You are required to submit the proposal for your research investigation leading to the final Project.
(1) Introduction (220 words)
Start your work from a provisional title explaining your research direction and a single paragraph (not
too long) introducing the area/problem you intend to research, including aspects of it that are relevant
to the following discussion.
(2) Key literature and theoretical background of the topic of investigation (800 words)
What is already known on your topic? What theories and concepts are relevant to the topic? Make
sure you give adequate consideration to the classics in your topic area, the landmarks, and the most
recent developments. What policy or business implications have been derived out of this? What gaps
in knowledge remain to be addressed? What is your proposed research question?Present the key literature in critical manner, either chronologically (tracing the development of the
field over time) or comparing similarities and differences between authors and schools of thought.
(3) Methodological Choice Justifications (900 words)
In this part of the proposal you are required to provide a critical reflection on the key methodological
approaches used in a chosen area of investigation and justify your own methodological choices.
In order to successfully complete part 3 you are advised to:
Find a number of good quality refereed academic articles in your field of research where authors
describe and justify their methodological approaches well (not less than 5); Critically review the
methods that have been used by researchers (identify and cite the articles individually) and decide
which are relevant to your research and justify why they are relevant. With regards to the articles you
feel are not relevant, explain why they are not relevant (If you decide none are relevant, say why they
are not relevant and how you intend to proceed under the circumstances – careful, this is a hard
position to defend!). Those articles which you declared ‘not relevant’ do not count towards required
minimum of sources for review. When criticizing clearly name the approaches, methodologies and
methods as those are known in the academic literature. Review how researchers in the field approach
setting research questions; search, present and analyze data. Reflect on whether researchers are
independent (of)/involved (in) their research subjects. Relate what you say to your own proposed
research investigation in detail. Since this is an early stage in your research this might involve some
guesswork on your part as to what your research will consist of. Please don’t worry about this because
speculation will assist in your critical reflection. Nobody is going to hold you to any choices or
arguments you make at this stage. The point is to test your awareness and understanding of the methodological issues relevant to your research. Be critical of your own position – a reflexive
awareness of the difficulties of any approach/position is more important (in this assignment) than
trying to defend any particular position. Throughout the text refer specifically to the sources you have
read and the positions/arguments you form by using the Harvard referencing style.
(4) Draft of the Research Instrument (600 words)
In this part you are required to design a draft of your proposed questionnaire or interview questions /
answer options based on research question of interest. This part should not be longer than 1000
words.
• If you intend to use a questionnaire, make sure you draft the key questions and option
answers in a clear and readable style (at all time, think of your potential respondents);
• If you intend to use an interview, develop the questions and briefly explain what kind of
answers you are hoping to receive from your potential respondents;
• If you propose to use secondary data, you need to be very specific which data sources or
databases you are going to use, what kind of data you intend to find and how you are going to
interrogate it.
(5) Expected Findings (100 words)
What is it that you are wishing to find as a result of your research? Evaluate strong and potentially
weak points within the investigation? Will you have sufficient and good quality date to make relevant
conclusions? Is there a future direction to your investigation?