Student Guide for Short paper 2 Research Proposal

You are working as a senior researcher for a company (of your own choice) to conduct

business research in order to solve an issue/situation. The issue/situation the company

is facing could be a problem, such as declined revenue, or a potential opportunity, such

as the introduction of a new product or the exploration of new market. The issue that the

company is facing requires rigorous business research. It is not a problem that can be

resolved through simple thinking or discussion.

The research proposal is the research plan that you, as the senior researcher, submit to

the management for approval before conducting the research. It is a contract between

you and management in terms of the steps of the business, budget and timeline. In a

Prospectus–a plan to do research–you do everything except for collect and analyze the

data. Keep in mind that you are hired by the company to conduct the proposed research

in order to help the management make informed decisions

Steps

1. You first need to select a company and a research problem that you want to

study. This is the Short paper 2 topic submission.

2. After your topic is approved, you write an abbreviated research proposal

indicating the background of the problem, the purpose of the study, the research

and sample design, and the budget and times schedule. Use page 124 in the

textbook (page 124) as an example.

3. You also need to present your research proposal in a voice-over presentation.

Requirements for the presentation part

Prepare no more than 5 slides (excluding the cover slide) to present your research

proposal. The voice-over presentation should be no more than 5 minutes. Here is a

youtube video to help you with recording the voice-over presentation:

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uk4CU7uobM

Note that if you are preparing the voice-over using a Mac, you need to make sure the

save file can be open by a PC and the voice can be heard.

Here is a list of things you need to pay attention when preparing the presentation

1. Make sure you to record over every ppt slide. That is, do not give your whole

presentation over the first slide. You need to turn the pages as you go over them

one by one.

2. Given an overview of the presentation before formally presenting the detailed

contents.

3. Rehearse before recording the presentation.

4. You should include a cover page/slide with you name and the title of the

presentation.

5. The font should be large enough for audio in a distance to see (size>18 as a

minimum)

6. You may use one or two pictures/graphs to make the slides interesting. However,

too many graphics can be distracting.

Requirements for the written part

Formatting

The proposal should be double-spaced using Times New Roman 12 font and should not

exceed 1000 words, including references and appendix, if any. You are required to

follow APA style when writing the short paper.

Here is a tutorial on APA style:

http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~instruct/articulate/apa_mod/APA_Intro/player.html

Specific Information

Note 1: Even though you will NOT be implementing the research plan you design in the

proposal prior to writing your paper, your plan must be a realistic plan that you

personally have the knowledge and resources to implement upon request.

Note 2: Your paper must be your own original work! Be sure to give proper credit when

you borrow or use someone else’s words and ideas, including your own previously

written works. See the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association pages 15-16 for specific information on Plagiarism and Self-

Plagiarism. Failure to follow this requirement will result in a grade of 0.

Note 3: Write your paper in third person. Scholarly works generally are written in third

person to avoid reader concern about bias in an empirical study. A research prospectus

should be concise. If you find yourself using phrases like “As mentioned previously…”

then you are repeating yourself without providing new information.

Note 4: You should use a neutral tone while stating the issues. No emotionally charged

wordings should be used such as “unfortunately,” “drastically,” etc.

Note 5: There is no need to provide detailed company information or the history of the

company.

Note 6: You are proposing to conduct business research to help a company to solve an

issue. So there will be no conclusion or any conclusive suggestions, such as “The

company should….”

Note 7: No pictures, graphs, cartoons, or figures should be included.

Grading

Your paper will be graded based on the formatting with a small weight. However, keep

in mind that the senior VP of the company is NOT impressed by APA style as the major

outcome of your work. The grade for the paper will be based on content, organization,

and format. Although the entire paper will be graded, the major focus of grading will be

on content.

Required layout

You need to follow the layout listed below, not the one in your textbook!

Cover Page: Include a title of the research proposal, course number, course name, and

the author’s name

Background/current situation: What led you to address this problem? What are the

symptoms that led you to believe this problem needs to be addressed by business

research? You should not discuss the history of the company or state how great

the business was/is. In general, if you are investigating a current issue, anything

happened a few years ago is irrelevant.

Purpose of the Research: What is the purpose of your research? Be very specific in

stating the purpose. For example, your “purpose” might be that you want to investigate

the attitudes of consumers about a specific product and their decisions to purchase that

product.

Research design and sample design: You should discuss how the study will be

conducted, including the source of data, how they are going to be collected, and the

type of research, exploratory, descriptive, or casual research. If data are collected

through surveys, you need to discuss what the target population is and how the sample

will be determined. Also, instead of providing sample survey questions, you

should provide general research questions to indicate what results the

management can expect after you conduct the proposed research.

Budget and time schedule: any complete research proposal should include a

schedule of how long it will take to conduct each stage of the research and a statement

of itemized costs. Although you may not have a very good idea about the budget and

time schedule, you are supposed to provide such information to your best knowledge.

Note that the budget and time schedule is not for carrying out whatever solution or

business plan you are suggesting. The example in the textbook does not provide any

specific budget or timeline. However, you are required to provide itemized costs and

detailed timeline for each step of the research process.

References: If you cite any sources in your short paper, you need to put them in the

references. Failure to cite the sources appropriately may result in plagiarism and is

subject to consequences listed in the Academic Honesty Policy.