INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT Custom Essay

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PAPER PROPOSAL

MSc INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT 2013/14

A key role of the Business Research Methods is to provide research training to support the Independent Research Paper. The IRP is your final piece of assessment (8-10,000 words).

A starting point for your Independent Research Paper (IRP) is the IRP Proposal – see below for details of what it should include. The IRP Proposal is due on 3rd February 2014 by 14:00. Submit the hard copy to the Postgraduate Office; an online submission via Turnitin is also required.

Your IPR Proposal has two purposes:

• Start of the Research Process: Your IRP Proposal is a starting point. Successful completion of the IRP – a research document with interrelated stages – requires planning and time management. Business Research Methods is an instructive course in helping you to identify key stages in the research process.
• Supervisor Allocation: Your IRP Proposal is a key task used by the programme director – that is me – to allocate you to an appropriate supervisor (based on the available faculty members). Bear in mind that the IRP Proposal is your introduction to your supervisor.

Your IRP Proposal should include the following points:

1. The title of your IRP – WHAT you plan to research. Make sure that your topic is researchable by you in the limited time available. (You are not setting out to write a PhD thesis which takes 3-4 years of full-time research!) The wider, the less focused, a topic is the more difficult and time consuming it will be for you;
2. Locate the subject areas – see the list below – of your IRP. You may wish to combine two subject areas, though this is not necessary. There may be an industry, country, and/or company focus, which can also be represented in the IRP title;
3. Indicate WHY your proposed IRP is relevant to the MSc International Management. This may also include your motivation. As the IRP stretches over the 2013/14 academic year, select a research a topic of genuine interest to you;
4. An outline of the method or methods you plan to use to research your IRP. This is an indication HOW (such as questionnaires, focus groups, semi-structured interviews, literature synthesis) you plan undertake your research. Explain how you will realistically be able to apply the method and why it is relevant for your IRP. Realistic application includes the issue of securing access if you plan to interview corporate managers;
5. Provide an approximate timetable of the various stages of your research, namely WHEN you will be engaged in the different stages. This should help you to think of the IRP as a project over a period of time. Consider what is necessary and feasible to do before the end of the exam period;
6. A brief overview of some of the key literature relevant to your topic of research. An indication is possible, even at this early stage. Demonstrate that you have searched for some relevant literature (see the management databases below). Whatever your IRP topic you will not be the first person researching it. Relevant literature – in the form of key authors and/or journal articles – is available, if you search in the right places.

The IRP Proposal should not exceed 1,200 words.

IRP Subject Areas

Accounting; Business Economics; Corporate Social Responsibility; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Human Resources Management; Information Systems; Marketing; Organizational Behaviour; Operations Management; Strategy

Management Databases

See College’s Library portal: http://eresources.rhul.ac.uk/kb/Management. RHUL subscribes to Business Source Complete. Note that you can become a member of the University of London Senate House Library – for free http://www.rhul.ac.uk/library/otherlibraries/senatehouselibrary.aspx – to access ABI Inform.

Research Handbooks in Management

The text for MN5270 is Boris Blumberg, Donald Cooper, and Pamela Schindler, Business Research Methods, 3rd European ed. (McGraw-Hill, 2011).

You may also want to consult additional research handbooks used in the UK: Alan Bryman and Emma Bell, Business Research Methods, 3rd ed. (OUP, 2011); John Creswell, Research Design, 3rd ed. (Sage, 2009); and Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis, and Adrian Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 6th ed. (FT/Prentice Hall, 2012). Copies are available in the Bedford Library.