Wednesday, 20 July 2016

Introduction to ProjectReportPK

Hello, everyone, We are group of professional freelance writer. Together, we have completed a lot of professional research reports . This blog is designed for students who are facing problems while writing their project reports/research thesis especially students of Business Studies, MBA, MS-Management Sciences, Public Health, Public Administration, Education Management, Engineering Management, and so on. You can get some basic guidance from this page. Our contact details are as under.
Email: projectreportpk@gmail.com
Skype ID: faireast1

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Topic Selection and General Guidelines

Research refers to the organized and systematic way of finding answers to the questions or solution of problems. Generally, as part of most university level degree program, you are required to submit a research project report by the end of your degree. Without submitting a satisfactorily report, you are unable to clear this requirement and subsequently, unable to get the degree. 

'Well Begin is half done'. Same is true for Research as if you select the right topic, you can get complete the research easily; while, a wrong selection may lead you nowhere and the resulting frustration, time waste, and exhaustion is obvious. So how can you select the right topic?

Well, we suggest that you look at few things;

First of all, you select a broad area and keep narrowing down until you get to some manageable topic. A good point to start is looking at the related journals and the available thesis on the internet through google search.
Also, the topic which you select should be realistic, match with your capabilities, university requirements, and the time and financial resources you have. You do not need to be too much ambitious or over confident to select a difficult topic which you can take till end.
We are giving some broad areas in few fields which we are expert in. Take this as an example and also look at the attached pictures that how we search the related material over internet.
Areas Related to the Management:
Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Leadership
Organizational Justice
Employee Creativity
Organizational Culture
Green Management
Electronic Management

Areas Related to the HRM:
High Performance Work System
Green HRM
Ethics and HRM
International HRM
Diversity Management
Areas Related to the Marketing:
Branding
Customer Relationship Management
Service Quality
Guerilla Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Cause Marketing
Event Marketing

Finance and Banking Related Areas:
Online Banking
Working Capital Management
Portfolio Management
Financial Markets

International Business and Management Related Areas:
Culture and Institutional Framework
Cross-Cultural Management
Multinational Corporations Practices
Globalization and Rationalization

Engineering Management Related Areas:
Total Quality Management
ISO in Manufacturing and Services
Six Sigma

Public Health Related Areas:
Hospital Management
Public Awareness and Communication


Thanks (Have a look at the pictures for basic idea)







Writing the Introduction and Background (Chapter 1)

Chapter 1 is the first chapter or part of your main research project. Normally, there are different headings. Names and brief details of these headings are as under.
Chapter 1:
Introduction
Background
Broad Problem Area
Statement of the Problem
Objectives of the Study
Significance of the Study
Scope of the Study
Chapter Summary
Introduction:
In introduction, you start with some general idea and gradually you narrow it down to your own topic. You introduced the topic briefly. Introduction section can be only few paragraphs.
Background:
Background is one of the difficult part. My suggestion is that first you do a good literature review, then you can write a good background. In background section, you write the background information. Actually, here you write the summarized form of what the previous researchers are done in the specific area of your topic. Further, here you also point towards the literature gap.
Broad Problem Area:
Here you mention that what is the key problem which this study wants to answer. it can be some genuine organizational problem and even it can be some literature gap which exist.
Statement of the Problem:
Here you write the key statement of the problem which the study wants to investigate.
Objectives of the Study: You set the milestones which your study wants to achieve. The objectives should be directly derived from your topic. Example of the objective can be 'to see the effects of social media marketing on the brand image". Sometimes, here, research question is also mentioned. The research question should be matching with the research topic.
Significance of the Study:
Here you write the importance of your study and its capability to bring the solution to the original problem identified earlier.
Scope of the Study:
Here, you write the limitations or the overall scope of the study. it means you are setting the boundary of your study.
Chapter Summary:
You can write a brief summary of the chapter, just a few lines.


Writing Literature Review (Chapter 2)

Literature Review is the most important part in a sense that if you get it right, the rest of the research can be completed without any problem. I suggest that whenever, you select the topic, start the literature review first and then later, write the chapter 1. In literature review, you should describe, summarize, evaluate, and clarify the previous studies. Here, you must provide a good list of previous studies which are relevant to your study. For example, if your topic is the effects of social media marketing on the brand image' so your headings will be like this.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Social Media Marketing
Brand Image
Relationship between the social media marketing and the brand image
Hypothesis and Theoretical Framework
Chapter Summary
As you can see that first you describe the first component of your topic, then the second, and then you refers to their relationship. In other words, first you explain the social media marketing which is first construct of your study. Secondly, you explain the brand image which is the second construct of your study. Then, you will provide previous studies which also studied the same relationships.
After that, you will develop hypothesis and the theoretical framework. The hypothesis should be in line with the research question and the research objectives. For example,
H1= The Social Media Marketing has significant effects on the Brand Image
A general tip is that you can search some previous studies where you will find a lot of similar material which you can use by paraphrasing. Kindly look at the pictures attached for some clarification.



Writing Methodology Section (Chapter 3)

Here you write the methodology of your full chapter. Generally, it include the following headings
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Research Paradigm
Research Design and Method
Population and Sampling Issues
Research Tools
Pilot Study
Data Collection
Reliability and Validity Issues
Ethical Considerations
Chapter Summary
Research paradigm:
Here you refers to some key research paradigm such as positivism, post-positivism, constructivism, Advocacy, etc. Then, you can explain what is the main paradigm you as a researcher following and why. Mostly, quantitative nature studies are based on the postivism paradigm and the qualitative nature studies are based on the constructivism paradigm. However, there can be other paradigm depending on the situation
Research Design and Method:
Here you specification mention that what type of design you are following for example explanatory, exploratory, descriptive, etc. Further, you also links it with your research method which can be quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method depending on your research situation.
Population and Sampling Issues:
Here you mention what is your total population and what type of sampling technique your are adopting for example the random versus non-random. Probability sampling includes random sampling, stratified sampling, multi-stage sampling while non-probability sampling includes convenient and judgmental sampling.
Research Tools:
Here you mention how you are going to collect the data. It can be based on survey, interview, observations, or some secondary sources.
Pilot Study:
It is good to conduct a small level of data collection before embarking on large scale data collection. You can write little details as how you conducted the pilot study, on whom, and what were the responses. The pilot study is also used to improve the research tool such as survey by early identification of problems.
Data Collection:
Here you explain the process of data collection and related aspects such as location, time, people involved, permissions, organization etc.
Reliability and Validity issues:
A bit technical part, You need to explain how you established the reliability and validity of your study. For example, if you are conducting the study through survey, then you explain how you ensured these aspects. For reliability, mostly, you can conduct the Cronbach alpha test through general software; while, reliability can be established by showing it to some experts, comparing it with the literature, and some quantitative techniques such as confirmatory factor analysis.
Ethical Considerations:
Here you mention that what steps you taken to ensure the ethical requirements. Remember that there are some general ethical requirements and additionally, every university have their own ethical requirements. You must consult the related documents. Generally, here you mention things such as no harm to the respondents, their privacy, use of information for only the study purpose, and so on.
Chapter Summary:
Here you only summarize the chapter briefly.

(Have a look at the pictures for some clarification)





Writing Results and Discussion (Chapter 4)

Here you are going to give the statistical results. Mostly you start with the descriptive statistics such as gender, age, marital status, and then, you move to test main hypothesis. Normally, you can provide the correlation table and regression. Mediation analysis, Moderation analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Model testing in Structural Equation Modelling can also be performed. Here, it all depends on the nature of your research topic and objectives. For example, if your research objective is comparative, then you are going to use some comparative statistics such as t-test or F-test. If your objectives are about effects or association, then you are most likely end up with correlation and regression. Sometimes, your objectives are also combination of descriptive, comparative, and effects based. Kindly look at our blog or this page for learning some basic quantitative techniques.
www.spssonlinetraining.blogspot.com
Writing Discussion:
In discussion section, you normally re-summarize your results and also links your findings with the literature. So technically, here you relate your findings with the literature or theory. For example, if you findings are that working capital management increases the share prices, so you must discuss whether theory states the same or something else. If you have done some good literature review, then writing the discussion section should not be a problem for you. I am providing an example of some small portion of a discussion.
Example:
The results of the logistic regression analysis show that the factors: User-friendly Website, Internet Access/Internet Familiarity, Marketing Communications, Perceived Risks, and Price influence customers‘ decisions to adopt Internet banking. The support for Hypothesis 1 confirms that User-friendly Website positively
influences customers to adopt Internet banking services. This result is consistent with the findings of Padachi et al. (2007), Litchtenstein and Williamson (2006), Akinci et al. (2004), and Sohail and Shanmugham (2003). For example, Padachi et al. (2007) and Lichtenstein and Williamson (2006) find that a user-friendly bank website is an important determinant of ease of use, which affects the adoption of Internet banking services in Mauritius and Australi




Writing Conclusion, Recommendations, and Limitations (Chapter 5)

Normally chapter 5 include the following headings
Chapter 5: Conclusion, Recommendations, Limitations
Conclusion
Recommendations
Limitations and Direction for Future Research
Chapter Summary
Conclusion:
Here, you quickly revise the objective or research question and then makes the conclusion based on your key findings. The conclusion should answer the 'So What' question. In other words, you answer what your research has achieved and how the findings are helpful or can be generalized.
Recommendations or Implications:
Sometimes you give recommendations in the bullet form. The recommendations should only be based on the findings of your study and match with the literature.
Implications means findings may have implications for certain groups for example individuals, employees, customers, shareholders, government, etc.
Limitations and Direction for Future Research:
here you mention the limitations of the study for example in terms of its scope, its methodology, its sampling issues. Further, you also provide some guidelines for future researcher which can be some new or related areas which remains unexplored in your study.
Chapter Summary:
Here you only summarize the chapter in few lines.


Writing References and Appendices

During writing the project, you keep adding the references in your separate reference file. By the end of writing the full project, now you can look that you have used which references? Mostly, you have to follow certain referencing style. Most universities utilize styles such as Harvard Style, APA and so on. For guideline, we are providing the APA Style here accompanied with the full APA style guideline in attached link.
For Book Reference:
Cochrane, A. (2007). Understanding urban policy: A critical approach. Malden, MA: Blackwell  publishing.
For Article Reference:
Kramer, E., & Bloggs, T. (2002). On quality in art and art therapy. American Journal of Art Therapy, 40, 218-231.
Full APA style guide is attached here.
APA Style Format Guide
In Appendix, you normally provides the survey questionnaire, interview details, or other information which are relevant but not necessary to include in the main project report




Other Supporting Sources

Ebooks related to research are as under.
1. http://www.sociology.kpi.ua/…/Ranjit_Kumar-Research_Methodo…
2. http://euacademic.org/BookUpload/9.pdf
3. https://drmramzan.files.wordpress.com/…/business-research-m…
4. http://iaear.weebly.com/…/research_methods_entiree_book_uma…
5. http://iaear.weebly.com/…/research_methods_entiree_book_uma…


Common Websites which provide great support are as under.
www.google.com
www.scholar.google.com
www.researchgate.net



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