Steps Overview

Research either tests theory or builds theory. The former often involves quantitative data analysis while the latter is often qualitative. Proper qualitative data analysis is a lengthy process that can take months and in most cases years of interviews, focus group discussions, coding and so on to complete. The goal is to come up with a well validated theory. Proper quantitative data analysis simply involves identifying an established theory and applying statistical tests to either confirm or refute the theory.

As a bachelors degree student, master's degree student or practitioner, you may be requested to write a research proposal and complete your research in a period of 4 to 7 months. Given this time pressure, it is recommended that you use quantitative data analysis and test a theory. The research proposal guidelines here therefore follow this line of thinking. 

Step 1: Identify a problem and outcome

Research must solve a societal problem in an area or way that other researchers have not done. You can therefore use what Sandberg and Alvesson (2011) call gap spotting to identify knowledge gaps which your research can fill. Ask yourself, is there a contextual gap; i.e. is there a societal problem that has not been studied in the context of my geographical location, field etc.? Is there a methodological gap; i.e. studies have been done in my context but the scientific way e.g. strategies in which they were executed are not sound? Is there a theoretical gap; i.e. deficiencies in existing theory? Most likely; as a bachelor's degree student, you will target a contextual gap. A master's degree student will likely target both methodological and contextual gaps. A PhD student will go all the way to a theoretical gap.

Example: 

Einstein is a banking and finance student who is bothered by why SME's do not list on the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) alternative investment market.  Official reports give some points but no concrete evidence. He searches google scholar, science direct, springer link, taylor and francis for studies on LuSE but only finds studies in other countries. He therefore identifies that there is a contextual gap. Studies have been done but these studies neglect Zambia - his country of interest. 

Reminder: It is important to keep in mind that Einstein's outcome of interest here is stock market participation by SMEs.

Step 2: Search for theory that explains the outcome

Next, Einstein searches for a theory that explains SME participation/listing on the stock market. To do this, he refers to the articles he searched for in step one that study SME participation or listing on the stock market. One such article by Zianabu et. al. (2022) which you can read here covers studies SME participation on the stock market and covers most of the attributes needed. One such attribute is theory. The article (Section 2.1) suggests that stock market participation by SME's can be explained by two theories; trade-off theory and the pecking order theory. The trade off theory by Modigliani and Miller (1958) suggests that internal sources of finance such as retained earnings are used by firms first before going to external sources. The pecking order theory by Myers (1984) assumes that firms prefer internally generated financial resources to external sources of finance. The article concludes that these theories suggest that because internal funds are cheaper than external funds due to cost of external funds, then costs of participating on the stock market affect SME participation on the stock market.

Reminder: Einstein's has established using theory that cost of participation on the stock market affect stock market participation by SMEs.

Step 3: Formulate the purpose or main objective of the study 

The purpose of the study is also known as the main objective of the study. It is usually a one line statement. For a proposal, it begins with: The purpose of the still is to... Since Einstein has established from theory that costs of participation on the stock market explain the levels of SME participation on the stock market, the purpose of his study is formulated as:

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of participation costs on SME's participation on the stock market.

Reminder: Einstein's has established the main objective or purpose of his study but how can he come up with specific objectives?

Step 4: Formulate the specific objectives of the study

Having established the purpose of his study, Einstein can now come up with the specific objectives of the study. To do this, he goes back to the article of interest; Zianabu et. al. (2022) which you can read here. He looks at the hypotheses in the article. Each hypothesis can be converted into an objective. The hypotheses in the study are:

H1: SMEs that perceive the floatation costs to be affordable are most likely to participate in stock market.

H2: SMEs that perceive compliance costs to be affordable are most likely to participate in stock market.

H3: SMEs that perceive market costs to be affordable are most likely to participate in stock market.

It is clear that all the three hypotheses are in line with the main objective of Einstein's study (i.e. they all look at how costs of participation on the stock market affect SME's participation on the stock market. They just break down costs into its different components. He is happy with them and goes ahead to convert them into research objectives with H1 as objective 1, H2 objective 2 and H2 Objective 3 as follows:

(i) To assess how perceived floatation costs affect SME participation  the stock market.

(ii) To assess  how perceived compliance costs affect SME participation on the stock market.

(iii) To assess the effect of market costs on SME's participation on the stock market.

Step 4: Formulate the research questions

Based on the research objectives, Einstein then comes up with the following research questions where each objective is mirrored in the research question:

(i) How does perceived floatation cost affect SME participation  the stock market.

(ii) How does perceived compliance cost affect SME participation on the stock market.

(iii) What is the effect of market cost on SME's participation on the stock market.

For more on research question formulation, read begining page 132 of this chapter by Creswell. 

Step 4: Draw your conceptual model

This is usually the researcher's own depiction of relationships being studied. It can be in form of a diagram or formula. Most social science researchers use diagrams. The model must be in line with the hypothesis/objectives. In the article under consideration, Einstein notices that formulas were used in Section 3.5. However, since he has the hypothesis, he can simply use them to come up with a diagram and cite that it was adapted from Zianabu et. al. (2022). He comes up with Figure 1. Notice how each of the costs leads to stock market participation (outcome) as per main objective of the study:

Step 5: Identify reliable and valid measures 

Each of the items in the model has to be measured using measures that are both reliable and valid. The best way to get valid and reliable measures is to adopt.

Step 7: Prepare your questionnaire

Based on step 6, go ahead to prepare a questionnaire to attach to your proposal

Step 8: Write down the methodology for the study

Here, write by answering the question: What is the research approach, research design, population, sample size, sampling technique, data collection procedure, data analysis (statistical) technique(s) and data analysis software. Also write down the ethical considerations of the study.

Step 6: Prepare your research proposal covering template

Each school, university or funding institution will recommend that certain aspects of a proposal be given. Using all the infomation from steps above, you can prepare your research proposal for submission.

References

Myers, S. C. (1984). Capital structure puzzle. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1984.tb03646.x

Modigliani, F., & Miller, M. H. (1958). The cost of capital, corporation finance and the theory of investment. The American Economic Review, 48(3), 261–297.

Sandberg, J., & Alvesson, M. (2011). Ways of constructing research questions: gap-spotting or problematization? Organization, 18(1), 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508410372151

Zainabu Tumwebaze, Laura Orobia, Juma Bananuka, Caroline Bonareri Tirisa & Aminah Balunywa (2022) Stock market participation in less developed countries: a perception-based evidence from Uganda, Cogent Business & Management, 9:1, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2022.2122161

For best practice in presentations, the following tips will help you present with confidence:

• Cover page: Do not spend more than 30 seconds. Introduce yourself and your topic and move

• Outline: Spent less than 4 seconds here too. Simply state that this is your outline and proceed

• Definition of key terms: Define key terms but do not read. You should spend less than 1 minute

• Use the 7's rule when preparing slides. That is, each slide must not exceed 7 bullet points and each bullet point must be not more than 7 words.

• Background: Understand key points of what we know and state them in 30 seconds

• Problem statement: State society challenge, literature coverage so far,  gaps and conclude that these have prompted this study

• Research questions and objectives: Read or state one set and mention that they mirror each other. This should take you less than 30 seconds.

• Literature review: Although not included in the template, a literature review section must be included just after the research questions/objectives. It can be a table in form of a compressed literature review matrix showing authors and year, findings, contributions and gaps.

• Theoretical framework: Within 30 seconds, state the key theory underpinning the study, who came up with it and how it informs your study (i.e. how it helps explain the relationships in your study). 

• Conceptual framework: The model can be a diagram or formula but you must explain the relationships. As you can see in the sample, three independent variables are hypothesized to cause the dependent variable - well as where the model was adapted from.

• The hypothesis (H1 to H3) are also shown and explain exactly what is in the model. Notice also that H1 and research question 1 talk about the same relationships just like H1 and question 2 all the way to H3.

• Research Methodology: Where you can present things in pictorial view, it is better to do so as has been done on the research methodology. Notice how, key aspects are covered including: The 

• research design

• research approch or strategy

• The population (giving the exact figure and source of figure)

• Sampling (The exact sample size, sampling strategy and if possible, expected response rate)

• Data collection: Procedures, tools and how validity and reliability will be ensured in the research

• Data analysis (techniques and software)

Note that the template is a guide and contains extra additions for example (in one research, you may not use all the software mentioned) hence, only include things relevant to your study. During your presentation, the panelists will ask what each item you included means. 

Also note that presentations are a summary. You do not overload them with text. The text will go into the word document proposal. But it is expected that you know the content and must be able to explain without reading.

The other parts are self explainantory. Remember to include them. On the references, it is expected that you will include only references you have cited in the presentation. It is important to back up your statements especially in the background to the study and the problem statement with citations. 

This section is devoted to assisting you with how to come up with a valid and reliable questionnaire for data collection.  It assumes that you have read the above article. Adopting questionnaire item questions is a daunting task and is worse if you are not methodical. In the video below, Fawad runs you through how to find questions for your questionnaire using google scholar and mendeley. 

After your research proposal is approved, you will need to prepare your questionnaire in a form that is ready for data collection. With the advent of pandemics like COVID19 and the need for efficient data collection, there is a trend of collecting data through online questionnaires (especially for respondents who have internet access). Some of the most common online questionnaire tools include:

1. Google Forms

2. SurveyMonkey

3. Jotform

4. Microsoft forms

Because of its flexibility and features, we will use examples that apply google forms.

This section presents a series of videos that are useful in data analysis. It is recommended that you watch all of them as each presents unique ideas that may not be present in the other. 

The template below is for a student whose research I supervised. Because of personal information, the document is password protected and only accessible by those who seat in my class. You can request for the password from the class representative.

You have obviously heard of various chat bots that you can ask questions when stuck. Here is a link to one. As you go about your research project, simply ask it any question and it will provide some guidelines. Note that you must go through and revise the answers it gives you as it may give wrong suggestions some times. 

Start your chat here 

NB: You may not be able to login using the automatic google or microsoft login in the my400 app as this feature is not enabled. Hence, login using email.