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The role of research proposals in business and management education
The International Journal of Management Education 11 (2013) 142–149
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The International Journal of Management Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijme
The role of research proposals in business and management education Martyn Denscombe De Montfort University, Leicester, England
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 2 July 2012 Received in revised form 22 November 2012 Accepted 15 March 2013
This paper explores the use of research proposals within business and management education. The implicit learning objectives contained in producing research proposals are described and evaluated in terms of learning about research and research methodology. Particular consideration is given to the potential of research proposals to work in an educative sense as stand-alone entities quite separate from their role as a prelude to engaging in research activity. The benefits and limitations of using research proposals in separation from the actual experience of conducting empirical research are discussed. It is concluded that research proposals, used as stand-alone learning exercises, can prove particularly valuable where there might be concerns about gaining access to appropriate settings or getting ethical approval for practical research activity. They can also be of particular value in the context of courses where students’ primary concern is with commissioning or evaluating research rather acquiring the skills to undertake research projects for themselves (e.g. MBA students). Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Research proposals Research methods Management education Business education
1. Introduction Research proposals have a well-established place within business and management education. At undergraduate, masters and doctoral level students can expect to write a research proposal as part of a course on research methodology or in preparation for a dissertation/thesis. Relatively little has been written, however, on the exact purpose of writing a research proposal or the potential benefits for learning about research and research methodology resulting from writing a research proposal. Guidance offered to students generally describes what items need to be included in the proposal, but it is rare to find efforts to scratch beneath the surface to explain the significance of the items or to explore the implicit learning objectives contained in producing a research proposal (Denscombe, 2012; Emmanuel & Gray, 2003; Heath & Tynan, 2010). Nor has there been much consideration of research proposals as learning vehicles in their own right, or the extent to which they can function in isolation from the experience of undertaking the plan of work contained within the research proposal. Consequently, this paper offers an outline of the role of research proposals and, bearing in mind the circumstances of students on business and management courses, pays particular attention to the potential of research proposals to replace any requirement to conduct a piece of empirical research. 2. The functions of research proposals A well-constructed research proposal offers a blue-print for research – an outline plan that shows what the parts look like and how they will fit together. It describes what will be done and explains how it will be done. This serves a variety of
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functions. First, it has a planning function (Denicolo & Becker, 2012; Locke, Spirduso, & Silverman, 2000; Punch, 2006). It describes what will be done, how it will be done and in what time-frame. There are clear benefits here in relation to the execution of the proposed research. Second, it can act as a contract (Krathwohl & Smith, 2005: Locke et al., 2000). Through the proposal the researcher specifies what will be delivered and how this will be achieved and, particularly where funding is concerned, this can be treated as a commitment on the part of the researcher to provide certain information or other deliverables as a result of the investigation. A third function of research proposals is that of evaluation (Denscombe, 2012; Krathwohl & Smith, 2005). In this case, the proposal is used as the basis for vetting the quality of the proposed research and/or for checking that there are no ethical issues arising from the proposed research which have not been adequately addressed. In such instances the readers act as gatekeepers to research, filtering out any proposals that are deemed inadequate in terms of their research methods/design or which are considered unacceptable in relation to ethical standards for research. It is the argument of this paper, however, that there is a fourth function which can be added – that of research training. Viewed in this way, the research proposal can act as an end-product in its own right rather than serve as a prelude to an empirical research project. This is not to imply that the use of research proposals for planning, contractual or evaluation purposes is in any sense inadequate, misguided or wrong. Far from it, these are vital roles in relation to research projects. What this paper argues, instead, is that research proposals can serve another purpose as well. They can have an educational function, providing a useful learning exercise through which students can acquire and apply knowledge of research methodology and insights about the research process without the need to conduct a piece of research. In the context of business and management education, especially in circumstances where actually undertaking empirical research might not be viable – this can be particularly useful. 3. The role of research training for business and management students Business and management students are generally required to undertake a piece of small-scale research as part of their degree programme. At undergraduate level this tends to take the form of a final year dissertation, at masters level it is incorporated into the dissertation, and at PhD level a piece of empirical research normally forms the backbone of the thesis. Doing a piece of research, in other words, is a standard part of business and management training and education that is provided in the university context as part of a degree qualification. The rationale for this is quite straightforward. Business and management students are expected to have an understanding of research work within their academic field of study. Research, after all, provides a foundation for the knowledge-base surrounding business and management studies: it develops theories and provides information which those who study the area need to learn. Understanding the research work, however, can mean different things at different levels of a student’s education. At the initial stages of business and management education it tends to entail being conversant with the findings from key research work in the field (see Table 1). The scope of material is relatively restricted and students are expected to learn from the results of that research. The emphasis, in other words, is on acquiring the knowledge that has resulted from pieces of research that are highly-respected and which form the foundations for the particular field of study. The prime task from the students’ point of view is to search for the key literature and then to learn from it. As students move from bachelors level through masters and doctoral level study the emphasis moves more towards creating knowledge rather than acquiring knowledge. There is, as Fig. 1 indicates, a shift in balance which sees the evaluation and production of knowledge assuming greater significance relative to searching for and learning from existing work. This is always a matter of relative importance, but the point is that with masters and doctoral level study there is growing emphasis placed on the students’ ability to contribute to the field through the critical evaluation of other people’s research and through embarking on the process of doing a piece of research work by themselves. The more that students are called upon to evaluate work and to undertake research work by themselves the more important it is for them to gain an understanding of research methodology. As students engage in the evaluation of existing research findings they are expected to understand the methods used by researchers and to have the ability to weigh up the merits or otherwise of the approach adopted by influential works in the field. And as they embark on the process of designing a research project of their own there is ever more need for them to have a grasp of the methods at their disposal and have an understanding of how appropriate each is for the particular piece of research being considered. The number of excellent texts on research methods for business and management students bears testimony to the point (see, amongst others, Bryman & Bell, 2011; Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, & Jackson, 2012; Kumar, 2011; Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
Table 1 The role of research in business and management education. Type
Level
Awards
Main task
Coverage
Outcome
Project
Bachelors
BA, BSc
Description
Famous works associated with the topic
Dissertation
Masters
MA, MSc MRes, MPhil
Synthesis
Thesis
Doctorate
PhD, DBA
Analysis
Wide range of works that have a close bearing on the topic Comprehensive coverage of relevant studies
Acquisition of knowledge about the work Understanding of the underlying themes Development of new knowledge
Developed from Hart (1998: 15).
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Fig. 1. The production of knowledge through research activity.
4. Learning through experience: the benefits Text-book learning about methodology is necessary and good but the requirement on academic courses to do a substantial and sustained piece of study on a specific topic tends to incorporate the idea of actually doing a piece of research as well. Through the masters dissertation and the doctoral thesis (and sometimes through the bachelors project) students are put in the driver’s seat. Part of the reason for this, as it has been argued above, is the idea that as students progress through the levels of study they should take more responsibility for the production of knowledge rather than simply assimilating existing research findings (see Fig. 1). At the higher levels of study students are expected to push the boundaries of what is known about a particular subject and in most cases, though not all, this calls for the collection and analysis of primary data. Hence, becoming engaged in doing a piece of research is a necessary by-product of studying at advanced levels. Alongside this, however, there is a more or less explicit assumption that first-hand experience of engaging in research activity will be something that is beneficial for their broader understanding of methodology. The benefits come, in the first instance, from the fact that such activity provides experiential learning (Dewey, 1938; Kolb, 1984: Lewin, 1952). The logic is that students who undertake a small-scale piece of research can learn through first-hand experience and, as a result, get a more personal, memorable grasp of the issues involved. Doing research for a project, dissertation or thesis can also be beneficial because it involves an applied approach to learning. Abstract concepts and principled advice about methodology should become transformed into the realms of reality through the need to apply them in practice – with distinct benefits for student learning as a consequence. In a sense linked with this, the practical aspects of conducting research will need to be confronted in order to complete the research, and this can help students to understand the importance of resources like time and money and the need to scope a project bearing in mind a host of practical factors that have a major impact on the chances of successfully completing the research on time. A further kind of benefit to be derived from the experience of undertaking a small-scale piece of research is the way it can provide a better insight into the research process, something of particular value when it comes to evaluating the research of others. The benefits here occur not just in relation to academic studies and the critical appraisal of published works as part of the degree programme. In terms of professional practice it can be seen as something that enhances the managerial skills of those who commission research projects or who evaluate policy changes. Through having done some research themselves they are in a better position to judge the quality of proposals or the outcomes of policy programmes. 5. Learning through experience: the problems These kind of benefits can provide a persuasive argument for incorporating hands-on experience of conducting a smallscale piece of research into business and management degree programmes. There are, however, some factors that militate against this. In the first instance there is the matter of research governance and ethics approval. Institutions have a duty to ensure that the research that is undertaken under their auspices accord with the principles of research ethics and that ethics approval procedures are robust (ABS, 2010; ESRC, 2010a; RCUK, 2009). With large numbers of students involved in business and management programmes this can pose a problem. Each and every piece of research involving human participants needs to be reviewed and approved. This is not an insurmountable problem. The process, however, can be quite a drain on resources. A second factor that warrants consideration in this context is the level of preparation and training that business and management students are likely to have when they embark on research in the field. With respect to the Bachelors projects there is an issue about whether students at this level will have received the amount of preparatory research training that qualifies them to go out and collect data. One of the fundamental principles of research ethics is that researchers should have the appropriate skills and training to conduct the research without jeopardizing the well-being of the participants. Now although this owes much to the concerns of medical research (Burr & Reynolds, 2010), the point remains that relatively untrained and predominantly youthful students, particularly at undergraduate and masters level, may not have the
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appropriate skills to undertake empirical research involving human participants. Their activity in the field, as a consequence, has the potential to cause harm, compromise safety and produce technically inadequate results. A third factor to be borne in mind is that, at a practical level, there can be a problem gaining access to the necessary organizations and settings that tend to be needed in order to conduct empirical research. For many full-time students, especially for those students who are not able to call upon networks and personal contacts to enable their entrée, finding a business organization who will host their research project can be a daunting task. Faced with pressure to undertake primary research without access to suitable data source, there is an increased possibility that students will resort to using unsuitable data sources, for instance conducting surveys based on convenience sampling. The focus on conducting research using primary source data provides a fourth factor that has the potential to be problematic. Basically, it has more value for students in some disciplines than others. Students of accountancy and finance, for instance, might question the benefits of gaining first-hand experience of primary data collection involving the use of tools such as interviews and questionnaires, feeling that research that is relevant to their area can be based on secondary source data that are already available and which exist the public domain. Finally, there is an argument to be made that research training for business and management students, as for many other social science disciplines, does not need to be tailored to an ‘apprenticeship’ model in which learning to do research, under the expert guidance of a supervisor, is the means for gaining the necessary knowledge about research. After all, business and management education is not primarily concerned with developing potential researchers; it is about enabling practicing or nascent managers, entrepreneurs and business executives to understand research in order that they can better undertake their business or management role. The point is especially significant in relation to early or mid-career professionals doing, for instance, an MBA. Their interest and professional concerns are geared more towards commissioning and evaluating research, rather than learning how to conduct research. Bearing these points in mind the question arises as to how business and management students can be provided with an understanding of methodology and the research process when experiential learning confronts practical difficulties or where it might not be the most appropriate learning vehicle in terms of the needs of the particular students. This paper argues that research proposals can provide an answer. Looking at the components of a research proposal and the specific demands these entail the following discussion will show that the task of constructing a research proposal can, in its own right, provide a useful and valuable exercise that: provides an insight into the practicalities of the research process; enhances an understanding of research methodology; avoids some of the practical difficulties associated with both arranging access to research settings in the public domain and with gaining ethics approval for projects; meets the specific requirements of certain types of business and management student. 6. Learning through research proposals – their educational potential 6.1. The logic underlying research activity An immediate benefit of producing a research proposal is that it familiarizes students with the underlying logic of research activity. This logic is really quite straightforward. As Denscombe (2012) argues it follows the path of seven basic questions which it is reasonable to ask of any proposed piece of research: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
What exactly is the research looking at? What do we already know about the subject? What further things do we need to find out? How will we obtain the necessary information? What will the research cost and low long will it take? Is the research ethical? What will be the benefits arising from the research?
6.2. The content of research proposals These seven questions transcend different paradigms of research (Heath & Tynan, 2010). They operate as ‘ground rules’ for research which are recognized by researchers from different disciplines using contrasting epistemologies and ontologies (Denscombe, 2010). And they give rise to a generic structure and set of headings for use with research proposals that apply across the broad spectrum of disciplines (Chapin, 2004; Emmanuel & Gray, 2003; Friedland & Folt, 2000; Kumar, 2005; Meador, 1991; Ogden & Goldberg, 2002; Punch, 2006). Although there will be slight variations in the headings and even perhaps the order of the material there is still a definite family resemblance to things that function as ‘research proposals’. No single list will satisfy all research traditions but a list of headings such as the following one will be recognizable in the context of a research proposal for the vast majority of researchers.
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Title Keywords Aims of the research Background and literature review Research questions or hypotheses Methodology: research design, data collection, data analysis Resources and planning Ethics Limitations
To be pedantic, it might be more accurate to say that the structure and format of research proposals reflects the conventional rhetoric for justifying research, rather than depicting how research is actually conceived or undertaken, but the significant point is that the task of writing a research proposal immediately has the benefit that it spells out to students a general way of thinking about research and a conventional manner of describing and justifying a proposed research project. 6.3. Clarity about the purpose and benefits of research When describing the purpose of the research through the title, the keywords and the aims students need to have a precise and developed idea about what the focus of the research will entail, they need to learn and apply certain conventions about the style in which the purpose can be described and they will need to employ writing skills to express the purpose within tight word limits. The Background section and Literature Review provide the opportunity to explain why the proposed research is worthwhile (Fink, 2010). From the student’s point of view there are, perhaps, two distinct kinds of skill associated with writing this explanation. First there is the literary skill of constructing a narrative that takes the reader on a journey of discovery through which the need for the research is uncovered. Writing skills are called for here. Second, the student needs to have acquired a credible background knowledge relating to the subject matter of the proposed research. There needs to be reference to facts, reports and authors as signposts to the nature of the research and its purpose. A suitable number of such sources need to be cited to support the discussion in the proposal and this is exactly the kind of reading and background knowledge that is required for an academic programme. The Outcomes section of the research proposal calls on the researcher to specify the kind of end-products that are likely to be produced by the research activity. In recent times this has become an increasingly prominent feature of proposals – signifying the attention that is now being paid to factors like the dissemination of findings and the potential impact of the research. This proves to be a salutary message for students that the value of any project will be judged in part on the deliverables. It alerts them to the current climate of research which emphasizes the idea that research should produce something of recognizable value (e.g. recommendations, new practices, new information, guidelines for good practice, contribution to theory). And, finally, in arriving at the research questions there is a need for students to specify the exact questions to be investigated. Whether in the form of hypotheses, testable propositions or questions these are vital when the proposal is being used as a prelude to actual research because they give focus to the enquiry. Yet they are just as valuable when the proposal is being used as a stand-alone exercise. The student needs to specify precise indicators that are going to be ‘measured’ in order to address the broader issues identified in the Aims and Background sections. Terms need to be defined and there is no room for vagueness. 6.4. Understanding of the methodology A research proposal involves an explicit account of the data that are to be collected. There needs to be a factual description of how the data are to be collected, there needs to be a factual description of what data will be collected, when and where the data are to be collected, and consideration needs to be given to the availability of the data and whether there are any restrictions on access. To accomplish this in any meaningful way the student needs to have given forethought to the proposed plan of research and engaged in mentally mapping the means by which appropriate data might be obtained. The proposal should also explain why the proposed methods have been chosen. There will need to be some coherence to the overall research design and the strategy and data collection methods will need to be discussed and evaluated in terms of i) their suitability for the research questions, ii) their implications for the quality of the data iii) their benefits relative to alternative possible approaches to the investigation. To do this, students will need to be familiar with a range of research strategies and methods that could potentially be used (e.g. case studies, surveys, interviews, questionnaires) and will probably need to demonstrate some awareness of sampling methods and their implications. All of this calls for some fundamental knowledge of research – knowledge that is based on a suitable number of relevant sources which need to be cited to support the discussion and knowledge. The description and justification of the proposed methodology, in other words, requires the kind of knowledge about research methodology that can be assessed through the proposal and, in addition, calls for that knowledge to be applied in the instance of the research questions or hypotheses that have been produced as a result of the literature review.
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6.5. Recognising resource constraints The feasibility of any proposed research needs to be considered in relation to the available resources. Immediately, the point to be learned here is that research is not free. There are always costs involved and in the context of a research proposal such costs need to be estimated. The scope of the project outlined in the proposal and its feasibility within the given resource constraints need to be explained. Research needs to be delivered on time and the planning of the proposed research must involve some consideration of the time-frame within which the work must be complete. As with any project, attention needs to be paid to the scheduling of the various components of the research, and the production of a Gantt chart outlining the plan of work is useful in this respect. This part of a research proposal, like the others, is of value whether or not the research plan is ever put into practice. 6.6. Acknowledging the limitations A good research proposal will always include an explicit statement about its limitations and its boundaries (delimitations). It will recognize the limits to what can and what cannot be concluded on the basis of the restricted area it has chosen to study and the methods to be adopted. There is a sense in which this is good practice because the researcher is open and honest about the possibilities of the research and any claims that might be made on the basis of its findings. But there is also a challenge for the business or management student built into the limitations section of a proposal: this section calls for a selfevaluation of the research. It requires students to demonstrate a grasp of the research enterprise which is built upon awareness of both the benefits and the drawbacks of alternative methodological approaches. Grand claims and overambitious expectations, of course, bear testimony to the lack of such awareness. 6.7. Taking an ethical approach In any proposal the student should be able to argue that the proposed research will comply with the spirit and practice of research ethics and be sensitive to the political/legal context within which the research is to be conducted. To do so they will need to demonstrate some familiarity with relevant codes of ethics and the fundamental issues involved (consent, avoidance of harm, confidentiality, beneficence etc.). Such familiarity, of course, is a vital aspect of research training. More than this, the discussion contained in this section of the proposal will apply those principles to the specific investigation being proposed. From a research training point of view this has real benefits, forcing the student to move beyond a reiteration of abstract principles towards a demonstration of understanding their implications by ‘putting them into practice’. 6.8. The need for precision, rigour and clarity Research proposals, by their very nature, are documents that are produced in order to be evaluated (Denscombe, 2012). They are written not simply to help the researcher plan the research – important thought this is. They are written with a view to persuading the readers that what is being proposed is worthwhile and feasible. Readers, for their part, need to be regarded as people who are open to persuasion but who approach matters with a healthy scepticism. They will have in their minds the seven basic questions above and they will expect to find answers – answers that satisfy their doubts and which encourage them to feel that the proposed research has merit. From the students’ point of view this means that they need to produce a proposal whose content and style conveys the essential information in way that will address any qualms the readership might have and which gets the message across in a persuasive manner. In a nutshell this means the proposal needs to have three qualities; it needs to be precise, rigorous and clear. The readers are likely to be busy people and, reflecting this point, proposals tend to be relatively brief documents. They need to be parsimonious with words and precise with meanings. Rather than being able to indulge in lengthy expositions of points a research proposal needs to get to the heart of the matter succinctly. Restrictions on the length of proposals also allow little opportunity to include anything except the most relevant factors. Students, then, do not have leeway to include items which they think might possibly be relevant but which they are not sure about. They need to know what is crucial and what is not. And this can be a challenge. The production of a research proposal also requires the student to adhere closely to the remit for the work and the specified format in which it needs to be presented. Proposals often get rejected simply because they have not followed the rules (ESRC, 2010b). As well as keeping the proposal within specific word limits, there might be the need to use headings, fonts, page layouts and referencing systems that are specified for the proposals. Strict adherence to these ‘rules’, with its emphasis on precision and attention to detail, can serve as a transferrable skill that can be assessed in the context of the submission of the research proposal. 6.9. A holistic vision of research activity Last, but not least, writing a research proposal requires an overall vision of a project. As a way of learning about research this has the advantage that it calls on the student to stand back and look at the ‘bigger picture’. The proposal needs to cover a piece of research from beginning to the end and to consider the research within its social context. Consequently, learning
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about research is not restricted to the rote-learning of isolated facts, to the intellectual grasp of abstract principles or the acquisition of skills linked to specific stand-alone techniques. It involves, instead, a holistic view of the project. And this is something that replicates a core benefit associated with students getting hands-on experience of conducting a ‘live’ piece of research for themselves. 7. Discussion The use of stand-alone research proposal exercises would appear to meet most of the learning objectives associated with the experience of conducting empirical research in the real world. Students who are given the task of producing a research proposal, as we have seen, need to plan a piece of research which they can justify as being both worthwhile and feasible. To do this successfully they need to demonstrate an understanding of the research process and its underlying logic. They need to be precise and rigorous in their approach, they need to link their chosen methodology with their specified aims, and they need to appreciate the contextual parameters within which real-world business and management research takes place (resources, research ethics etc.). And it is the argument of this paper that such things can be achieved without actually undertaking empirical research (and the consequent need for engaging in ethics approval procedures or gaining access to research sites). There are, however, certain limitations that need to be recognized relative to the full-blooded hands-on experience of conducting a real piece of research. The first of these concerns the remit for the proposal. In order to achieve something akin to the first-hand experience of actually doing the research the remit for the research proposal will probably need to involve some crucial conditions. To emulate first-hand experience the remit for the (imaginary) project will need to include:
Empirical research; Primary data collection; People-based data; Minimal resources; Student as the principal researcher; Specified time scale.
Such conditions are necessary because it would otherwise become possible to side-step consideration of some of the most challenging matters (e.g. access to data, time and resources, research ethics) and thereby miss out on key learning objectives. The downside of such a primary data, people-based remit for the research proposal is that it aligns with certain areas of business and management studies more others. It is arguably easier for students to choose topics relating to areas such as marketing and HRM, for instance, than it might be for areas such as accounting or finance. The second limitation is that research proposals do not require students to engage in data analysis or deal with practical issues of data protection. The design of a project can certainly require students to specify the kind of data analysis they propose to use, and it can call upon the student to recognize the importance of data protection and confidentiality issues. Getting down and dirty with the data, however, is not something that can be done through a research proposal as such. Data analysis is a skill that needs to be acquired through some other means. A third limitation is that research proposals miss the practical aspects of putting a plan into action. A proposal can only present a plan for research and can never provide the student with that further, practical insight to the nature of research that revolves around unexpected occurrences. It cannot challenge students to overcome problems, to think laterally or to implement contingency measures when things do not go according to plan. In similar vein, a fourth limitation to be taken into consideration is that research proposals do not involve the element of pro-activeness and social interaction that underlies most real-world empirical research projects. There is no requirement to get involved with arranging meetings, negotiating with gatekeepers, gaining access to network. So, for example, a proposal might include the idea of conducting ten interviews with marketing executives which, in terms of a research design, can be a sound proposition. Arranging such interviews and conducting such interviews, however, is a research experience that a proposal cannot emulate. Such limitations, however, need to be weighed against the potential benefits of substituting the production of a research proposal for the hands-on experience of doing a research project. As we have seen, experiential learning has its benefits – but these can come at a price. There is extra time and effort involved in conducting a small-scale piece of research and, particularly at the undergraduate level there are concerns about the preparedness of students to be launched ‘out there’ to undertake empirical work with people and the ethical issues entailed. It would seem that at this level, in particular, the use of research proposals instead of research projects is something that warrants serious consideration. 8. Conclusion It has been argued that task of writing a research proposal can provide a learning experience of direct value for research training. Used as a stand-alone assignment, writing a research proposal calls upon students to demonstrate: the competence to present a feasible research design for investigating a particular topic;
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the ability to construct a plan of work for completing the research within a specified time-frame; substantive knowledge about the strategies and methods available to researchers; an awareness of the relative strengths and weaknesses or alternative methodologies; professional sensitivity to the main ethical, political, legal and resource parameters within which research is conducted; presentational skills in terms of the precise expression of ideas and the adherence to any given format for the proposal.
This does not imply that the use of research proposals as a prelude to actual, empirical research activity is not valuable. Where such activity is possible and appropriate then the research proposal provides a vital precursor to research which outlines the proposed design and allows an evaluation of the plan to ensure that it meets necessary standards. What it does do instead is to suggest two things. First, it argues that there are circumstances where doing actual, empirical research activity may not be either feasible or appropriate. These have been outlined in relation to business and management education at bachelors and masters level. Second, under such circumstances, constructing a research proposal can constitute a learning exercise that is of value in its own right that can help students to understand the principles of research methodology and their application. References ABS. (2010). Ethics guide 2010. Association of Business Schools. Online at. http://associationofbusinessschools.org/ethics-guide-2010. Accessed 01.04.13. Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2011). Business research methods (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Burr, J., & Reynolds, P. (2010). The wrong paradigm? Social research and the predicates of ethical scrutiny. Research Ethics Review, 6(4), 128–133. Chapin, P. G. (2004). Research projects and research proposals: A guide for scientists seeking funding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Denicolo, P., & Becker, L. (2012). Developing research proposals. London: Sage. Denscombe, M. (2010). Ground rules for social research (2nd ed.). Maidenhead: Open University Press. Denscombe, M. (2012). Research proposals: A practical guide. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. Indianapolis: Kappa Delta Pi. Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R., & Jackson, P. (2012). Management research: Theory and practice (4th ed.). London: Sage. Emmanuel, C., & Gray, R. (2003). Preparing a research proposal for a student research dissertation: a pedagogic note. Accounting Education, 12(1), 1–10. ESRC. (2010a). Framework for research ethics. Swindon: ESRC. Online at. http://www.esrc.ac.uk/about-esrc/information/research-ethics.aspx. Accessed 22. 03.12. ESRC. (2010b). How to write a good application. Economic and Social Research Council. http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/guidance/applicants/ how-to.aspx. Accessed 01.04.13. Fink, A. (2010). Conducting research literature reviews: From the Internet to paper (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage. Friedland, A. J., & Folt, C. L. (2000). Writing successful science proposals. New Haven: Yale University Press. Hart, C. (1998). Doing a literature review: Releasing the social science research imagination. London: Sage. Heath, T., & Tynan, C. (2010). Crafting a research proposal. The Marketing Review, 10(2), 147–168. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Krathwohl, D. R., & Smith, N. L. (2005). How to prepare a dissertation proposal: Suggestions for students in education and the social and behavioral science. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. Kumar, R. (2005). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (2nd ed.). London: Sage. Kumar, R. (2011). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (3rd ed.). London: Sage. Lewin, K. (1952). Field theory in social science: Selected theoretical papers). London: Tavistock. Locke, L. F., Spirduso, W. W., & Silverman, S. J. (2000). Proposals that work: A guide for planning dissertations and grant proposals (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Meador, R. (1991). Guidelines for preparing proposals. Chelsea, Mich.: Lewis Publishers. Ogden, T. E., & Goldberg, I. A. (2002). Research proposals: A guide to success (3rd ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Punch, K. (2006). Developing effective research proposals (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. RCUK. (2009). Policy and code of conduct on the governance of good research conduct. Swindon: Research Councils UK. Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2012). Research methods for business students (6th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
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The International Journal of Management Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijme
The role of research proposals in business and management education Martyn Denscombe De Montfort University, Leicester, England
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 2 July 2012 Received in revised form 22 November 2012 Accepted 15 March 2013
This paper explores the use of research proposals within business and management education. The implicit learning objectives contained in producing research proposals are described and evaluated in terms of learning about research and research methodology. Particular consideration is given to the potential of research proposals to work in an educative sense as stand-alone entities quite separate from their role as a prelude to engaging in research activity. The benefits and limitations of using research proposals in separation from the actual experience of conducting empirical research are discussed. It is concluded that research proposals, used as stand-alone learning exercises, can prove particularly valuable where there might be concerns about gaining access to appropriate settings or getting ethical approval for practical research activity. They can also be of particular value in the context of courses where students’ primary concern is with commissioning or evaluating research rather acquiring the skills to undertake research projects for themselves (e.g. MBA students). Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Research proposals Research methods Management education Business education
1. Introduction Research proposals have a well-established place within business and management education. At undergraduate, masters and doctoral level students can expect to write a research proposal as part of a course on research methodology or in preparation for a dissertation/thesis. Relatively little has been written, however, on the exact purpose of writing a research proposal or the potential benefits for learning about research and research methodology resulting from writing a research proposal. Guidance offered to students generally describes what items need to be included in the proposal, but it is rare to find efforts to scratch beneath the surface to explain the significance of the items or to explore the implicit learning objectives contained in producing a research proposal (Denscombe, 2012; Emmanuel & Gray, 2003; Heath & Tynan, 2010). Nor has there been much consideration of research proposals as learning vehicles in their own right, or the extent to which they can function in isolation from the experience of undertaking the plan of work contained within the research proposal. Consequently, this paper offers an outline of the role of research proposals and, bearing in mind the circumstances of students on business and management courses, pays particular attention to the potential of research proposals to replace any requirement to conduct a piece of empirical research. 2. The functions of research proposals A well-constructed research proposal offers a blue-print for research – an outline plan that shows what the parts look like and how they will fit together. It describes what will be done and explains how it will be done. This serves a variety of
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functions. First, it has a planning function (Denicolo & Becker, 2012; Locke, Spirduso, & Silverman, 2000; Punch, 2006). It describes what will be done, how it will be done and in what time-frame. There are clear benefits here in relation to the execution of the proposed research. Second, it can act as a contract (Krathwohl & Smith, 2005: Locke et al., 2000). Through the proposal the researcher specifies what will be delivered and how this will be achieved and, particularly where funding is concerned, this can be treated as a commitment on the part of the researcher to provide certain information or other deliverables as a result of the investigation. A third function of research proposals is that of evaluation (Denscombe, 2012; Krathwohl & Smith, 2005). In this case, the proposal is used as the basis for vetting the quality of the proposed research and/or for checking that there are no ethical issues arising from the proposed research which have not been adequately addressed. In such instances the readers act as gatekeepers to research, filtering out any proposals that are deemed inadequate in terms of their research methods/design or which are considered unacceptable in relation to ethical standards for research. It is the argument of this paper, however, that there is a fourth function which can be added – that of research training. Viewed in this way, the research proposal can act as an end-product in its own right rather than serve as a prelude to an empirical research project. This is not to imply that the use of research proposals for planning, contractual or evaluation purposes is in any sense inadequate, misguided or wrong. Far from it, these are vital roles in relation to research projects. What this paper argues, instead, is that research proposals can serve another purpose as well. They can have an educational function, providing a useful learning exercise through which students can acquire and apply knowledge of research methodology and insights about the research process without the need to conduct a piece of research. In the context of business and management education, especially in circumstances where actually undertaking empirical research might not be viable – this can be particularly useful. 3. The role of research training for business and management students Business and management students are generally required to undertake a piece of small-scale research as part of their degree programme. At undergraduate level this tends to take the form of a final year dissertation, at masters level it is incorporated into the dissertation, and at PhD level a piece of empirical research normally forms the backbone of the thesis. Doing a piece of research, in other words, is a standard part of business and management training and education that is provided in the university context as part of a degree qualification. The rationale for this is quite straightforward. Business and management students are expected to have an understanding of research work within their academic field of study. Research, after all, provides a foundation for the knowledge-base surrounding business and management studies: it develops theories and provides information which those who study the area need to learn. Understanding the research work, however, can mean different things at different levels of a student’s education. At the initial stages of business and management education it tends to entail being conversant with the findings from key research work in the field (see Table 1). The scope of material is relatively restricted and students are expected to learn from the results of that research. The emphasis, in other words, is on acquiring the knowledge that has resulted from pieces of research that are highly-respected and which form the foundations for the particular field of study. The prime task from the students’ point of view is to search for the key literature and then to learn from it. As students move from bachelors level through masters and doctoral level study the emphasis moves more towards creating knowledge rather than acquiring knowledge. There is, as Fig. 1 indicates, a shift in balance which sees the evaluation and production of knowledge assuming greater significance relative to searching for and learning from existing work. This is always a matter of relative importance, but the point is that with masters and doctoral level study there is growing emphasis placed on the students’ ability to contribute to the field through the critical evaluation of other people’s research and through embarking on the process of doing a piece of research work by themselves. The more that students are called upon to evaluate work and to undertake research work by themselves the more important it is for them to gain an understanding of research methodology. As students engage in the evaluation of existing research findings they are expected to understand the methods used by researchers and to have the ability to weigh up the merits or otherwise of the approach adopted by influential works in the field. And as they embark on the process of designing a research project of their own there is ever more need for them to have a grasp of the methods at their disposal and have an understanding of how appropriate each is for the particular piece of research being considered. The number of excellent texts on research methods for business and management students bears testimony to the point (see, amongst others, Bryman & Bell, 2011; Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, & Jackson, 2012; Kumar, 2011; Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
Table 1 The role of research in business and management education. Type
Level
Awards
Main task
Coverage
Outcome
Project
Bachelors
BA, BSc
Description
Famous works associated with the topic
Dissertation
Masters
MA, MSc MRes, MPhil
Synthesis
Thesis
Doctorate
PhD, DBA
Analysis
Wide range of works that have a close bearing on the topic Comprehensive coverage of relevant studies
Acquisition of knowledge about the work Understanding of the underlying themes Development of new knowledge
Developed from Hart (1998: 15).
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Fig. 1. The production of knowledge through research activity.
4. Learning through experience: the benefits Text-book learning about methodology is necessary and good but the requirement on academic courses to do a substantial and sustained piece of study on a specific topic tends to incorporate the idea of actually doing a piece of research as well. Through the masters dissertation and the doctoral thesis (and sometimes through the bachelors project) students are put in the driver’s seat. Part of the reason for this, as it has been argued above, is the idea that as students progress through the levels of study they should take more responsibility for the production of knowledge rather than simply assimilating existing research findings (see Fig. 1). At the higher levels of study students are expected to push the boundaries of what is known about a particular subject and in most cases, though not all, this calls for the collection and analysis of primary data. Hence, becoming engaged in doing a piece of research is a necessary by-product of studying at advanced levels. Alongside this, however, there is a more or less explicit assumption that first-hand experience of engaging in research activity will be something that is beneficial for their broader understanding of methodology. The benefits come, in the first instance, from the fact that such activity provides experiential learning (Dewey, 1938; Kolb, 1984: Lewin, 1952). The logic is that students who undertake a small-scale piece of research can learn through first-hand experience and, as a result, get a more personal, memorable grasp of the issues involved. Doing research for a project, dissertation or thesis can also be beneficial because it involves an applied approach to learning. Abstract concepts and principled advice about methodology should become transformed into the realms of reality through the need to apply them in practice – with distinct benefits for student learning as a consequence. In a sense linked with this, the practical aspects of conducting research will need to be confronted in order to complete the research, and this can help students to understand the importance of resources like time and money and the need to scope a project bearing in mind a host of practical factors that have a major impact on the chances of successfully completing the research on time. A further kind of benefit to be derived from the experience of undertaking a small-scale piece of research is the way it can provide a better insight into the research process, something of particular value when it comes to evaluating the research of others. The benefits here occur not just in relation to academic studies and the critical appraisal of published works as part of the degree programme. In terms of professional practice it can be seen as something that enhances the managerial skills of those who commission research projects or who evaluate policy changes. Through having done some research themselves they are in a better position to judge the quality of proposals or the outcomes of policy programmes. 5. Learning through experience: the problems These kind of benefits can provide a persuasive argument for incorporating hands-on experience of conducting a smallscale piece of research into business and management degree programmes. There are, however, some factors that militate against this. In the first instance there is the matter of research governance and ethics approval. Institutions have a duty to ensure that the research that is undertaken under their auspices accord with the principles of research ethics and that ethics approval procedures are robust (ABS, 2010; ESRC, 2010a; RCUK, 2009). With large numbers of students involved in business and management programmes this can pose a problem. Each and every piece of research involving human participants needs to be reviewed and approved. This is not an insurmountable problem. The process, however, can be quite a drain on resources. A second factor that warrants consideration in this context is the level of preparation and training that business and management students are likely to have when they embark on research in the field. With respect to the Bachelors projects there is an issue about whether students at this level will have received the amount of preparatory research training that qualifies them to go out and collect data. One of the fundamental principles of research ethics is that researchers should have the appropriate skills and training to conduct the research without jeopardizing the well-being of the participants. Now although this owes much to the concerns of medical research (Burr & Reynolds, 2010), the point remains that relatively untrained and predominantly youthful students, particularly at undergraduate and masters level, may not have the
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appropriate skills to undertake empirical research involving human participants. Their activity in the field, as a consequence, has the potential to cause harm, compromise safety and produce technically inadequate results. A third factor to be borne in mind is that, at a practical level, there can be a problem gaining access to the necessary organizations and settings that tend to be needed in order to conduct empirical research. For many full-time students, especially for those students who are not able to call upon networks and personal contacts to enable their entrée, finding a business organization who will host their research project can be a daunting task. Faced with pressure to undertake primary research without access to suitable data source, there is an increased possibility that students will resort to using unsuitable data sources, for instance conducting surveys based on convenience sampling. The focus on conducting research using primary source data provides a fourth factor that has the potential to be problematic. Basically, it has more value for students in some disciplines than others. Students of accountancy and finance, for instance, might question the benefits of gaining first-hand experience of primary data collection involving the use of tools such as interviews and questionnaires, feeling that research that is relevant to their area can be based on secondary source data that are already available and which exist the public domain. Finally, there is an argument to be made that research training for business and management students, as for many other social science disciplines, does not need to be tailored to an ‘apprenticeship’ model in which learning to do research, under the expert guidance of a supervisor, is the means for gaining the necessary knowledge about research. After all, business and management education is not primarily concerned with developing potential researchers; it is about enabling practicing or nascent managers, entrepreneurs and business executives to understand research in order that they can better undertake their business or management role. The point is especially significant in relation to early or mid-career professionals doing, for instance, an MBA. Their interest and professional concerns are geared more towards commissioning and evaluating research, rather than learning how to conduct research. Bearing these points in mind the question arises as to how business and management students can be provided with an understanding of methodology and the research process when experiential learning confronts practical difficulties or where it might not be the most appropriate learning vehicle in terms of the needs of the particular students. This paper argues that research proposals can provide an answer. Looking at the components of a research proposal and the specific demands these entail the following discussion will show that the task of constructing a research proposal can, in its own right, provide a useful and valuable exercise that: provides an insight into the practicalities of the research process; enhances an understanding of research methodology; avoids some of the practical difficulties associated with both arranging access to research settings in the public domain and with gaining ethics approval for projects; meets the specific requirements of certain types of business and management student. 6. Learning through research proposals – their educational potential 6.1. The logic underlying research activity An immediate benefit of producing a research proposal is that it familiarizes students with the underlying logic of research activity. This logic is really quite straightforward. As Denscombe (2012) argues it follows the path of seven basic questions which it is reasonable to ask of any proposed piece of research: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
What exactly is the research looking at? What do we already know about the subject? What further things do we need to find out? How will we obtain the necessary information? What will the research cost and low long will it take? Is the research ethical? What will be the benefits arising from the research?
6.2. The content of research proposals These seven questions transcend different paradigms of research (Heath & Tynan, 2010). They operate as ‘ground rules’ for research which are recognized by researchers from different disciplines using contrasting epistemologies and ontologies (Denscombe, 2010). And they give rise to a generic structure and set of headings for use with research proposals that apply across the broad spectrum of disciplines (Chapin, 2004; Emmanuel & Gray, 2003; Friedland & Folt, 2000; Kumar, 2005; Meador, 1991; Ogden & Goldberg, 2002; Punch, 2006). Although there will be slight variations in the headings and even perhaps the order of the material there is still a definite family resemblance to things that function as ‘research proposals’. No single list will satisfy all research traditions but a list of headings such as the following one will be recognizable in the context of a research proposal for the vast majority of researchers.
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Title Keywords Aims of the research Background and literature review Research questions or hypotheses Methodology: research design, data collection, data analysis Resources and planning Ethics Limitations
To be pedantic, it might be more accurate to say that the structure and format of research proposals reflects the conventional rhetoric for justifying research, rather than depicting how research is actually conceived or undertaken, but the significant point is that the task of writing a research proposal immediately has the benefit that it spells out to students a general way of thinking about research and a conventional manner of describing and justifying a proposed research project. 6.3. Clarity about the purpose and benefits of research When describing the purpose of the research through the title, the keywords and the aims students need to have a precise and developed idea about what the focus of the research will entail, they need to learn and apply certain conventions about the style in which the purpose can be described and they will need to employ writing skills to express the purpose within tight word limits. The Background section and Literature Review provide the opportunity to explain why the proposed research is worthwhile (Fink, 2010). From the student’s point of view there are, perhaps, two distinct kinds of skill associated with writing this explanation. First there is the literary skill of constructing a narrative that takes the reader on a journey of discovery through which the need for the research is uncovered. Writing skills are called for here. Second, the student needs to have acquired a credible background knowledge relating to the subject matter of the proposed research. There needs to be reference to facts, reports and authors as signposts to the nature of the research and its purpose. A suitable number of such sources need to be cited to support the discussion in the proposal and this is exactly the kind of reading and background knowledge that is required for an academic programme. The Outcomes section of the research proposal calls on the researcher to specify the kind of end-products that are likely to be produced by the research activity. In recent times this has become an increasingly prominent feature of proposals – signifying the attention that is now being paid to factors like the dissemination of findings and the potential impact of the research. This proves to be a salutary message for students that the value of any project will be judged in part on the deliverables. It alerts them to the current climate of research which emphasizes the idea that research should produce something of recognizable value (e.g. recommendations, new practices, new information, guidelines for good practice, contribution to theory). And, finally, in arriving at the research questions there is a need for students to specify the exact questions to be investigated. Whether in the form of hypotheses, testable propositions or questions these are vital when the proposal is being used as a prelude to actual research because they give focus to the enquiry. Yet they are just as valuable when the proposal is being used as a stand-alone exercise. The student needs to specify precise indicators that are going to be ‘measured’ in order to address the broader issues identified in the Aims and Background sections. Terms need to be defined and there is no room for vagueness. 6.4. Understanding of the methodology A research proposal involves an explicit account of the data that are to be collected. There needs to be a factual description of how the data are to be collected, there needs to be a factual description of what data will be collected, when and where the data are to be collected, and consideration needs to be given to the availability of the data and whether there are any restrictions on access. To accomplish this in any meaningful way the student needs to have given forethought to the proposed plan of research and engaged in mentally mapping the means by which appropriate data might be obtained. The proposal should also explain why the proposed methods have been chosen. There will need to be some coherence to the overall research design and the strategy and data collection methods will need to be discussed and evaluated in terms of i) their suitability for the research questions, ii) their implications for the quality of the data iii) their benefits relative to alternative possible approaches to the investigation. To do this, students will need to be familiar with a range of research strategies and methods that could potentially be used (e.g. case studies, surveys, interviews, questionnaires) and will probably need to demonstrate some awareness of sampling methods and their implications. All of this calls for some fundamental knowledge of research – knowledge that is based on a suitable number of relevant sources which need to be cited to support the discussion and knowledge. The description and justification of the proposed methodology, in other words, requires the kind of knowledge about research methodology that can be assessed through the proposal and, in addition, calls for that knowledge to be applied in the instance of the research questions or hypotheses that have been produced as a result of the literature review.
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6.5. Recognising resource constraints The feasibility of any proposed research needs to be considered in relation to the available resources. Immediately, the point to be learned here is that research is not free. There are always costs involved and in the context of a research proposal such costs need to be estimated. The scope of the project outlined in the proposal and its feasibility within the given resource constraints need to be explained. Research needs to be delivered on time and the planning of the proposed research must involve some consideration of the time-frame within which the work must be complete. As with any project, attention needs to be paid to the scheduling of the various components of the research, and the production of a Gantt chart outlining the plan of work is useful in this respect. This part of a research proposal, like the others, is of value whether or not the research plan is ever put into practice. 6.6. Acknowledging the limitations A good research proposal will always include an explicit statement about its limitations and its boundaries (delimitations). It will recognize the limits to what can and what cannot be concluded on the basis of the restricted area it has chosen to study and the methods to be adopted. There is a sense in which this is good practice because the researcher is open and honest about the possibilities of the research and any claims that might be made on the basis of its findings. But there is also a challenge for the business or management student built into the limitations section of a proposal: this section calls for a selfevaluation of the research. It requires students to demonstrate a grasp of the research enterprise which is built upon awareness of both the benefits and the drawbacks of alternative methodological approaches. Grand claims and overambitious expectations, of course, bear testimony to the lack of such awareness. 6.7. Taking an ethical approach In any proposal the student should be able to argue that the proposed research will comply with the spirit and practice of research ethics and be sensitive to the political/legal context within which the research is to be conducted. To do so they will need to demonstrate some familiarity with relevant codes of ethics and the fundamental issues involved (consent, avoidance of harm, confidentiality, beneficence etc.). Such familiarity, of course, is a vital aspect of research training. More than this, the discussion contained in this section of the proposal will apply those principles to the specific investigation being proposed. From a research training point of view this has real benefits, forcing the student to move beyond a reiteration of abstract principles towards a demonstration of understanding their implications by ‘putting them into practice’. 6.8. The need for precision, rigour and clarity Research proposals, by their very nature, are documents that are produced in order to be evaluated (Denscombe, 2012). They are written not simply to help the researcher plan the research – important thought this is. They are written with a view to persuading the readers that what is being proposed is worthwhile and feasible. Readers, for their part, need to be regarded as people who are open to persuasion but who approach matters with a healthy scepticism. They will have in their minds the seven basic questions above and they will expect to find answers – answers that satisfy their doubts and which encourage them to feel that the proposed research has merit. From the students’ point of view this means that they need to produce a proposal whose content and style conveys the essential information in way that will address any qualms the readership might have and which gets the message across in a persuasive manner. In a nutshell this means the proposal needs to have three qualities; it needs to be precise, rigorous and clear. The readers are likely to be busy people and, reflecting this point, proposals tend to be relatively brief documents. They need to be parsimonious with words and precise with meanings. Rather than being able to indulge in lengthy expositions of points a research proposal needs to get to the heart of the matter succinctly. Restrictions on the length of proposals also allow little opportunity to include anything except the most relevant factors. Students, then, do not have leeway to include items which they think might possibly be relevant but which they are not sure about. They need to know what is crucial and what is not. And this can be a challenge. The production of a research proposal also requires the student to adhere closely to the remit for the work and the specified format in which it needs to be presented. Proposals often get rejected simply because they have not followed the rules (ESRC, 2010b). As well as keeping the proposal within specific word limits, there might be the need to use headings, fonts, page layouts and referencing systems that are specified for the proposals. Strict adherence to these ‘rules’, with its emphasis on precision and attention to detail, can serve as a transferrable skill that can be assessed in the context of the submission of the research proposal. 6.9. A holistic vision of research activity Last, but not least, writing a research proposal requires an overall vision of a project. As a way of learning about research this has the advantage that it calls on the student to stand back and look at the ‘bigger picture’. The proposal needs to cover a piece of research from beginning to the end and to consider the research within its social context. Consequently, learning
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about research is not restricted to the rote-learning of isolated facts, to the intellectual grasp of abstract principles or the acquisition of skills linked to specific stand-alone techniques. It involves, instead, a holistic view of the project. And this is something that replicates a core benefit associated with students getting hands-on experience of conducting a ‘live’ piece of research for themselves. 7. Discussion The use of stand-alone research proposal exercises would appear to meet most of the learning objectives associated with the experience of conducting empirical research in the real world. Students who are given the task of producing a research proposal, as we have seen, need to plan a piece of research which they can justify as being both worthwhile and feasible. To do this successfully they need to demonstrate an understanding of the research process and its underlying logic. They need to be precise and rigorous in their approach, they need to link their chosen methodology with their specified aims, and they need to appreciate the contextual parameters within which real-world business and management research takes place (resources, research ethics etc.). And it is the argument of this paper that such things can be achieved without actually undertaking empirical research (and the consequent need for engaging in ethics approval procedures or gaining access to research sites). There are, however, certain limitations that need to be recognized relative to the full-blooded hands-on experience of conducting a real piece of research. The first of these concerns the remit for the proposal. In order to achieve something akin to the first-hand experience of actually doing the research the remit for the research proposal will probably need to involve some crucial conditions. To emulate first-hand experience the remit for the (imaginary) project will need to include:
Empirical research; Primary data collection; People-based data; Minimal resources; Student as the principal researcher; Specified time scale.
Such conditions are necessary because it would otherwise become possible to side-step consideration of some of the most challenging matters (e.g. access to data, time and resources, research ethics) and thereby miss out on key learning objectives. The downside of such a primary data, people-based remit for the research proposal is that it aligns with certain areas of business and management studies more others. It is arguably easier for students to choose topics relating to areas such as marketing and HRM, for instance, than it might be for areas such as accounting or finance. The second limitation is that research proposals do not require students to engage in data analysis or deal with practical issues of data protection. The design of a project can certainly require students to specify the kind of data analysis they propose to use, and it can call upon the student to recognize the importance of data protection and confidentiality issues. Getting down and dirty with the data, however, is not something that can be done through a research proposal as such. Data analysis is a skill that needs to be acquired through some other means. A third limitation is that research proposals miss the practical aspects of putting a plan into action. A proposal can only present a plan for research and can never provide the student with that further, practical insight to the nature of research that revolves around unexpected occurrences. It cannot challenge students to overcome problems, to think laterally or to implement contingency measures when things do not go according to plan. In similar vein, a fourth limitation to be taken into consideration is that research proposals do not involve the element of pro-activeness and social interaction that underlies most real-world empirical research projects. There is no requirement to get involved with arranging meetings, negotiating with gatekeepers, gaining access to network. So, for example, a proposal might include the idea of conducting ten interviews with marketing executives which, in terms of a research design, can be a sound proposition. Arranging such interviews and conducting such interviews, however, is a research experience that a proposal cannot emulate. Such limitations, however, need to be weighed against the potential benefits of substituting the production of a research proposal for the hands-on experience of doing a research project. As we have seen, experiential learning has its benefits – but these can come at a price. There is extra time and effort involved in conducting a small-scale piece of research and, particularly at the undergraduate level there are concerns about the preparedness of students to be launched ‘out there’ to undertake empirical work with people and the ethical issues entailed. It would seem that at this level, in particular, the use of research proposals instead of research projects is something that warrants serious consideration. 8. Conclusion It has been argued that task of writing a research proposal can provide a learning experience of direct value for research training. Used as a stand-alone assignment, writing a research proposal calls upon students to demonstrate: the competence to present a feasible research design for investigating a particular topic;
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the ability to construct a plan of work for completing the research within a specified time-frame; substantive knowledge about the strategies and methods available to researchers; an awareness of the relative strengths and weaknesses or alternative methodologies; professional sensitivity to the main ethical, political, legal and resource parameters within which research is conducted; presentational skills in terms of the precise expression of ideas and the adherence to any given format for the proposal.
This does not imply that the use of research proposals as a prelude to actual, empirical research activity is not valuable. Where such activity is possible and appropriate then the research proposal provides a vital precursor to research which outlines the proposed design and allows an evaluation of the plan to ensure that it meets necessary standards. What it does do instead is to suggest two things. First, it argues that there are circumstances where doing actual, empirical research activity may not be either feasible or appropriate. These have been outlined in relation to business and management education at bachelors and masters level. Second, under such circumstances, constructing a research proposal can constitute a learning exercise that is of value in its own right that can help students to understand the principles of research methodology and their application. References ABS. (2010). Ethics guide 2010. Association of Business Schools. Online at. http://associationofbusinessschools.org/ethics-guide-2010. Accessed 01.04.13. Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2011). Business research methods (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Burr, J., & Reynolds, P. (2010). The wrong paradigm? Social research and the predicates of ethical scrutiny. Research Ethics Review, 6(4), 128–133. Chapin, P. G. (2004). Research projects and research proposals: A guide for scientists seeking funding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Denicolo, P., & Becker, L. (2012). Developing research proposals. London: Sage. Denscombe, M. (2010). Ground rules for social research (2nd ed.). Maidenhead: Open University Press. Denscombe, M. (2012). Research proposals: A practical guide. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. Indianapolis: Kappa Delta Pi. Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R., & Jackson, P. (2012). Management research: Theory and practice (4th ed.). London: Sage. Emmanuel, C., & Gray, R. (2003). Preparing a research proposal for a student research dissertation: a pedagogic note. Accounting Education, 12(1), 1–10. ESRC. (2010a). Framework for research ethics. Swindon: ESRC. Online at. http://www.esrc.ac.uk/about-esrc/information/research-ethics.aspx. Accessed 22. 03.12. ESRC. (2010b). How to write a good application. Economic and Social Research Council. http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/guidance/applicants/ how-to.aspx. Accessed 01.04.13. Fink, A. (2010). Conducting research literature reviews: From the Internet to paper (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage. Friedland, A. J., & Folt, C. L. (2000). Writing successful science proposals. New Haven: Yale University Press. Hart, C. (1998). Doing a literature review: Releasing the social science research imagination. London: Sage. Heath, T., & Tynan, C. (2010). Crafting a research proposal. The Marketing Review, 10(2), 147–168. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Krathwohl, D. R., & Smith, N. L. (2005). How to prepare a dissertation proposal: Suggestions for students in education and the social and behavioral science. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. Kumar, R. (2005). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (2nd ed.). London: Sage. Kumar, R. (2011). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (3rd ed.). London: Sage. Lewin, K. (1952). Field theory in social science: Selected theoretical papers). London: Tavistock. Locke, L. F., Spirduso, W. W., & Silverman, S. J. (2000). Proposals that work: A guide for planning dissertations and grant proposals (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Meador, R. (1991). Guidelines for preparing proposals. Chelsea, Mich.: Lewis Publishers. Ogden, T. E., & Goldberg, I. A. (2002). Research proposals: A guide to success (3rd ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Punch, K. (2006). Developing effective research proposals (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. RCUK. (2009). Policy and code of conduct on the governance of good research conduct. Swindon: Research Councils UK. Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2012). Research methods for business students (6th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.