1999 Alden, Steenkamp, Batra.

BUS3001 Research Project Outline

What do you need to do?

For this project, you will work in self-selected groups of 6-7 people (please submit the grouping form to the instructor by Week 3). You are strongly advised to form group as soon as possible to give yourselves more time for planning the research project and conducting the data collection and analysis.

The module is designed to equip you with concepts and theories of conducting research in marketing area. This exercise offers you hands-on practices in conducting a small-scaled research. Your group will be given considerable freedom to follow your own interests in the choice of problem situation.  The key tasks involve brainstorming research ideas; forming research questions/hypotheses; discussion and preparation of research instrument (you may conduct a focus group prior to finalising the research instrument); completing the fieldwork; compiling the data file and data analysis; interpretation of the results and drafting the report. You are encouraged to incorporate relevant theories and concepts where applicable, and remember to include a reference list of sources that you have cited.

You may need to collect at least 80 questionnaires for this research project. You may also want to conduct focus groups or in-depth interviews if appropriate.

In general, a budget constraint will not be imposed but explicit consideration of the costs versus the benefits of the information is expected.

The assessments of this group project include an oral presentation (which accounts for 15% of the module) and a written report which details the whole research project. The written report is worth 15% of the module.

What to be included in the presentation?

Each group should explain why the research was conducted; state the specific research objectives and research question(s); explain how the research was carried out; present the findings of the research; and provide conclusions (and sometimes recommendations).

 What to be included in the report?

The report should include the following sections: 1) Title page; 2) Table of Contents; 3) Executive Summary; 4) Introduction; 5) Research Problem; 6) Research Design and Methodology; 7) Results and Analysis; 8) Discussions and Conclusions; 9) Limitations and Future studies; 10) References; and 11) Appendices (if any). The report should be word processed and double-spaced.

When is the deadline?

• Oral presentation: Week 13

Each group has 20 minutes (including a 5-minute Q&A session). No extra time will be given for setting up your oral presentation. If you take longer time to set up, you will have less time to do the oral presentation. Overrun will result in marks deduction. Please submit your “SPSS data file” and “presentation file” to your instructor via email at karenyeung@hsmc.edu.hk 24 hours before your scheduled presentation. On the day of your presentation, please hand in a hard copy of your presentation materials and the score sheet to your instructor in class.  

• Written report: Week 14

The word limit is 2,700 words, excluding tables, charts, appendices and references. Use the word count feature in your word processor to indicate the word length of the report on your last page. Marks will be deducted for the report that exceeds the word limit or without word count. You may also attach the research questionnaire and the statistical output as an appendix which does not include in the word limit. You should submit a soft copy via Veriguide for originality check before submitting the hard copy. Please print and attach the originality check report to the hard copy which is due by the last class.