How the research proposal should be ?
WRITING A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Your proposal should have the following structure which is adopted from Ulster University:
Title
Introduction
Description of the significance of the research.
Research questions
Literature review
Derivation and statement of the hypotheses to be tested, in null and alternate form.
Description of the research methods to be adopted
Specification of the data to be analysed and likely sources
Limitations of the study
Bibliography
Title
The title of your proposal, which is the title of your research project, needs to be narrow and to the point, so to give your reader a clear idea of the content of your dissertation;
Example 1
The relationship between earnings and stock returns: empirical evidence from the Greek capital Market;
This is a good title because it states that the author will be looking into the relationship between the two variables and that the analysis will concern the particular case of Greece;
Example 2
Banks and young people in Italy: Financial product, credit and other features
Again, the reader can easily guess that the research will be about the availability of financial products, credit and more for young people, who are the category of people mainly affected by the financial crisis, and that the analysis will be limited to the Italian country.
Introduction
This section intends to give a brief background to the topic, covering the main aspects related to the research project.
Concerning example 1 these are some aspects the authors covered:
The importance of studying the relationship between stock returns and accounting earnings
The particular situation of Greece in terms of this relationship
Aims of the research
Concerning example 2 these are the aspects covered by the authors:
Why is the research focused on young people only
How the financial crisis affected young people in Italy
The effects of the financial crisis on banking policy
Aims of the research
Description of the significance of the research
This section is very important and refers to the academic importance of the topic; the fact that you decided to focus on a particular topic needs to be justified by its relevance in the current economic situation, or by a gap in the literature for example.
Going back to our examples:
Example 1: according to the authors the need for further research on the topic is justified by the controversial nature of results obtained by previous research in this topic;
Example 2: according to the authors the situation resulting from the financial crisis is of a difficult nature especially for young people, ; therefore it will be of significance to investigate how banks have reacted to the financial crisis and how that affects the future of young people.
Research question(s)
After discussing the research area and the significance of the topic, you need to narrow it down to a specific research question(s), which will lead all the steps of your research project;
Examples of good research questions are as follows:
What is the relationship between published accounting earnings and stock returns in the context of the Hellenic capital market?
What is the effect of Wal-Mart on the economic growth of communities?
What are the effects of the financial crisis on the bank policies in Italy?
What is the relationship between dividends and firm’s value?
After you specify your research question you need to list your objectives, which are a specification of your research question.
Literature review
“A literature review should develop a clear argument about what the published literature indicates is known and not known about your research question” (Saunders et al., 2009, p.73).
The literature review is the foundation on which your research (and any research) is built and helps to develop a good understanding and insight into your topic of choice and a starting point to specify your research questions.
Gall et al. (2006) highlighted the following purposes of a good literature review:
Help to refine your research questions and objectives further;
Find gaps in the literature that can be researched;
Discover explicit recommendations for further research;
Become acknowledged about the topic in order to avoid repeating research already done;
Compare opinions and different positions in order to have a critical view of your research topic;
Learn research approaches and find those more appropriate to your own research.
Sources for literature review
Not all literature should be included in the review – only “scientific literature”.
This is literature which has been through a peer review process. This includes professional journals, formal research reports, university-affiliated bulletins, reports and monographs.
Also includes similar publications by research foundations and international organizations.
This does not insure that these are infallible, or even correct – but they have been through independent checks of accuracy and correctness.
Popular” publications should not be included eg. Newspapers, news magazines, or industry or popular publications.
Even well respected publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, or The Economist are not appropriate sources for a literature review.
(However, these sources may be useful to the researcher as background information during problem formulation)
The literature sources can be divided in three main categories:
Derivation and statement of the hypotheses to be tested, in null and alternate form.
A hypothesis describes the most important variables in your research and the relationships you expect to find between them.
The hypothesis is written as a statement that describes what you expect to find from your research. This is developed from your literature review and your own experience in the field. Your hypothesis is developed before you conduct your research and analysis – it is never formulated in order to explain your results. You cannot change your hypothesis after you have collected your results.
Example:
Since retail corporations (non-basic sector) do not have as a significant contribution in bringing new money into the community as the manufacturing (basic) sector:
H0 (Null Hypothesys): the impact of Wal-Mart on the economic growth of Nebraska counties is small or non-existent;
H1 (alternate Hypothesis): the impact of Wal-Mart on the economic growth of Nebraska counties is large.
Description of the research methods to be adopted
This section describes the methods you will use to collect and analyse your data. Although this is only a research proposal you should be aware of the ways in which you would like to analyse your data from early stages of your research;
The section will include:
Research strategies and approach
Methods of data collection (or type of secondary data)
Specification of the data to be analysed and likely sources
Methods of data analysis
the list of variables you will be including in your analysis and their characteristics (when using quantitative analysis)
background details of setting, population, etc. (when using qualitative research)
if using secondary data you need to introduce your dataset and give the following information:
Are you using a specific dataset?
How was the research done?
What kind of data were collected?
Are you using the entire dataset, a subset?
Example for quantitative research:
Going back to the study about the impact of Wal-Mart on the socio-economic situation of Nebraska counties:
The dataset used comes from Wal Mart entry into counties in Nebraska during the period 1980 to 1995;
List of variables:
Wal-Mart is a vector with two specific variables
Wal-e: counties with Wal-Mart store; this is a dummy variable, where 1 is assigned to a county with a store, while 0 is assigned to a county with no store;
Wal-Year: number of years a Wal-Mart store has been in a county; this is a continuous variable designed to test whether the number of years a Wal-Mart has been operating in a community affects its economic growth;
The conditioning set is a vector represented by the following variables:
Personal per capita income in 1980…
Education in 1980 (higher stock of human capital can give rise to a higher economic growth…
Total local government expenditure
Highway expenditure…
Data analysis method:
To estimate the model presented earlier a probit regression model will be performed because….
Limitations of the study
Every research, on a small or big scale has some kind of limitations. Limitations could be related to:
The use of secondary data
The sample size of the study (especially if collecting own data)
The high percentage of missing data
The lack of specific variables and the need to use proxies
…
Bibliography
It is important to list all your sources, using a good referencing system (Harvard) and listing them in alphabetical order.
Your proposal should have the following structure which is adopted from Ulster University:
Title
Introduction
Description of the significance of the research.
Research questions
Literature review
Derivation and statement of the hypotheses to be tested, in null and alternate form.
Description of the research methods to be adopted
Specification of the data to be analysed and likely sources
Limitations of the study
Bibliography
Title
The title of your proposal, which is the title of your research project, needs to be narrow and to the point, so to give your reader a clear idea of the content of your dissertation;
Example 1
The relationship between earnings and stock returns: empirical evidence from the Greek capital Market;
This is a good title because it states that the author will be looking into the relationship between the two variables and that the analysis will concern the particular case of Greece;
Example 2
Banks and young people in Italy: Financial product, credit and other features
Again, the reader can easily guess that the research will be about the availability of financial products, credit and more for young people, who are the category of people mainly affected by the financial crisis, and that the analysis will be limited to the Italian country.
Introduction
This section intends to give a brief background to the topic, covering the main aspects related to the research project.
Concerning example 1 these are some aspects the authors covered:
The importance of studying the relationship between stock returns and accounting earnings
The particular situation of Greece in terms of this relationship
Aims of the research
Concerning example 2 these are the aspects covered by the authors:
Why is the research focused on young people only
How the financial crisis affected young people in Italy
The effects of the financial crisis on banking policy
Aims of the research
Description of the significance of the research
This section is very important and refers to the academic importance of the topic; the fact that you decided to focus on a particular topic needs to be justified by its relevance in the current economic situation, or by a gap in the literature for example.
Going back to our examples:
Example 1: according to the authors the need for further research on the topic is justified by the controversial nature of results obtained by previous research in this topic;
Example 2: according to the authors the situation resulting from the financial crisis is of a difficult nature especially for young people, ; therefore it will be of significance to investigate how banks have reacted to the financial crisis and how that affects the future of young people.
Research question(s)
After discussing the research area and the significance of the topic, you need to narrow it down to a specific research question(s), which will lead all the steps of your research project;
Examples of good research questions are as follows:
What is the relationship between published accounting earnings and stock returns in the context of the Hellenic capital market?
What is the effect of Wal-Mart on the economic growth of communities?
What are the effects of the financial crisis on the bank policies in Italy?
What is the relationship between dividends and firm’s value?
After you specify your research question you need to list your objectives, which are a specification of your research question.
Literature review
“A literature review should develop a clear argument about what the published literature indicates is known and not known about your research question” (Saunders et al., 2009, p.73).
The literature review is the foundation on which your research (and any research) is built and helps to develop a good understanding and insight into your topic of choice and a starting point to specify your research questions.
Gall et al. (2006) highlighted the following purposes of a good literature review:
Help to refine your research questions and objectives further;
Find gaps in the literature that can be researched;
Discover explicit recommendations for further research;
Become acknowledged about the topic in order to avoid repeating research already done;
Compare opinions and different positions in order to have a critical view of your research topic;
Learn research approaches and find those more appropriate to your own research.
Sources for literature review
Not all literature should be included in the review – only “scientific literature”.
This is literature which has been through a peer review process. This includes professional journals, formal research reports, university-affiliated bulletins, reports and monographs.
Also includes similar publications by research foundations and international organizations.
This does not insure that these are infallible, or even correct – but they have been through independent checks of accuracy and correctness.
Popular” publications should not be included eg. Newspapers, news magazines, or industry or popular publications.
Even well respected publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, or The Economist are not appropriate sources for a literature review.
(However, these sources may be useful to the researcher as background information during problem formulation)
The literature sources can be divided in three main categories:
Derivation and statement of the hypotheses to be tested, in null and alternate form.
A hypothesis describes the most important variables in your research and the relationships you expect to find between them.
The hypothesis is written as a statement that describes what you expect to find from your research. This is developed from your literature review and your own experience in the field. Your hypothesis is developed before you conduct your research and analysis – it is never formulated in order to explain your results. You cannot change your hypothesis after you have collected your results.
Example:
Since retail corporations (non-basic sector) do not have as a significant contribution in bringing new money into the community as the manufacturing (basic) sector:
H0 (Null Hypothesys): the impact of Wal-Mart on the economic growth of Nebraska counties is small or non-existent;
H1 (alternate Hypothesis): the impact of Wal-Mart on the economic growth of Nebraska counties is large.
Description of the research methods to be adopted
This section describes the methods you will use to collect and analyse your data. Although this is only a research proposal you should be aware of the ways in which you would like to analyse your data from early stages of your research;
The section will include:
Research strategies and approach
Methods of data collection (or type of secondary data)
Specification of the data to be analysed and likely sources
Methods of data analysis
the list of variables you will be including in your analysis and their characteristics (when using quantitative analysis)
background details of setting, population, etc. (when using qualitative research)
if using secondary data you need to introduce your dataset and give the following information:
Are you using a specific dataset?
How was the research done?
What kind of data were collected?
Are you using the entire dataset, a subset?
Example for quantitative research:
Going back to the study about the impact of Wal-Mart on the socio-economic situation of Nebraska counties:
The dataset used comes from Wal Mart entry into counties in Nebraska during the period 1980 to 1995;
List of variables:
Wal-Mart is a vector with two specific variables
Wal-e: counties with Wal-Mart store; this is a dummy variable, where 1 is assigned to a county with a store, while 0 is assigned to a county with no store;
Wal-Year: number of years a Wal-Mart store has been in a county; this is a continuous variable designed to test whether the number of years a Wal-Mart has been operating in a community affects its economic growth;
The conditioning set is a vector represented by the following variables:
Personal per capita income in 1980…
Education in 1980 (higher stock of human capital can give rise to a higher economic growth…
Total local government expenditure
Highway expenditure…
Data analysis method:
To estimate the model presented earlier a probit regression model will be performed because….
Limitations of the study
Every research, on a small or big scale has some kind of limitations. Limitations could be related to:
The use of secondary data
The sample size of the study (especially if collecting own data)
The high percentage of missing data
The lack of specific variables and the need to use proxies
…
Bibliography
It is important to list all your sources, using a good referencing system (Harvard) and listing them in alphabetical order.
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