Research Design & Execution
Assignment Guidance
RESEARCH TOPIC: Sustaining the Tourism Industry in a Country Perceived Dangerous: Nigeria as a Case Study

As a 30-credit module, the assignment should be 6500 to 7000 words in length.

Assessment will be by one assignment, which will present a critical evaluation and comparison of relevant research methodologies appropriate to your specific research purpose and area.
The assignment requires you to:

• Critically discuss and evaluate the proposed research methodology and the design of the research methods you plan to use when undertaking your proposed research.

• Specifically, you will critically review research methodologies appropriate to your proposed research and thereby justify your subsequent choice of methodology, proposed methods of data collection and analyses.
PLEASE TAKE NOTE:
• It is crucial that there is evidence of wide reading and theoretical underpinning for your paper with linkage to practical considerations
• Ensure you write more on the methodology and analysis, and less of literatures
• Discuss your choice of design. How relevant is it to your topic?
• Make sure you reference while discussing about the methodology, (this will show as an evidence of wide reading).
• Focus on your design, methodology and data collection method and justify why?

Feedback will be given which will enable the student to develop deeper understanding of the stages in a research project to enable them to embark on their proposed research and thesis with confidence.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
The coursework will assess the extent to which the learning outcomes have been demonstrated within a critique of alternative research methodologies appropriate to the proposed research.

Indicative Content/Structure
1. The first section (introduction) needs to succinctly answer three questions:
(a) What is the issue/problem? You need to define the subject of your proposed research and draw some boundaries round it. What it is and what it isn’t. State your research question(s)!
(b) Why is the issue/problem important? Basically, why bother? Is it just a way of filling your time, or is your project about something that really matters to someone (you, the academic/management community), and, if so, in what way?
(c) What is the context in which the research is set? You need to provide enough information about contextual features to give the reader a feel for the setting of the proposed work. Normally, this will mean a little about the size and business of your research organisation(s). Depending on the degree of contextual detail appropriate to later chapters, it might also include a discussion of extra-organisational factors which represent key aspects of the issue’s environment.
In addition, to answering these questions, this section should also give the reader some indication of the structure of the assignment.

2. The next section may (briefly) consist of your analysis of the literature. In effect you are trying to answer the question: “what is already known about this issue/problem?” and calve out the gap in the literature (or lacuna) to which you research will attend.

3. Having set out a theoretical framework through a discussion of the relevant literature, the next logical question is “how might this problem be researched?”. This should be the bulk of your assignment in terms of weighting. This section is, therefore, a critical evaluation of research methodologies and methods. The discussion should also consider those rejected as well as those adopted – not just in a descriptive sense, but in a way that justifies your choices. The aim is to persuade the reader that your approach and the methods chosen are appropriate for the task. You should also be aware of the weaknesses of the methods chosen and be able to comment upon the limitations this may cause.
Most methods of research are grounded in particular views of what organisations are, in general, about. So do discuss your philosophical commitments but this is not a philosophy assignment so don’t spend too much time on them.
You will strengthen your argument by showing that you understand the dominant paradigm which underpins your approach. You also need to discuss the limitations of your methods. All methods are flawed to some extent and you need to show that you are aware of this.
You will also need to discuss the method of data collection including, the sample or respondents used to gather the data from, and how you intend to analyse and make sense of the data. For example, what statistical techniques will you employ to make sense of quantitative survey data, and/or how will do you intend to analyse qualitative data from interviews or observations in order to demonstrate rigour and validity in your analyses.