Lecture 1 Formulating and Clarifying the Research Topic

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lecture/seminar you should be able to: Understand the characteristics of a research question Identify the characteristics of a good research topic Know how to generate ideas and explore sources that will help you choose a suitable topic State your research question(s) and objectives clearly and precisely NB I am not going to go through all of the slides in the presentation. You can see the full set on the VLE.

Introduction: Choosing a research topic Formulating and clarifying the research topic is the starting point of your research project Your research topic needs to be: FEASIBLE; and WORTHWHILE.
And one of the most important aspects of feasibility is that it will sustain your interest and stimulate you to produce good work

Introduction: Choosing a research topic

Without being clear about what you are going to research it is difficult to plan how you are going to research it. Formulating and clarifying the research topic is the starting point of your research project.

Once you are clear about this, you will be able to choose the most appropriate research strategy and data collection and analysis techniques. The formulating and clarifying process is time-consuming and will probably take you up blind alleys. However, without spending time on this stage you are far less likely to achieve a successful project.

Attributes of a Good Research Topic

If you are undertaking your research project as part of a course of study then the most important attribute will be that it meets the examining bodys requirements and, in particular, that it is at the correct level. This means that you must choose your topic with care.

You therefore need to check the assessment criteria for your project and ensure that your choice of topic will enable you to meet these criteria.

Attributes of a Good Research Topic

In addition, your research topic must be something you are capable of undertaking and one that excites your imagination.

Capability can be considered in a variety of ways. At the personal level you need to feel comfortable that you have, or can develop, the skills that will be required to research the topic.
As well as having the necessary skills we believe that you also need to have a genuine interest in the topic.

Attributes of a Good Research Topic

Most research projects are undertaken over at least a four- month period. A topic in which you are only vaguely interested at the start is likely to become a topic in which you have no interest and with which you will fail to produce your best work. Your ability to find the financial and time resources to undertake research on the topic will also affect your capability.

Attributes of a Good Research Topic

Feasibility also means you must be reasonably certain of gaining access to any data you might need to collect.

Many people start with ideas where access to data will prove difficult. Certain, more sensitive topics, such as financial performance or decision making by senior managers, are potentially fascinating. However, they may present considerable access problems.
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Attributes of a Good Research Topic

It is worthwhile? It is important that the issues within your research are capable of being linked to academic theory. This linking with the academic literature is something we will look at in the next lecture when we focus on the literature review.

Attributes of a Good Research Topic

You will need to ensure that your questions and objectives relate clearly to the idea. It is important that your topic will have symmetry of potential outcomes: that is, your results will be of similar value whatever you find out. Without this symmetry you may spend a considerable amount of time researching your topic only to find an answer of little importance. Whatever the outcome, you need to ensure you have the scope to write an interesting project report.

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Attributes of a Good Research Topic

It may be important to consider your future aspirations. If you wish to obtain employment or pursue a career in a particular subject area, it is sensible to use this opportunity to start to develop some expertise in it.

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Attributes of a good research topic

Capability: is it feasible? Is the topic something with which you are really fascinated? Do you have, or can you develop within the project time frame the necessary skills to do it? Is the research topic achievable within the time frame? Appropriateness: Is it worthwhile? Does the topic fit the specifications of the examining institution? Does your topic contain issues that have a clear link to theory? Are you able to state your research question(s) and objectives clearly?

Will the topic still be current when you Will your proposed research be able to finish your project? provide fresh insights into this topic? Is the topic achievable within the available financial resources? Are the findings for this topic likely to be symmetrical i.e. of similar value whatever the outcome?

Are you reasonably certain of being able to gain access to the data you will need?
Source: Saunders et al. 2012 Box 2.2

Does the topic match your career goals?

Generating and Refining Research Ideas

If you have to choose your own research topic, there is a range of techniques that can be used to explore ideas in order to find and select a topic that you would like to research.

They can be thought of as those that are predominantly rational thinking and those that involve more creative thinking.

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Generating and Refining Research Ideas

14 Source: Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2012 Table 2.1

Examining Your Own Strengths and Interests

It is important that you choose a topic in which you are likely to do well and, if possible, already have some academic knowledge. One way of doing this is to look at those assignments for which you have received good grades.

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Examining Staff Research Interests

Follow the links within the Faculty website to the profile pages of academic staff in ESME and other Departments in the Business School (LAIBS) These pages display information about their teaching and research interests. You can use this as a funnel to help you to explore and generate research ideas in which you would be interested for your own project.
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Looking up ESME Research & Expertise Webpage

Go to LAIBS webpage. http://web.anglia.ac.uk/anet/faculties/laibs/index.phtml Click on Our Departments. http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/aibs/our_ departments.html Click on Department of Economics, Strategy, Marketing and Enterprise. http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/aibs/our_ departments/department_of_economics.html Click on Research and Expertise. http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/aibs/our_ departments/department_of_economics/research_and_exp ertise.html

Discussion
Colleagues, friends and university tutors are all good sources of possible project ideas.

Often project tutors will have ideas for possible student projects, which they will be pleased to discuss with you. In addition, ideas can be obtained by talking to practitioners and professional groups. It is important that as well as discussing possible ideas you also make a note of them.
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Looking at Past Project Titles

Look up past project titles for anything that captures your imagination.

Titles that look interesting or which grab your attention should be noted down, as should any thoughts you have about the title in relation to your own research idea.
In this process the fact that the title is poorly worded or the project report received a low mark is immaterial.

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Searching past projects through ARU library website

http://anglia.libguides.com/content.php?pid=347085&sid=2839426 Links to theses and e-theses. This includes ARRO ARUs institutional repository http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/ARRO.htm Login to ARRO Search thesis Some business school examples that are in there The internationalisation process of small and medium-sized management consultancies in the UK Corporate social and financial performance: the case of companies in Israel. British banking-halls as a property investment Social entrepreneurship & networks

Exploring Personal Preferences Using Past Projects

Shifting from the rational thinking to creative thinking: Another way of generating possible project ideas is to explore your personal preferences using past project reports from your university and elsewhere. Select a project. If you DO like it ask yourself: a) What appeals to you about the project and why? If you do NOT like it, ask yourself: a) What do you dislike about the project and why?

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Searching the Literature

Types of literature include: articles in academic and professional journals; reports; books. These resources can act as pointers towards aspects where further research needs to be undertaken. For example, a published empirical study
may have been based in a particular sector or industry, and a particular kind of organisation. You could perhaps undertake a similar study, albeit scaled down, and in a different sector, industry or organisational type.

Next weeks lecture will give you techniques for searching the literature
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Scanning the Media

Keeping up to date with items in the news can be a very rich source of ideas. The stories which occur every day in the broadsheet or compact newspapers, in both online and traditional print versions, may provide ideas
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Exploring Relevance to Business Using the Literature

In reality, business and management journals range from those with a more applied focus through to those that are more esoteric.

Even more esoteric journal articles will still contain a wealth of ideas.
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Relevance Trees
Relevance trees may also prove useful in generating research topics.

In this instance, their use is similar to that of mind mapping, in which you start with a broad concept from which you generate further topics.
Each of these topics forms a separate branch from which you can generate further, more detailed subbranches. As you proceed down the sub-branches more ideas are generated and recorded.

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Brainstorming best in groups

Brainstorming involves a number of stages: 1 Defining the problem. This will focus on the sorts of ideas you are interested in as precisely as possible. Even though n the early stages of formulating a topic this may be as vague as, I am interested in marketing but dont know what to do for my research topic. What would the next 4 stages in brainstorming be?

Brainstorming
2 Asking for suggestions. These will relate to the problem.

3 Recording suggestions. As you record these you will need to observe the following rules: No suggestion should be criticized or evaluated in any way before all ideas have been considered. All suggestions, however wild, should be recorded and considered. As many suggestions as possible should be recorded.

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Brainstorming
4 Reviewing suggestions. You will seek to explore what is meant by each as you review these. 5 Analyzing suggestions. Work through the list of ideas and decide which appeal to you most as research ideas and why.
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Keeping a Notebook of Ideas

One of the more creative techniques that we all use is to keep a notebook of ideas .

All this involves is simply noting down any interesting research ideas as you think of them and, of equal importance, what sparked off your thought.
You can then pursue the idea using more rational thinking techniques later.

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Preliminary Inquiry
It is often necessary to refine your research idea in order to turn it into a research question and then into your research project. This process is called the preliminary inquiry or initial inquiry. This is likely to involve searching for and evaluating relevant literature and other related sources. This may lead to the first iteration of your critical literature review, or help to inform it.
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Integrating Ideas
The integration of ideas from these techniques is essential if your research is to have a clear direction and not contain a mismatch between objectives and your final project report. Integration involves classifying each research idea first into its area, then its field, and finally the precise aspect in which you are interested. These represent an increasingly detailed description of the research idea. Thus your initial area, based on examining your coursework, might be accountancy.
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From idea or topic to research question(s)

A research question is a clear, question around which you center your research

Steps in selecting research questions

Source: Bryman and Bell 2011 Figure 3.2

Writing Research Questions

Descriptive: A question that commences with What, When, Where, Who or How will lead to an answer that will be at least partly descriptive. These seek to describe the characteristics of the variables or phenomena of interest
Explanatory: Questions that seek explanations will either commence with Why or contain this word within the question. These seek to explain the nature of certain relationships or differences among groups

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Examples of research ideas and resulting focused research questions

Research idea Advertising and share prices Research questions How does the running of a TV advertising company designed to boost the image of a company affect its share price? How effective is recruiting for new staff via the internet in comparison with traditional methods? In what ways does the use of specific aromas in supermarkets affect buyer behaviours? What effect has the growth of internet banking had upon the uses customers make of branch facilities and why?

Job recruitment via the internet

The use of aromas as a marketing device The use of internet banking

Source: Lewis et al. 2012 table 2.2

Writing Research Questions

It is often a useful starting point in the writing of research questions to begin with one research question that flows from your research idea. This may lead to several more detailed questions or the definition of research objectives. Writing your research questions will be, in most cases, your individual concern but it is useful to get other people to help. An obvious source of guidance is your project tutor. Consulting your project tutor will avoid the pitfalls of the questions that are too easy or too difficult or have been answered before.

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Writing Research Objectives

Objectives are more generally acceptable to the research community as evidence of the researchers clear sense of purpose and direction. Once you have devised your research question, research objectives are likely to lead to greater specificity than using investigative questions. It may be that either is satisfactory.

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Writing Research Objectives

Your research question allows you to say what the issue or
problem is that you wish to study. Your research objectives allow you to operationalize your question that is, to state the steps you intend to take to answer it. A similar way of thinking about the difference between questions and objectives is related to what and how. Research questions express what your research is about. Research objectives express how you intend to structure the research process to answer your question.

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Research Question: How effective are internet and intranet channels as a means to communicate with employees in company X Research objectives: 1. To identify each internet and each intranet channel of employee communication used in the company

2. To describe the companys objectives for each channel (e.g. conveying news about the business, facilitating communication across the company, announcing results and targets, bringing about behavioural change)
3. To identify and explore specific examples of how each channel has been beneficial or influential 4. To identify and explore specific examples of how each channel has not been beneficial or influential 5. To determine a measure of effectiveness for each channel that shows whether and how the channel had met, exceeded or failed to meet the objectives set for it 6. To compare measures of effectiveness across channels related to different organisational objectives 7. To make recommendations about each channels future use and fitness for purpose Source: Based on Lewis et al 2012 Box 2.9

Writing Research Objectives: Criteria

Interconnectivity Taken together as a set, the research objectives should illustrate the steps in the research process from its start to its conclusion, without leaving any gaps. Answerability The intended outcome of the research objective should be achievable. Where this relates to data, the nature of the data required will be clear or at least implied . Measurability The intended product of the research objective will be evident when it has been achieved.

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Writing Research Objectives: Criteria

Transparency The meaning of the research objective should be clear and unambiguous Specificity The purpose of the research objective should be clear and easily understood, as are the actions required to fulfill it Relevancy The research objectives should be link to the research question and wider research project should be clear.

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Deductive and Inductive Approach Where you wish to adopt a clear theoretical position that you will test though the collection of data, your research project will be theory driven and you will be using a deductive approach . Where you wish to explore a topic and develop a theoretical explanation as the data are collected and analyzed, your research project will be data driven and you will be adopting an inductive approach.
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Summary: Attributes of a good research topic

Capability: is it feasible? Is the topic something with which you are really fascinated? Do you have, or can you develop within the project time frame the necessary skills to do it? Is the research topic achievable within the time frame? Appropriateness: Is it worthwhile? Does the topic fit the specifications of the examining institution? Does your topic contain issues that have a clear link to theory? Are you able to state your research question(s) and objectives clearly?

Will the topic still be current when you Will your proposed research be able to finish your project? provide fresh insights into this topic? Is the topic achievable within the available financial resources? Are the findings for this topic likely to be symmetrical i.e. of similar value whatever the outcome?

Are you reasonably certain of being able to gain access to the data you will need?
Source: Saunders et al. 2012 Box 2.2

Does the topic match your career goals?

Summary: Attributes of a Good Research Topic

Capability: is it feasible? Is the topic something with which you are really fascinated? Do you have, or can you develop within the project time frame, the necessary research skills to undertake the topic? Is the research topic achievable within the available time?
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Summary: Attributes of a Good Research Topic

Capability: is it feasible? Will the topic still be current when you finish your project? Is the topic achievable within the financial resources that are likely to be available? Are you reasonably certain of being able to gain access to data you are likely to require for this topic?

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Summary: Attributes of a Good Research Topic

Appropriateness: is it worthwhile? Does the topic fit the specifications and meet the standards set by the examining institution? Does your topic contain issues that have a clear link to theory? Are you able to state your research question(s) and objectives clearly? Will your proposed research be able to provide fresh insights into this topic?

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Summary: Attributes of a Good Research Topic

Appropriateness: is it worthwhile? Does your topic relate clearly to the idea you have been given (perhaps by an organization)? Are the findings for this topic likely to be symmetrical: that is, of similar value whatever the outcome? Does the topic match your career goals?
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Summary: Key Questions to Guide and Evaluate a Research Proposal

What am I going to do? Why am I doing this? Why is it worth doing? How does it relate to what has been done before in my subject area? Which theory or theories will inform what I am doing and how will I use it or them?
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Summary: Key Questions to Guide and Evaluate a Research Proposal

What is my research question and what are my research objectives? How shall I conduct my research? What is my research design? What type of data do I need? Who and where are my intended participants?

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Summary: Key Questions to Guide and Evaluate a Research Proposal

How will I gain access? How shall I select them? How will I collect my data? How will I analyze my data and use this to develop theoretical explanations?
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Summary: Key Questions to Guide and Evaluate a Research Proposal

What data quality issues might I encounter? How will I seek to overcome these? What ethical issues might I encounter at each stage of my research? How will I overcome these?
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References
Gay, L. R. Mills, G. E. and Airasian. P. W. (2008). Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Applications. Harlow: Prentice Hall. Saunders, M. Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2012). Research Methods for Business Students. 6e. Harlow: Prentice Hall. Chapter 2.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E. 2011. Business Research Methods. 3e. Chapter 3.

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