BIO0260 Business Research Skills Individual Coursework | UODH

Assignment Brief 

Write a research proposal (up to 1500 words).

You will be provided with some ‘calls for research proposals’, that require research to be done to inform a business decision. Your task is to choose one of the calls for proposals and respond to it as if you are a professional consultant or researcher by writing a research proposal (rationale and plan) that could be submitted to the commissioner (funder) of the research. You should NOT actually conduct the research you propose. The proposal (plan, with
justification) is all that is required.

Your proposal should demonstrate your understanding of:

a) the research process,
b) research approaches and designs
c) research perspectives and their associated methods of data collection and analysis (and appropriateness for different kinds of research question),
d) practical issues of conducting research such as access to participants and research ethics.

Your proposal must include within it:

• a short review of literature to provide the context and a rationale for your study, and your research design, including
  a) a discussion of different approaches to research and why the approach you put forward is appropriate for this call for proposals,
  b) an explanation of: the different research perspectives and your reason for your chosen one; your proposed method of data collection; and your proposed method of data analysis
• a brief summary of the main ethical issues considered
• an acknowledgement of any limitations to the research design, or your own knowledge and skills, and the implications of these for interpreting the eventual findings of your proposed study.

Learning Outcomes

This section is for information only. The assessment task outlined above has been designed to address specific validated learning outcomes for this module. It is useful to keep in mind that these are the things you need to show in this piece of work. On completion of this module, students will need to demonstrate:

• Knowledge and critical understanding of the standard research process, literature reviewing, different research perspectives and their associated methods of data collection and analysis
• An understanding of the importance of ethics in research, including an appreciation of the limits of their own skills and knowledge and the implications of this for making evidence-based business decisions
• An ability to critically evaluate the appropriateness of different research approaches to different kinds of business problem
• An ability to effectively communicate research evidence, arguments and analysis
  (for specialist audience)