PAPER 1: RESEARCH PROPOSAL WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO?

• Write a two-page research proposal

• Your research proposal will outline a research plan for a given research objective.

• Your proposal should include the use of a survey.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE Choose any ONE of the following research objectives for your proposal. I have chosen scenarios that all of you are familiar with. The second paper (details to follow in a separate document) will require you to create a research instrument for this proposal. The third paper will require you to create a data analysis plan.

SCENARIO 1:

MBA PROGRAM CONTENT

The College of Business is taking inventory of its offerings and wants to know if it needs to add any additional areas of concentration. Currently, the areas of concentration offered in the Emphasis on Master of Business analyst MBA program. https://twu.edu/business/mba/mba-business-analytics/

Specifically, COB wants to measure and understand the following: • Are students satisfied with the current offerings? Is it meeting their needs? • Do students want any additional areas of concentration? • If yes, what areas?

B A C K G R O U N D / I N TR O D U C T I O N : A short paragraph introducing the topic you have selected; how it might help the College of Business.
• R E S E A R C H O B JE C TI V E S : Specify clearly what you want to achieve with this research study. An ideal research proposal should have no more than one objective. You are welcome to focus on a subsection of the bullets under your chosen scenario.
• R E S E A R C H Q U E S T I O N : As discussed in the slides, your research question needs to be derived from the research objective. Stick to ONE research question. Don’t make it complicated.  
• I D E N TI F Y Y O U R V A R I A B L E S : Name and define your variables
• R E S E A R C H D E S I GN :  
o Type of research design you propose using (exploratory/descriptive 1)
§ If you are using exploratory research, specify the type of exploratory design (focus
group/depth interview/secondary data/case study) and why.
§ For survey research, everyone should use an online web survey. You will be using
psychdata.com to build your online survey (not survey monkey or any other program).
You will use my account (details of which will be shared in Paper 2.) An online survey is
appropriate for your population because all MBA students are computer literate and
have an e-mail account that is verified and currently in use.  
o Sample specification
§ Define your population
§ Pick a sample size 2
§ If you are proposing exploratory research, specify how you will conduct it. For example,
if you want to use focus groups, you need to specify: number of focus groups; number
of people per focus group; what you hope to obtain from the focus group.
§ For your survey, explain how you are going to reach your respondents 3
• A typical proposal will contain a B U D GE T A N D A TI M E L I N E . In this case, you can omit these two items.
• L I M I T A T I O N S : In this section, you will discuss aspects of the study that might prevent you from getting a
complete and close to accurate result 4.  

1 All papers should propose that you will use a survey design (descriptive research.) You are welcome to use a mixed methods approach by using exploratory or qualitative research in conjunction with a survey. 2 I realize that we have not covered sampling as yet. So I will not be looking too closely at your sample size. But pick something that is reasonable and provide justification. 3 Psychdata will give you a url for your survey. This can be shared with respondents. Respondents will click on the link and it will take them to the survey. 4 Please do not say that a limitation of the study is that people will lie. That is not an acceptable limitation because you can reduce the incidence of lying with a carefully constructed study and questionnaire. A reasonable limitation would be MBA students not responding because they are overwhelmed by e-mails or are too busy.