BSc Management (Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship) / Course details

This course unit provides students with a detailed introduction to the research process and the different skills, knowledge and understanding required to conduct a final year business and management dissertation. Through a range of lectures, seminars and surgeries the course seeks to focus on the development of research questions, conceptual thinking and literature reviews and the selection and application of appropriate methods and techniques for data collection and analysis.  A major aspect of this course is the provision of detailed individual feedback to ensure that students have support throughout the course and in relation to the different assignments.

Only available to students on: BSc Mgt/Mgt (Specialism), IM and IMABS.

Dependent Unit - BMAN 31500 Dissertation

This course unit aims to provide students with a detailed knowledge and understanding of the different aspects connected to management, business and the social sciences research. This will involve focusing on specific philosophical debates underlying social science research and how this relates to our understanding of knowledge, objects and truth. Moreover, this course will seek to develop an understanding of how to conduct research in terms of producing research problems and questions, proposal writing and supervision, writing a dissertation, literature reviews, research methods and specific ethical issues. In particular, the second semester will provide a detailed overview of the different research methods and techniques connected to qualitative and quantitative research methods and data analysis to ensure that appropriate methods are selected to conduct future research.

On completion of this course unit successful students should have:

• A critical understanding of the different assumptions underlying research into the social sciences and the nature and status of research methodology.
• An overview of the different debates and issues underlying the research process and how this relates to the specific methods and how to select appropriate methods to conduct a study.
• An awareness of the research process and the different issues to consider when writing a proposal, performing a literature review, conducting empirical research, and completing a dissertation.

Semester One:

1.     Introduction to Research Methodology

2.     Exploring Research Perspectives and Assumptions

3.     Developing Research Questions

4.     Electronic Searches

5.     Critical Thinking and Research Development

6.     Literature Review & Conceptual Development

7.     Methodology and Methods

8.     Research Question Feedback and Analysis

9.     Research Methodology Surgery

10.   Overview and Analysis

 

Semester Two

1.     Assignment Review & Research Methods

2.     Surveys: Asking good questions

3.     Experiments and market testing

4.     Quantitative analysis: Analysing research findings

5.     Qualitative Research

6.     Qualitative Data Analysis

7.     Research Proposal Surgery

8.     Research Planning, Supervision and Time Management

9.     Ethics, Data Protection and Access

10.   Research Methods and Methodology Overview

Lectures, Workshops, Surgeries and Seminars.

Lectures - 38

Seminars & Workshops - 10

Additional Surgeries - 6

100% Coursework Assessment

Seminar Exercise One: Developing Essay Questions (formative)

Assignment One: Research Questions (10%) (formative & summative elements) - 400 words

Assignment Two: Methodological Assumptions & Review (35%) (summative) - 1000 words

Seminar Exercise Two: Developing Research Methods (formative)

Assignment Three: Research Proposal (55%) (summative) - 2200 words

 

 

Lectures, Seminars, Email Questions, Surgeries, individual feedback sessions and written essay feedback.

 

While there is no core text, the following list provides a range of introductory and extended reading in this area.

Bryman, A & Bell, E (2007) Business Research Methods Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Bryman, A., Williams, M., May , T., & Wiggins, R.  (1996) An Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Research. Social Research Today. Routledge.

Chalmers, A. F. (2001) What is this Thing Called Science? University of Queensland Press.

Delanty, G. 2005 Social Science: Philosophical and Methodological Foundations. Second edition of Delanty 1997 Open University Press/Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Delanty, Gerard and Piet Strydom (eds) (2003) Philosophies of Social Science: The Classic and Contemporary Readings, Open University Press

Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (2000) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage.

Gilbert, N (1993) Researching Social Life. Sage

Gill, J. and Johnson [1997] Research Methods for Managers, London, Paul Chapman Publishing

Malhotra, NK., Birks, D.F., & Wills, P. (2012) Marketing Research, An Applied Approach, 4^th Edition, Pearson.

Punch, K (1998) Introduction of Social Research. Sage

Robson, C (2007) How to do a Research Project. p.70-94. Oxford: Blackwell

Seale, C (2004) Researching Society and Culture. Sage

Schwab & Charles, T. (2004) Research Methods for Organizational Studies. Psychology Press

Silverman, D. (2007) A Very Short, Fairly Interesting, Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research. Sage.

Silverman, D. (2009) Doing Qualitative Research. Sage

Smith, Mark J. (1998) Social Science in Question, Sage

Pre-requisites: N/A
Co-requisites: N/A
Dependent course units: Research Methodology is a prerequisite for the final year dissertation (BMAN31500).

Programme Restrictions: Available to BScs in Management/Management (Specialism), International Management, International Management with American Business Studies.

Timetable
https://ughandbook.portals.mbs.ac.uk/Myprogramme/Teachingtimetables.aspx

For Academic Year 2019/20

Updated: May 2019

Approved by: March UG Committee