Business Research Projects 4e

A. D. Jankowicz, Luton Business School
ISBN-13: 9781844800827
ISBN: 1844800822

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Now in its fourth edition, this respected and comprehensive text and companion website provides a clear guide to planning and undertaking business research projects and dissertations. Dealing with every stage of project work - from inception, reviewing the literature, gathering and analysing the data, to writing up and presenting the report - this book is an ideal text for all students engaged in business research projects and dissertations, and their lecturers.

Chapter Abstracts

• Ch. 1 Purpose and objectives of a project  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter One covers the different kinds of management projects; how to set objectives that match the requirements of the type of project one is doing and how to think through personal intentions and objectives in doing a project
• Ch. 2 Choosing a topic  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Two covers how to decide on a topic for a project by finding and refining an initial idea; how to initiate a reflective process to become more explicit about the provenance of an idea; how to turn the initial idea into a usable research question and how to outline the requirements for a written project proposal
• Ch. 3 Standards of assessment  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Three covers the standard expected of a completed dissertation and lists the attributes of a successful project; the kind of evidence required in the three broad kinds of project work (in-company based, generic, and library-based); the ethical considerations which apply when to project work and how to outline the kind of criteria applied when an examiner grades a student
• Ch. 4 Getting organized for take-off  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Four covers the development of a project timetable and how to assemble the relevant physical resources
• Ch. 5 Basic assumptions about research  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Five covers a rationale for what you're doing, together with a set of basic assumptions, how to progress your research plan, and how to define the process of critical analysis and to provide you with a structure by means of which an appropriately critical approach can be achieved
• Ch. 6 Research roles  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Six covers how to find an in-company placement in support of your project, how to establish yourself and your project within an organization and particular help is given to students who have no pre-existing relationship with the organization in which they seek to do project work, the continuation of the discussion of the ethical issues involved when you study people within an organization, the different kinds of role available to you and the mutual expectations involved in relationships with your tutor, your sponsor and your mentor
• Ch. 7 Reviewing and using the literature  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Seven covers how to begin reading for, and writing, your project, by outlining the function of a literature review, and describing the techniques used in documenting your sources, how to describe a variety of sources available to you, through electronic media in particular or outline a variety of strategies for searching the literature, with particular emphasis on electronic search, how to make a start on reading, and on writing the literature review, in a draft form, in a suitably critical way and the importance of social support as you familiarize yourself with your research field
• Ch. 8 Planning empirical work  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Eight covers the different kinds of research design available to you and how to choose a design appropriate to your particular research question, several alternative approaches to sampling, in order to encourage you to think through the scope and scale of your data-gathering activities and how to finalize your plan of empirical work
• Ch. 9 Methods and techniques  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Nine covers the main research methods available in management and business project work, assisting you in choosing one which is appropriate to your topic and research design, an overview of the techniques available to you, using a standard framework, how to finalize your approach to representation and generalization in the light of the research method you have chosen, how to complete your plan for empirical work, summarizing it by amending your project proposal and the rationale for a short pilot study, helping you to execute it
• Ch. 10 Semi-structured, open-ended techniques  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Ten covers the procedural details of four semi-structured, relatively open-ended data-gathering techniques: conversational technique; the individual interview; the key informant interview; and the focus group, following the standard framework presented earlier, the procedure for content analysis of material obtained by interview techniques and how to progress your project; and particularly, the empirical stages of your own project work, by considering and working through the practical implications in the event that you decide to use any of the techniques presented in this chapter
• Ch. 11 Fully structured techniques  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Eleven covers the procedural details of two fully structured, datagathering techniques: the questionnaire and the structured interview, following the standard framework presented earlier, a variety of delivery variants: postal and internetbased questionnaires, computer-assisted personal interviews and telephone interviews, the topic of research ethics, as it applies to matters of anonymity and confidentiality and how to progress your project; and particularly, the empirical stages of your own project work, by considering and working through the practical implications in the event that you decide to use any of the techniques presented in this chapter
• Ch. 12 Further techniques  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Twelve covers the procedural details of two additional datagathering techniques: the repertory grid, and the structured rating scale, two approaches to the observation of people as employees, focusing on structured observation and presenting the found experiment as a form of highly structured observation and how to progress your project; and particularly, the empirical stages of your own project work, by considering and working through the practical implications in the event that you decide to use any of the techniques presented in this chapter
• Ch. 13 Writing it up  [Purchase this echapter]
  Chapter Thirteen covers how to plan the preparation and production of your project document within the deadline indicated by your university, guidelines on how your material should be formatted and structured and the needs of your audience in mind, to leave you with some suggestions about the style in which your ideas should be expressed