Based on what we know about a specific field, we can develop a research question or problem as well as the intended contribution. This part is the pivotal point of a great dissertation or a research project. In other words, this determines whether your work might contribute to what we already know or not.
A rather painful process is the literature review. Conducting a literature review has only little to do with inspiration (that is also important for research) but rather with transpiration.
However, the literature review is important for the development of your research idea into a research problem or question. It also helps you in finding arguments for your specific research approach and gives you material to discuss your own results. In this session, you will also find hints on how to conduct a literature review.
In stage two we will elaborate on the development of a research question. You already might have a first idea or a field of interest. This is a great starting point. Anyway, to really understand your idea, to become familiar what is already known in a specific field, and to get an idea of possible research methods, it is important to develop a clear research question or intended contribution.
To get started, click on Module at the top of the page, browse through the contents. We suggest that you start from the beginning and work your way through the different stages, and then go back through the stages when the need arises.
You’ll probably find that you go through the materials once, and go back again – in almost a cyclical way where you revisit different stages and steps within specific stages.
Within business and management, many companies will make regular use of different forms of research. It is commonly used in strategy, marketing, human resource management, sales, research, design and development, customer services and account management, as well as healthcare management, educational institutions, third-sector organisations, and throughout government.
This Research Methods module provides students with the skills to conduct business research in both their academic and future careers. The module has been created primarily for students undertaking the Executive MBA Programme at Lancaster University Management School, but is also used widely across other programmes. We have, therefore, placed a particular emphasis on the the link between research and it’s use in management practice.
This module has been created at Lancaster University Management School by Professor Florian Bauer, (Department of Entrepreneurship And Strategy), Senior Teaching Associate and Digital Education Facilitator Dustin Hosseini and Digital Education Co-ordinator Rachel Dodd from the LUMS Digital Education Unit, and Digital Media Engineer Martin Thornton from Information Systems Services (ISS).
As mentioned previously, the research idea is a starting point. The research processes follows usually the structure of a dissertation or a seminar paper.
The main difference is that a dissertation is way more elaborated. In this session, we will go through this typical structure. You will also find some hints on where to start and where to end.
Research always starts with an initial idea. This initial idea can be an observed problem from management practice or just a research interest.
However, this initial idea is just a starting point for your research process. It is important to further develop this idea into a research problem or a research question.