PROPOSED TITLE (Template from the University Of Pretoria)
The wording of your proposed title must comply with the requirements outlined in section 3 (pp. 3-4) of the document entitled “Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article”.
ABSTRACT
Write an abstract for your research proposal based on the requirements outlined in section 4 (pp. 4-6) of the document “Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article”. The abstract should include elements 1-4 listed on p. 4 of the abovementioned document.
Keywords: List the keywords of your study here. These keywords must comply with the requirements discussed in section 5 (p. 6) of the document “Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article”.
The introduction to your final research proposal must comply with all the requirements outlined in section 6 (pp. 6-16) of the document “Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article”. You should include all six the elements of an introduction here.
Also see:
Schindler, D.R. & Cooper, P.S. 2001. Business Research Methods. Seventh Edition. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill. GV 658.0072 COOPER, p. 95.
or
Schindler,
D.R. & Cooper, P.S. 2003. Business
Research Methods. Eighth Edition.
New York, NY. McGraw-Hill. GV 658.0072 COOPER, p. 101.
Your literature review must comply with all the requirements outlined in section 7 (pp. 16-35) of the document entitled “Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article”.
The literature review section of a proposal should focus on the most recent literature relevant to your topic and should, at least, cover the relevant literature from the last 5 years.
Consider structuring the literature review section into “chapters” along the lines of the chapters that you envisage for your final thesis or dissertation.
Please use sub-headings and sub-subheadings to structure your literature review (see pp. 29-31 of the document “Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article”). You can copy and change the wording of the current headings in the template (see p. of the template for more information on working with headings and other technical requirements that apply to the body text of a proposal).
Figure 1: Figure caption
If you include figures or tables in your literature review, each figure/table must have a descriptive caption. You can copy and change the wording of the figure and table captions in the template (see p. of the template for more information on working with figure/table captions).
[You
may delete this section if it does not apply to your study.
Contact
Theuns Kotzé for additional information on the formulation of
hypotheses.]
The alternative hypotheses that you intend to test must be included inside your literature review (see pp. 33-35 of the document “Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article”). In this section, you have to take the hypotheses that you have stated in the literature review and “dissect” each of them separately based on the questions listed in the table below. Please construct a separate table for each of the hypotheses that you have stated in your literature review.
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Hypothesis 1 |
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Aspect |
Detailed questions |
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Wording |
Formulate the wording of the null hypothesis |
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Formulate the wording of the alternative hypothesis |
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Type of hypothesis |
What type of hypothesis is this according to Diamantopoulos and Schlegelmilch’s (2000:134-135) classification scheme? |
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Check the following:
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Did you state a directional (one-tailed) or non-directional (two-tailed / exploratory) hypothesis? |
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Key constructs |
Source of scales |
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List all the constructs, concepts and/or grouping variables1 that have to be measured in order to test this hypothesis separately here, one after the other. |
How
can these constructs, concepts and grouping variables be
measured? |
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[You will have to adapt the Methodology section based on your chosen research approach and methods. See Mouton (2001:Chapter 10) for an overview of different research designs.]
Use all the appropriate descriptors mentioned by Cooper and Schindler (2001:134-139 or 2003:146-151 and Exhibit 6-1) to briefly describe the broad research design you intend to follow in the proposed study.
Describe and motivate the sampling approach you intend to use in terms of the following:
Clearly define and delineate the target population and context of the proposed study.
Describe and motivate the specific sampling method to be used in detail. If you intend to use a non-probability sampling approach, discuss the implications (consequences) of this choice for your study.
Describe the sampling frame to be used (if applicable)
Discuss the method to be used for determining the target sample size of your study.
Indicate the target sample size that you wish to achieve.
Please do not repeat unnecessary theory in your discussion. Focus your discussion on describing and motivating your specific choices and decisions in detail.
It is not sufficient to just describe what you intend to do in terms of sampling. You also have to motivate your choices and show that these choices are scientifically sound (i.e., appropriate) and justifiable. It is also important to acknowledge the advantages and disadvantages of your choices.
Explain the qualitative and/or quantitative methods that you will use to gather data for your study in detail. These methods may include focus groups, depth interviews, observation, a survey questionnaire, an experimental study, etc. Remember to comprehensively motivate your choice of data collection methods.
Students conducting survey research should refer to the requirements outlined in section 8.2 (pp. 40-41) of the document “Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article”.
[You may replace this section if you will not be using survey research.]
Describe and motivate the survey method (e.g., e-mail survey, Internet survey, door-to-door personal interview, etc.) that you will be using in detail. Your study leader needs to know exactly how you intend to gather data for your proposed study. Also acknowledge the advantages and disadvantages of the chosen survey method(s).
It is not enough to merely state that you will be using a questionnaire to gather data!
Describe the measurement scales that you intend to use in your survey questionnaire or data collection instrument (e.g., observation sheet) to measure the main constructs/concepts of your study. This description should be based on the requirements outlined in section 8.3 (pp. 41-43) of the document “Guidelines on writing a first academic article”. You should include all the elements listed on p. 42 of the “Guidelines” document here. Where possible, provide an indication of the scale’s internal consistency reliability (i.e., its Cronbach alpha value) based on previous published research.
Explain in detail how you will pre-test your survey questionnaire or data collection instrument (see Cooper & Schindler, 2003:388-391).
Describe how you will analyse the data gathered in your study in detail.
Where appropriate, students conducting quantitative research should address the following issues in this section:
Briefly indicate how you would validate, edit, code and clean your data in preparation for statistical and / or qualitative analysis.
Indicate the specific descriptive statistics – measures of location, spread & shape, as well as graphical descriptive methods – that you will use to describe each of the variables in your dataset.
Describe the hypothesis tests and multivariate statistical techniques that you will be using in your study (You should at least identify the appropriate parametric and non-parametric tests that you could use to test your specific hypotheses).
Indicate how you will test for the underlying assumptions of any parametric hypothesis tests.
Mention the software programmes that you will use to code and analyse you data.
See Cooper and Schindler (2003:103).
This section should address the following issues:
Briefly describe the form in which your final research findings will be published (e.g., a management report, research script/thesis, research article, and/or oral presentation).
Mention the “audience” to which you final research findings will be communicated.
Describe the structure of the final document or presentation containing your findings (e.g., a chapter plan for a research dissertation or the proposed main sections of a research script/article).
If appropriate, discuss any restrictions that will apply in the publication of your findings (e.g., not revealing the identity of a corporate sponsor).
Include a detailed chapter plan here if your findings will be reported in the form of a thesis or dissertation.
See Cooper and Schindler (2003:104-107). Include a project timeline in this section in which you provide a detailed timeframe for project completion. The project timeline must contain specific target dates for each of the major phases of your research project, commencing from the day on which the second semester starts. You may use a table, Gantt chart or critical path diagram to present the project timeline.
Include a realistic project budget in this section in which you outline the major expenses you expect to incur during your research project. Your project budget could include the following possible cost items:
The cost of reproducing questionnaires or other documentation required for your study
Fieldworker remuneration and other expenses related to data collection
Transportation and telephone costs
The cost of incentives (if you are going to provide respondents with an incentive to participate in your study)
The cost of coding and capturing responses in an electronic format (if you are going to pay someone to help you code and capture responses in an electronic format)
Any costs associated with the statistical analysis of your data (e.g., the fees of statistical consultants or data analysts)
Equipment and facility costs (e.g., cost of specialised software or focus group facilities)
Costs involved in preparing your final research report (e.g., typing, printing and binding costs)
Referencing refers to the references you use in the body (i.e., text) of your proposal, as well as to the list of references supplied at the end of the document.
All references must comply with the requirements explained in the Department’s booklet entitled: “Referencing in Academic Documents: Official guidelines of the Department of Marketing and Communication Management”. A copy of the booklet is included on the NME 703 course CD. It can also be downloaded from the departmental web site at: http://www.marcom.up.ac.za/policies.htm.
The list of references at the end of your proposal should include all the books, journal articles, e-mail messages, web pages and other information sources that you have physically consulted and that have been cited in the text. Please check that all in-text references are included in the “List of References” at the end of the document and vice versa.
Sources listed in the template:
Diamantopoulos, A. & Schlegelmilch, B.B. 1997/2000. Taking the fear out of data analysis: A step-by-step approach. London: Business Press/Thomson Learning.
Mouton, J. 2001. How to succeed in your Master’s and Doctoral studies: A South African guide and resource book. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
Schindler, D.R. & Cooper, P.S. 2001/2003. Business Research Methods. Seventh/Eight Edition. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill.
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(See Cooper and Schindler
(2003:109) for a list of other possible appendices. |
1A grouping variable refers to any variable that is used to sub-divide a sample into sub-groups. Demographic variables, such as gender, home language, income and year of study, are often used as grouping variables. The groups created in this way are then compared on some other aspect measured in the study.