Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business

Referred Coursework – 2023/24 Academic Year

Module Code:         STO6008

Module Title: Researching for Business

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: Thursday 8 August 2024 at 15:00

You are to conduct either a qualitative or quantitative study. For a quantitative study:

• Questionnaires collected (minimum of 120) must be submitted with your report, failure to do so will attract an automatic zero to your referred work.

For a qualitative study:

• A minimum of 6 one-to-one interviews of at least 20 minutes each must be conducted. The transcribed interviews must be submitted with your report, failure to do so will attract an automatic zero to your referred work. The number of words in parenthesis is only a guideline.

The report:

Introduction & Aims and Objectives (approximately 800 words)

The purpose of this section is to set the stage/context for the main discussion. This may be achieved by discussing previous literature and by highlighting the project’s  importance and/or value and/or contribution to its related field of study. You should also describe how you have organised the project. This section should incorporate:

• What are you exploring and why?

• Put the project into context

• Why it is important to study this topic?

• Clearly identify your research question

• State what the aims and objectives of the research are?

Literature review (approximately 1,600 words)

The literature review provides the relevant research context of your study. It identifies and analyses the key literature that has been written on your topic. This might come from textbooks, journal articles and other reports. Please use all your secondary data analysis skill to present a clear section on the previous literature that has been written on the topic. Remember, it is important to look for themes in the literature, not just describe one article after another. Make sure you reference everything clearly and be careful not to plagiarise.

It is expected that the literature review will:

• Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the relevant literature;

• Provide a critical assessment of the significant context specific ‘satisfaction’ theories, concepts and approaches;

• Show the relevance of the literature to the issue in question.

Methodology (approximately 500 words)

This section should detail how you are going to conduct your research, and why you have chosen these particular methods by reference to the relevant ‘methods’ literature. You will have to clearly justify the method you are using and describe how you are using it – the what, when, where, why type questions.

• Introduce the study methodology together with study methods, and refer to the relevant ‘methods’ literature.

• You should discuss ethical issues and justify ethical approaches.

Findings (approximately 800 words)

This is the section where you present your data, the evidence you have collected.

You need to show how you have analysed the data. The trick here is to communicate your findings in a clear and interesting way for the client. This can be achieved by using tables, diagrams, quotes from respondents etc. Raw data should be included  in the appendices. Statistical data needs to be analysed using appropriate statistical techniques.

• Findings are presented appropriately.

• It is important to consider what should be included in this section so as to focus on the important aspects for your study and to demonstrate the quality of your work.

** You may wish to combine ‘findings and discussions’ in your write-up**

Discussion (approximately 2,000 words)

This is one of the most important sections. This section is where you add value to

your findings; you explain what you have found and why it is important: this would be in light of the Literature Review section.

• The discussion must relate the findings/results back to the literature.

• The discussion also develops the findings to reflect on theoretical and practical applications.

Conclusion (approximately 500 words)

• This section can begin with a restatement of the research problem, followed by a summary of the research conducted and the findings.

• It then proceeds to make concluding remarks, offering insightful comments on the research theme, commenting on the contributions that your study makes to the formation of knowledge in the field of your degree programme, and may also suggest research themes/challenges in years ahead.

• This section should include critical reflection of research experiences and processes.

• Further, you might recommend a course (or multiple courses) of action (either in

terms of future research direction or for organisations/individuals who could benefit from what you have found. However, these recommendations must be informed by your research, not made up in isolation.

Tables and figures

• Tables and figures should be numbered and given a brief one-line descriptive title.

Example:

Table 1. Business graduates 2015-2020   Figure 1. A model of employee behaviour

• Data in tables should be presented in columns with non-significant decimal places omitted.

• All table columns should have brief headings

• Tables should be kept as short as possible (i.e., no more than a single side).

• Important details should be footnoted under each table or figure, using alphabetic superscripts to connect the footnote to the relevant term/figure in the table.

References to sources of information should appear at the bottom of the table.

Example: Source: Smith (2016: 203).

• Tables and figures generated by the author need not be sourced.

• All illustrations or graphical representations should be referred to as figures.

References

• It is vitally important that you refer to sources of literature wherever possible. This is achieved throughout the report’s text and/or in a list of references that appear at the end of the report. If there is no evidence, it is only your opinion!

• You should follow the Harvard system of referencing as detailed in the library handouts.

Appendices

• You should think carefully why appendices are needed. References, copy of

questionnaire, interview transcripts are required but do not ‘pad out’ .

• Appendices should be numbered, titled and have page numbers that follow from the main text.