing Your Own Research Objectives Activity 4 •

Working as a team, write the research objectives for your teamwork research project. Make sure that your objectives are: •

Written in the 3rd person

•

Clear and self-explanatory

•

Free of ambiguous times, locations, or issues

•

Do not discusses methodology issues

•

Only one issue per objective

•

Maximum of 6 objectives, ideally 4 or less

•

Written with minimal amount of words

Recipe Approach to Writing Objectives As a generic rule, your objectives should do one or more of the

following:

1. Diagnose the starting point or initial situation, e.g. ‘to

identify the type of content marketing that Tesco customers currently engage with’

2. Assess the possible causes or issues of the problem, e.g. ‘to

identify the factors that cause Tesco customers’ poor engagement with content marketing’

Recipe Approach to Writing Objectives As a generic rule, your objectives should do one or more of the

following:

3. Examine links or relationships between causes and

problems e.g. ‘to determine if Tesco customers engagement with content marketing is related to the platform hosting the content’

4. Identify potential solutions or actions relating to the

problem e.g. ‘to identify the type of content marketing that maximises Tesco customers engagement with their seasonal promotions’

Recipe Approach to Writing Objectives — As a generic rule, your objectives should do one or more of the

following:

5. Develop specific actions that the organisation can

implement to solve the assessed problem / issue e.g. ‘to develop a content marketing development implementation plan for Tesco that maximises customer engagement with seasonal promotions and increases seasonal product sales

Recipe Approach to Writing Objectives

HEALTH WARNING — This is a very mechanistic approach for developing research

objectives, and must be adapted to your own research aim

— On occasions, some or all of the type of objectives discussed

here might be unsuitable for certain types of research, e.g. exploratory, diagnostic or deductive research

Recipe Approach to Writing Objectives

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Learning Outcomes Aims: At the end of this session, you should be able to: 혰 Identify a research problem 혰 Formulate a viable research topic or question 혰 Decide an appropriate research strategy 혰 Formulate specific research objectives

Over to You Further Reading, Support and Ideas: Denscombe, M. (2012) Research Proposals: A Practical Guide.

Maidenhead: Open University Press. (Available as an E-Book) (Chapter 6, pages 76 onward) Saunders, M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition. London: Pitman. (Available as an E-Book) (pages 34 to 38) Bell, J. and Waters, S. (2014) Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-time Researchers. Maidenhead, Open University Press (Available as an E-Book)