ISO8007 MSc Business Analytics Dissertation Guidline | Newcastle

Table of Content

1. Beginning the dissertation
1.1 The dissertation in your programme of study
1.2 Goals for Postgraduate Dissertations
1.3 Empirical material
1.4 The Literature Review
1.5 Method
1.6 Ethical Issues, risk assessment, and GDPR
1.7 Sources for Topic Ideas
1.8 Guidelines for suitable topics
1.9 Writing your Full Dissertation Proposal
1.10 Submission of final dissertation
1.11 Penalties for late submission
2. Assessment Criteria
2.1 The scope of assessment
2.2 How your work is marked
2.3 Criteria
2.3 Presentation and format
2.4 General points
3. Citation and referencing
3.1 Plagiarism
3.2 Referencing
3.3 Definitions
3.4 Why write references?
3.5 Harvard Referencing System
4. Student's responsibilities
4.1 Meeting Guidelines in this Manual
4.2 Selection of Topic
4.3 Contact with Dissertation supervisor
4.4 Managing the Dissertation Supervision Sessions
4.5 Meeting Deadlines
4.6 Originality
4.7 Referencing
Appendix A - Forms
A.1 NUBS Ethical approval form for student projects
A.2 Interview Participant Information
A.3 Interview participant Consent
A.4 Survey participant Information sheet
A.5 GDPR assessment
A.6 Risk Assessment (no travel)
A.7 Risk Assessment (travel)
Appendix B (example cover page and TOC)
Appendix C – The Harvard Referencing System

1     Beginning the dissertation

1.1 The dissertation in your programme of study

The words “Dissertation” and “research” can seem quite daunting. However, most of you will have completed some sort of project during your previous education, and, in many ways, a dissertation is just an extension of individual project work. The key differences are: -

1.    You choose your own question/problem/issue – preferably one in which you are interested and/or engaged in some way.

2.    You must review the relevant academic literature and explore the methodological issues in your project area.

The dissertation forms a major part of your Master’s programme, counting for 60 out of the total 180 credits (or up to 33% of your Master’s degree). Strictly speaking, students are only entitled to ‘proceed’ to the dissertation once they have successfully passed the teaching component of the programme. However, in practice work on the dissertation begins earlier in the academic year. You undertake postgraduate research methods training (NBS8062) as a preparation for the dissertation work and will prepare an initial/developed research proposal for your dissertation as part of that module.

These guidelines are intended to help you in the dissertation process. Given that a dissertation is an individual piece of work there is no intention unduly to restrict you in your approach. This document presents guidelines to support your work, therefore, and is not a set of absolute rules or procedures to which you must adhere. You will talk in more detail about your own project with your dissertation supervisor. Nonetheless, it has been carefully prepared, and you should read it to understand the important aspects of the dissertation process, as well as the standards required within the Business School. 

1.2 Goals for Postgraduate Dissertations

The primary goal of the dissertation is to allow you to integrate your academic study with the analysis of some material, preferably empirical.

More specifically, dissertations should:

1.    Be based on either:

a.    Empirical work undertaken by the student; And/Or

b.    A very in-depth review of current academic theoretical work;

2.    Provide an academic framework within which that empirical or theoretical work is evaluated;

3.    Include a discussion of appropriate research methods issues;

4.    Arrive at a conclusion justified by the empirical and/or theoretical material.

Putting this in a different way, your research may be: -  

•  Descriptive – describing the features of a setting or a case, or the views of a group or individual; And/Or
• Explanatory – testing or attempting to derive a theory or model. 

Your research methods may be: -

• Qualitative (e.g. observation, interpretation of interviews); And/Or
• Quantitative (e.g. survey or experimental).

1.3    Empirical material

This may include any one or more of the following: -

• Financial, economic and statistical information (e.g. from Datastream, Labour Force Survey, Household Survey, etc);
  
  
•   The results of questionnaire surveys you have conducted yourself;
  
  
•  Interviews or Focus Groups you have conducted;
  
  
•  Participant observation of an organisation – e.g. a place of part-time work; a voluntary group or an organisation for which you have previously worked;
  
  
• Non-participant observation (also known as ethnography) of an organisation to which you can gain regular and reasonably extended access – e.g. a company where a friend or family member works; 
• Written or multimedia documents whose independent existence can be verified o Newspaper articles; Film, Television, Radio, Videos; o Official records and reports from companies, trade unions, professional associations, voluntary bodies, local & national government, independent research units and ‘think tanks’, industry forums & trade associations;

• Confidential documents internal to an organisation – be very careful of the confidentiality and ethical issues
  
  
• Published diaries, biographies & autobiographies, histories of companies, industries or other relevant organisations;
  
  
• Archived correspondence; o The archived content of an internet discussion forum; o Historical academic literature (generally over 15 years old).

In rare circumstances it may be feasible (but only with the full agreement of your dissertation supervisor) to conduct a totally theoretical dissertation – for instance on the philosophy of Business Ethics or the social theory of organisational analysis. Even with this type of dissertation, it is usually wiser to relate relevant theoretical argument to empirical or practical issues, such as current debates on corporate governance or research methods.

Whatever data are collected (e.g. interview recordings; completed questionnaires etc.), along with the data analysis outputs (e.g. interview transcripts/coding schemes; database files etc.), these should be kept securely in case they need to be made available to the marking team. Further, if these are electronic, you should ensure they are securely backed-up.

1.4    The Literature Review

The literature review should be a separate chapter. It should review the relevant literature in order to provide a framework within which your empirical material can be evaluated. It should be succinct (i.e. you should not attempt to describe a whole body of literature in detail but focus on those areas which are relevant to your research aims and questions) and should link directly to your own investigation. Be critical in your approach: be clear about areas of disagreement, in terms of views or research findings. Attend the relevant library sessions on the Research Methods course and make good use of the library resources available.

A good literature review does more than simply restate the literature. You need to consider the difference between a literature report and a literature review. A report of the literature simply describes what theoretical and empirical work exists in the topic area under discussion, summarising perhaps but not adding analysis or commentary. A literature review goes much further. It discusses theoretical and empirical work thematically, bringing out inconsistencies and controversies and relates your detailed research questions to that discussion. Ideally a literature review will develop an argument that justifies your research question/issue/problem.

1.5     Method

If you have formulated your research question/issue/problem fully, then it may already suggest a particular approach to the design of the research project. In any case, in selecting a method you must ensure that it is appropriate to your research question. This chapter should first describe and briefly justify your overall research strategy, with reference to the research methods literature. The specific data collection methods you employ – surveys, interviews, observation, analytical models – should clearly fit within the overall methodology. For instance, it would be inappropriate to adopt a qualitative interpretive methodology and then rely mainly on quantitative tools or SWOT analyses. You should clearly describe and justify the methods and tools you employ. Where there are constraints on the kind of investigation that you can conduct, you should acknowledge them. You should include samples of the data collection instruments you have used (e.g. copies of your questionnaire) in the appendices, where appropriate.

1.6     Ethical Issues, risk assessment, and GDPR

You are required to comply with the Newcastle University Code of Good Practice in Research. This is available at: Code of Good Practice in Research | Our Research | Newcastle University Prior to commencing your dissertation, you are required to consider the Newcastle University Ethical Approval Process for Research, the School’s Fieldwork & Travel Risk Assessment, and GDPR regulations (3 forms in total). Further details can be found in Appendix A, where you will find the appropriate forms and guidance. It is essential that you complete the forms and submit them with your full research proposal (assignment 2 on NBS8062 Research Methods module) by uploading them via Blackboard (please create one document consolidating the three forms prior to uploading it). Your dissertation supervisor will then consider the forms for approval (clearly indicating if they give approval or if they are passing it to the Ethics Convenor for further consideration). You cannot proceed with your research until these forms have been completed and approved. If approval is not granted by the time of the Board of Examiners (end of semester 2) you may be prevented from proceeding to semester 3 – you are responsible for ensuring that the forms are approved by your supervisor by the end of semester 2. During semester 3, you may be away from the university for short periods conducting fieldwork for example. If this is the case, you will, of course, still need to consider the university’s notice of absence and attendance monitoring procedures. As a general rule, you should treat semester 3 as a normal semester in terms of your availability even if there are no formal lectures during this period.

Please note that if you change your research design at some point after getting your original research design ethically approved, you may well need to obtain further ethical approval and fieldwork and travel risk approval, and reconsider GDPR issues in the light of the revised research design. This issue should be discussed with your supervisor as appropriate.  

Within your discussion of Research Methods in the dissertation, you should show that you are aware of the ethical issues raised by the practice of writing about other people's lives. If it is appropriate, ensure that your research subjects are aware of the kinds of thing you are planning to write. If necessary, use pseudonyms and change identifying details.

There may also be a need to use interview / survey consent forms, depending on your chosen research method – examples of the forms necessary for these types of research can also be found in Appendix A.

1.7     Sources for Topic Ideas

It is your responsibility to ensure that your approach to the project topic is reasonably original and unique. You can explore ideas for topics from many sources: any work placement experience; past work experience; current part-time work; other empirical material to which you can gain access; course work; academic readings, especially current and recent issues of academic journals; regular reading of business & management trade press.

1.8     Guidelines for suitable topics

You can assume that the topic as you initially conceived of it will evolve as the project progresses. By “evolve” we mean that the particular aspect of the topic which becomes central to the project may well change, in one direction or another as the project progresses. As a result, you may adjust your dissertation title, final research questions or data collection method as you develop your work. This evolution or ‘fine tuning’ of a project is quite usual. The goal is to find a topic which is general enough to be significant, but specific enough to become focused.  
You are expected to identify a research topic in line with the programme that you are studying, i.e. e-Business/e-Business (e-Marketing) in order that you can demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of your discipline, including a critical awareness of current issues.

Here are some examples of purely imaginary but conceivable dissertation titles. See if you can identify how they might match the styles of research and the types of empirical material set out above.

1. The Tensions Within Family Owned Firms: A Case Study.
   
   
2. The impact of WTO membership on small businesses in China: a case study. 
   
   
3. Applying Virtual Ethnography (Hine, 2000) To Internet Shareholder Discussion Forums. 
   
   
4. A Comparative Study of the Adoption and Use of information systems in SMEs 
   
   
5. The Impact Of The Euro On The UK North East Textile Industry
   
   
6. From Bloggers To Dot.Coms: E-News, E-Leisure, Or E-Business?
7.  Open Innovation adoption in dynamically evolving SMEs In North-East England

1.9     Writing your Full Dissertation Proposal

You will discuss this in detail as part of the research methods module; the full dissertation proposal is Assignment Two for this module. In general, you should be clear about the aims of your research: What is it that you are attempting to achieve? Will the research be descriptive, explanatory, or both? Will it use quantitative or qualitative methods, or both? What will be your empirical material? – this is one of the most important questions to settle before writing your outline. There is no point proposing a wonderfully original dissertation if you cannot get access to the required material. You need to remember that a dissertation operates as a research project and is, therefore, a combination of both practical and theoretical elements. You need to pay careful attention to both aspects if your work is to be successful.

Again, consult with your dissertation supervisor!

1.10 Submission of final dissertation

The deadline for submitting your final dissertation is 12 noon on August 24th, 2026 

Be careful! Work backwards from this date, remembering that you will also have semester 2 exams/assignments around the middle of May. Always allow at least two weeks slippage and remember that it always takes longer to write up your dissertation than you had allowed for. Aim to be able to send draft chapters to your dissertation supervisor throughout the duration of the supervision, preferably by email, allowing plenty of time for their response.

1.11 Penalties for late submission

It is your responsibility to hand in your dissertation by the due date. Any dissertations handed in after the date, without prior agreement of the senior tutor, will be penalised.

-Work submitted up to one week after the deadline will be marked at a maximum of 50%.

-Work submitted more than one week after the deadline will be awarded a mark of zero.

In exceptional circumstances, such as illness, you may be able to arrange for an extension to the deadline and/or appeal for mitigation in the marking of your work. The process for arranging extensions and mitigation is similar to the process for other modules.  

2 Assessment Criteria

2.1. The scope of assessment

Ideally, your dissertation should reflect:

•   A clear statement of the problem you have chosen to investigate
  
  
•  A thorough reading of the relevant literature
  
  
•  Appropriate selection of empirical material
  
  
• An ability to synthesise various academic perspectives
  
  
• A good grasp of the theoretical and practical issues
  
  
• A critical stance (in relation to the literature and your own research) and an ability to evaluate evidence, drawing appropriate conclusions and acknowledging ambiguity;
  
  
• A set of arguments that are logically and coherently developed
  
  
• Clarity of presentation 
  
  
• A fluent style  

 2.2 How your work is marked

The dissertation will be double marked by your Dissertation supervisor and one other member of the teaching/research staff. Double marking means that they mark the work separately, and then come to an agreed overall mark. The Second Marker will be assigned on the basis of staff expertise and workloads. In addition, a sample of dissertations will be read by an External Examiner. Although they will not generally have the right to alter your specific mark, they will be asked to validate the overall assessment of dissertations.

2.3 Criteria

In the table below are the set of criteria that will be used to mark your dissertation, so read it carefully and understand the distinctions between the marking bands.