BUS 3001 Research Proposal (10%)

Group Research Proposal Assignment

This assignment is to be completed in groups (up to 5 students/group). EVERYONE in the group will

receive the same mark.

Due date & time: February 12th, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. Only ONE student in a group should submit the

assignment in Blackboard. Additionally, there will be a brief 5-6 minutes in class presentation by each

group.

The paper must be properly formatted (APA format)

Use 1.5 line spacing

Your proposal should be no less than 8 pages and no more than 10 pages (excluding the title page and

references)

Introduction:

In the real world, a research proposal is most often written by researchers as the first step of getting

approval to conduct a research in a specific field (or scholars seeking grant funding for a research

project). Even if this is just a course assignment, the need of write a research proposal can be addressed

to the following reasons:

Develop student skills in thinking about and designing a comprehensive research study

Learn how to conduct a comprehensive review of the literature to ensure a research problem has not

already been answered [or you may determine the problem has been answered ineffectively] and, in so

doing, become better at locating scholarship related to the topic

Improve student general research and writing skills

Practice identifying the logical steps that must be taken to accomplish one's research goals

Critically review, examine, and consider the use of different methods for gathering and analyzing data

related to the research problem

Guidelines:

You are to research, select, and analyze a problem, an issue, a profession or a business process that

required to be solved/ improved with the aid of business research. Regardless of the research problem

you are investigating and the methodology you choose, all research proposals must address the

following questions:

1. What do you plan to accomplish? Be clear and succinct in defining the research problem and what it is

you are proposing to research.

2. Why do you want to do it? In addition to detailing your research design, you also must conduct a

thorough review of the literature and provide convincing evidence that it is a topic worthy of study. Be

sure to answer the "So What?" question.

3. How are you going to do it? Be sure that what you propose is doable.

Requirements:

In general, your proposal should be including (but not limited to) the following sections:

I. Title Page: Titles are brief but comprehensive enough to indicate the nature of the proposed work.

II. Abstract The reader may use the abstract to make preliminary decisions about the proposal.

Therefore, an effective summary states the problem addressed by the applicant, identifies the solution,

and specifies the objectives and methods of the project.

III. Introduction After reading the introduction, your readers should not only have an understanding of

what you want to do, but they should also be able to gain a sense of your passion for the topic and be

excited about the study's possible outcomes. Think about your introduction as a narrative written in one

to three paragraphs that succinctly answers the following four questions: 1. What is the central research

problem? 2. What is the topic of study related to that problem? 3. What methods should be used to

analyze the research problem?

IV. Why is this research important, what is its significance, and why should someone reading the

proposal care about the outcomes of the proposed study?

V. Literature Review Explains what previous studies state about the topic, discuss recent developments

on the topic, and identify the gap in literature that has led to your study. You should also explain the

problem that the study addresses and give a brief account of the history of the problem mentioning

whether it has been addressed in any form before. This will lead up to identify the statement of problem

and the research objective(s) of the study.

VI. Statement of the Problem The problem statement describes the context for the study and it also

identifies the general analysis approach. A problem might be defined as the issue that exists in the

literature, theory, or practice that leads to a need for the study. It is important in a proposal that the

problem stand outthat the reader can easily recognize it. Sometimes, obscure, and poorly formulated

problems are masked in an extended discussion. In such cases, readers will have difficulty recognizing

the problem.

A good problem statement should be: A. Presented within a context, and that context should be

provided and briefly explained, including a discussion of the conceptual or theoretical framework in

which it is embedded. B. Intelligible to someone who is generally sophisticated but who is relatively

uninformed in the area of your investigation. C. Effectively answering the question Why does this

research need to be conducted. If a researcher is unable to answer this question clearly and succinctly,

and without resorting to hyperspeaking (i.e., focusing on problems of macro or global proportions that

certainly will not be informed or alleviated by the study), then the statement of the problem will come

off as ambiguous and diffuse.

VII. Research Objectives Objectives must always be set after having formulated a good research

question. After all, they are to explain the way in which such question is going to be answered.

Objectives are usually headed by infinitive verbs such as:

To identify

To establish

To describe

To determine

To estimate

To develop

To compare

To analyze

To collect

Research objectives should not be written in point form. The above examples are to show you how to

start your sentences!

VIII. Research Design and Methods Trying to specify What are the methods that need to be

implemented in order to achieve the objectives OR attack the problems This section must be wellwritten

and logically organized because you are not actually doing the research, yet, your reader has to

have confidence that it is worth pursuing. The reader will never have a study outcome from which to

evaluate whether your methodological choices were the correct ones. Thus, the objective here is to

convince the reader that your overall research design and methods of analysis will correctly address the

problem and that the methods will provide the means to effectively interpret the potential results. Your

design and methods should be unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your study. Describe the overall

research design by building upon and drawing examples from your review of the literature. Consider not

only methods that other researchers have used but methods of data gathering that have not been used

but perhaps could be. Be specific about the methodological approaches you plan to undertake to obtain

information and the techniques you would use to analyze the data.

When describing the methods, its good to cover the following:

Specify the research operations you will undertake and the way you will interpret the results of these

operations in relation to the research problem.

Keep in mind that a methodology is not just a list of tasks; it is an argument as to why these tasks add

up to the best way to investigate the research problem.

Anticipate and acknowledge any potential barriers and pitfalls in carrying out your research design and

explain how you plan to address them. No method is perfect so you need to describe where you believe

challenges may exist in obtaining data or accessing information. It's always better to acknowledge this

than to have it brought up by your reader.

IX. Conclusion The conclusion reiterates the importance or significance of your proposal and provides a

brief summary of the entire study. This section should be only one or two paragraphs long,

emphasizing why the research problem is worth investigating, why your research study is unique, and

how it should advance existing knowledge.

X. References Includes list of articles appeared in the previous sections.

If you required further information on how to write a research proposal, refer to the following article:

Sherina, M.S., 2012. How to write a research proposal?. Malaysian Family Physician, (13), p.3