Research Methodology

The assignment task requires you to design a research project to investigate a research question that examines some aspect of business in a world of disruption.

The Question:

“To what extent did different Covid-19 restrictions affect national airlines? A comparative research task examining how differently Covid Restrictions affected American Airlines in the USA compared to British Airways in the UK”

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The assignment requires the following steps to complete:

1. Identify a research question that examines some aspect of business in a world of disruption. Although the pandemic is almost over, disruptions to the business world have escalated post-pandemic, including economic and political uncertainty, cyber-crimes, social media disrupting the very nature of facts and truth, natural disasters, and Artificial Intelligence and digital technologies among others. Your research question can be based on your interests, knowledge and experiences of a disrupted business world and how this relates to some aspect of business in your discipline area (e.g. operations and supply chain management, marketing practices and consumer behaviour, international business, human resource management practices, business strategy etc).

2. Develop an appropriate, coherent and robust research plan for investigating your research question. Your plan should include the rationale for your choice of research paradigm, choice of method (quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods), strategies for data collection and analysis, techniques and procedures including sampling, and ‘goodness’ criteria.

3. Critical evaluation of your chosen method (quantitative, qualitative or mixed) against the alternative methods you did not choose.

4. Write up your assignment as a 3000 word individual assignment that describes your research question, evaluates a suitable research plan, and justifies all of your choices.

Specifically, your 3000 write-up must include:

1. A description of the research question that your empirical study will investigate. You should consider both theoretical and practical relevance in choosing your question;

• A plan for investigating your research question using quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods. Your research plan should evaluate and justify your choice of research paradigm, methods for data collection, sampling procedures, analysis strategy, and ‘goodness’ criteria

• A critical evaluation of your proposed research plan against the alternative methods (i.e. the methods you did not choose) to justify why your plan is the best fit with your research question.

• Write up your assignment as a 3000 word individual assignment that describes your research question, evaluates a suitable research plan, and justifies all of your choices.

You must draw on module concepts, frameworks/theories, and readings to support your arguments and demonstrate your learning of the module content. Please structure the write up of your assignment using the following sub-headings and suggested word counts:

1. RESEARCH QUESTION (250 words)

• PROPOSED RESEARCH PLAN (1900 words)

i. Research paradigm (170 words)

ii. Data collection methods (710 words)

iii. Sampling procedures (350 words)

iv. Analysis strategy (350 words)

v. Criteria for judging quality (350 words)

• CRITICAL EVALUATION AND JUSTIFICATION (850 words)

i. Critical evaluation of methods not chosen (quantitative/qualitative/mixed) research plans (670 words)

ii. Justification for selected method (180 words)