research process. When discussion the budget and timeline, avoid using uncertain terms like \"up to," \"no more than," "less than" or similar descriptions. References References cited should come from reliable business sources. Website like Wikipedia or other non-business sources are considered unreliable and invalid source. and thus will affect the credibility of your proposal. If you cite any sources in your short paper, you need to put them in the references. Failure to cite the sources appropriately may result in plagiarism and is subject to consequences listed in the Academic Honesty Policy. Grading Your paper will be graded based on the formatting with a small weight. However, keep in mind that the senior VP of the company is NOT impressed by APA style as the major outcome of your work. The grade for the paper will be based on content, organization, and format. Although the entire paper will be graded, the majorfocus of grading will be on content. Required layout You need to follow the layout listed below, not the one in your textbook! Cover Page Include a title of the research proposal, course number, course name, and the author's name Backgroundlcurrent situation What led you to address this problem? What are the symptoms that led you to believe this problem needs to be addressed by business research? Be specific and support your discussion with numbersistatistics. You should not discuss the history of the company or state how great the business waslis. In general, if you are investigating a current issue, anything happened years ago is irrelevant. Make sure you include problem statementWhat is the problem of your proposed study? By very specic in stating the problem. When you address a \"problem" in research, it does not necessarily mean that you are addressing something that is \"wrong." For example, your \"problem" might be that you do not know the attitudes of your consumers about a specific product. Special notes for business opportunity: you background discussion should include both the benefit and costldifculties of the opportunity. If you only discuss the benet, then 1. your discussion is biased; 2. You imply that the opportunity should be adopted without question. Literature Review Include a synthesis of scholarly and peerreviewed literature on yourtopic. it should provide evidence as to what types of studies have been conducted in relation to your research problem and further conrm the need for you to conduct your proposed study meaning, this is not a problem that has already been solved, but one needing more research andfor ideas for research. A review of the literature should incorporate several studies summarized in your own words. For exampleA study conducted by Woodstock and Brown {2006) determined that dog owners are extremely appreciative of the loyalty displayed by canines. Other studies, (Scooby. 2005; Yogi, 2006) concluded similar findings. All studies that are cited within the text of your literature review should be on your reference list at the end of the document. A minimum of two references are required with at least one being a peer reviewed journal article. Purpose of the Research What is the purpose of your research? Be very specic in stating the purpose. For example, your \"purpose" might be that you want to investigate the attitudes of consumers about a specific product and their decisions to purchase that product. Research design and sample design You should discuss how the study will be conducted, including the source of data, how they are going to be collected, and the type of research, exploratory, descriptive, or causal research. If data are collected through surveys, you need to discuss what the target population is and how the sample will be determined. Also, you should provide general research questions to indicate what results the management can expect after you conduct the proposed research. Do not provide survey questions. They do not count. Budget and time schedule Any complete research proposal should include a schedule of how long it will take to conduct each stage of the research and a statement of itemized costs. Although you may not have a very good idea about the budget and time schedule, you are supposed to provide such information to your best knowledge. Note that the budget and time schedule is not for carrying out whatever solution or business plan you are suggesting. The example in the textbook does not provide any specific budget or timeline. However. you are required to provide itemized costs and detailed timeline for each step of the Student Guide for Research Proposal You are working as a senior researcher for a company (of your own choice, private or public, domestic or international) to conduct business research in order to solve an issuelsituation. The issuelsituation the company is facing could be a problem, such as declined revenue, or a potential opportunity, such as the introduction of a new product or the exploration of new market. The issue that the company is facing requires rigorous business research. It is not a problem that can be resolved through simple thinking or discussion. The research proposal is the research plan that you, as the senior researcher, submit to the management for approval before conducting the research. It is a contract between you and management in terms of the steps ofthe business research, budget and timeline. In a research proposal--a plan to do research--you do everything except for collect and analyze the data. Keep in mind that you are hired by the company to conduct the proposed research in order to help the management make informed decisions Steps 1. Select a company and a research problem that you want to study. The research problem could either be an opportunity that the company intends to explore or an issue the company is facing. 2. Write an abbreviated research proposal indicating the background of the problem, literature review, the purpose of the study, the research and sample design, and the budget and times schedule. You can use page 124 in the textbook (page 124) as an example. Note that not all required sections are included in the textbook example. You need to follow the layout include in this guideline. 3. The file should be named as lastnamel_lastname2_lastname3. You can replace _ with other symbols as you like. Failure to do so will result in penalty in grading. Formatting The proposal should be double-spaced using Times New Roman 12 font and should not exceed 1000 words, including references and appendix, if any. You are required to follow APA style when writing the proposal