Research strategy for making a good dissertation

There are several options to a researcher when developing strategies for a good dissertation. According to Saunders (2007) , these options can be limited to the following strategies , which in fact is very convenient for  university level dissertations. The strategies which are considered for the research are experiments, survey, case study, action research, grounded theory, ethnography and archival research. 

A careful reading of the descriptions for these strategies usually rule out archival research, ethnography and grounded theory (never mind these are my personal selections). Now if you consult with your supervisor you may also drop the case study, but it is just a personal opinion.  However if you are so convinced about what you are doing go ahead but keep in touch with your supervisor to design the statement, problem, solution and outcomes for your case study. Now one of the most popular methods is a survey research, I reckon you will prepare a survey for one your objectives.

 It is recommended to prepare one or you may find it very difficult to defend your outcomes. Besides the survey provides brand new data for you which is as good as a new car rather than a dodgy second hand car. Try to focus your recommendations and outcomes using the primary data and amount of 'quality' primary data is directly proportional to the value of your dissertation. (I recommend a reading on the 'triangulation in research ' which benefit the choice of research strategies).

It is also very appropriate for researchers to choose multiple research strategies since each objective reflects on specific outcomes. The choice of multiple strategies also improves the acceptability of your research since more than one strategy exhibit the expertise of the researcher with strategies. There are several other important points to be followed when choosing your research strategy since it should follow the choice you have made in the research philosophy and research approach. Let me summarise the points here in order to make a quality choice in the research strategies.

1. make sure you have understood all the strategies and their implications in your area of your research before making your selection.

2. Be conscious about the time limit to complete the dissertation and choose appropriate strategy.

3. The research strategy must follow your philosophy of the research and the research approach or else the valuator can stop reading the dissertation at this point.

4. Try to include examples for each of the strategy (you should specify all the strategies and give more explanation to your choice of dissertation in the later part).

5. A neat and clear explanation for the choice you have made in this section is expected which should be around 50% of your content in this section.

6. Choose more than one strategy which is more preferable and adds value to your expertise.

7. Specify clearly the tools and techniques to carry out each research strategy for example the sample size, characteristics of the respondents and methods for drawing the sample (preferably the simple random sampling).

Out of box:

The case study method is not popular among valuators you better make a through consultation with your supervisor before fixing it (and for your safety I recommend a second opinion) . How you explain implementation of the strategy you have chosen is the most significant point in this section other things can be obtained directly from the text books.

Research approaches for a good dissertation

A gentle reminder to the readers of this blog. In this blog I am following a systematic approach to introduce various tips and tricks for producing a valuable dissertation for top universities in the world especially in UK. The inputs can be utilised for doing an effective dissertation especially in management subjects and is specifically focused on getting good marks for the dissertation. Most of the students end up with bad grades since they have not fully understood the overall evaluation method by the University. Here, it is handled in a simple way with professional inputs to guide you through the complex task of producing a  dissertation. Please refer to all the other chapters for a better understanding and keep track of the developments.

Again and again I prefer to remind you that , it is better, stick to simple ideas and produce a fully sensible research. The universities and the evaluators are looking for the over all logical connection made at each chapter , the skills you have shown in choosing each tool and how you have implemented it in your investigation. 

So a dissertation that is too complex to understand may put you in to big trouble !..... the thumb rule here is 

KEEP IT SIMPLE AND STUPID ( K.I.S.S.).

The section following philosophy (last blog)  is the approach we are going to take when conducting the current research. That is how you are planning to approach the execution of research. Management students are very familiar with a top-down approach and bottom up approach that are very common in business analysis. whenever there is a need for analysing the strategy the management usually fix a particular approach such as a top down approach or a bottom up approach in accordance with the requirements of the situation. This practice in fact follows from the fundamental approaches in scientific and non-scientific research . 

This section is much easier to understand than the philosophy ( don't remind me about that..... !!!) .  

As I mentioned earlier,all the researches can be classified into 2 groups scientific and non-scientific research approaches or 'inductive' and 'deductive' approaches. The word deductive itself provides a clue about how it is conducted ,that is it moves from theory to data. This means you first create a theory and experiment with the theory.

In this stage we may remember how Einstein created relativity theory and gave a tough time to all the other scientists to prove it with experiments (data). it is difficult to understand the way in which scientist think since they think first and then make equations. Unfortunately in most of the educational system across the world the students are taught to learn those equations and do not get the time for creative or irrational thinking.

Let us  first discuss the deductive approach. the following points will make it very clear on the logic of deduction. 

• The deductive approach is based on scientific principles.
• This approach fundamentally moves from a specific theory to generation of data.
• This approach is strictly based on a structure such as procedures in a controlled (laboratory) experiment and obviously suitable for quantitative data.
• The statistical methods have a high influence on the outcomes and is less biased with the involvement of researcher.
• all the advantages and disadvantages of statistical data collection, classification and analysis are applicable to this approach.
• The outcomes of the research are generated from available facts.
• This approach is usually known as the top down approach.
• The deductive approach progress from the theory to hypothesis, observation and finally conformation.

Now you know this is not what you are not looking for right ? ( provided you are a management student). 

Fine, for a research conducted in a social setting an inductive approach is usually used . However, most of the researchers now try to select a particular approach for individual research objectives which gives more clarity on the outcomes.

The inductive approach is suitable for a research conducted to investigate various attributes that are not quantifiable. I hope the following points will make it more clear.

• The inductive approach is expected to provide more understanding about human attachments to certain events.
• This is the most suitable approach when dealing with qualitative data.
• There is high flexibility to change or update the structure of the research  as we progress with the investigation.
• In this approach the researcher is part of the research which sometimes create personal bias, but most suitable in case it is necessary to reflect the experience of the researcher in the outcomes.
• It begins with the creation of data and these data's are well explained with the existing theoretical foundation.
• This approach is usually known as the bottom up approach.
• The inductive approach begins with observation to identification of patterns and creates tentative hypothesis and develops the theory.

so when you select your particular approach for the research, have a  word with your guide and choose separate approaches for each research objective. sometimes they may advise you to follow one particular approach in that case better you do that :) . 

        

Philosophy of the research for a dissertation

The philosophy of the research is discussed here . You should be now wondering what is the relation between a philosophy and your humble dissertation. 

..........I have no choice but to get a little philosophical.......... !

So let us start with the term philosophy...as it always happens what ever work you have not understood, and consistently found in your study materials can be blamed on Greeks ( my Greek friends are very descent!). 

So... Philo= Love and Sophia = Wisdom ( some of my other friends are asking if they love wisdom so much how come they are in economic trouble now???..good question).

To make things a less philosophical , let me introduce this with some real life examples. For example , if you are supporting a specific political party , then you are understood to have a philosophy,following an ideology ( liberalism,socialism,communism so on) . So you developed your philosophy ( this can be economical,political,social,cultural,regional....) first and joins hands with like minded people.  

Therefore when you start your dissertation...research...follow a  particular philosophy . There are mainly 3 to 4 philosophies ...however I  understood only two :( ... but for the purpose of dissertation find the definition of other philosophies and mention it. Let us begin with positivism. you can get tons of material on positivism..still at the end of the day you will be wondering what it is ... at least I did :(.

So all those 'isms' I mentioned are your philosophy and the research approach and methods are the political parties you have selected to full fill your philosophical objectives. 

The theoretical explanation says positivism philosophy is followed by scientific experiments . In a scientific experiments , the scientists believe that they can prove any thing with experiments and if they have gone wrong blame it on the random error or statistics. This philosophy postulate that  the outcomes of the research should be quantifiable or it is not considered to be  a perfect experiment. Hence if your research involves conducting experiments in a controlled environment and data have a quantitative nature you are a 'positivist'..... GREAT!!!!

Just like you and me there are many people who do not believe that the truth cannot be squeezed out of a research conducted in a controlled environment especially for attributes with qualitative characteristics.  So when you are planning to conduct the experiment in a social setting , the outcomes are not always quantifiable and is explained with qualitative data analysis. So these sensible researchers are usually considered interpretivist. 

Hence the positivist have an objective approach and the interpretivist have a subjective approach ....

The inconsistencies of  a social science research are more visible if a positivism is applied ...such as trying to measure the loyalty of employees through a questionnaire and rewarding for best answers. The attribute like loyalty needs analysis from different dimension with subjective analysis... So a manager will show better accuracy in identifying more loyal employees than a positivist researcher.  

There are other philosophies and I am trying to summarise them with subjective and objective characterisations. 

Objective.                                         

1. Positivism
2. Realism.
3. Determinism.
4. Nomothetic.

Subjective.

1. Interpretivism.
2. Nominalism.
3. voluntarism.
4. Ideographic.

This list is not optimised and frankly for the purpose of dissertation I recommend only positivism , interpretivism and realism ( it is actually a mix of positivism and interpretivism) to be on the safer side. 

    Happy philosophical thinking .........!