Research Project Proposal Order Description The focus of your research project in Study Period 6 (2015) should be a business issue that is of relevance to Australia. You should focus on a business problem/an issue facing Australia where research can be used to assist in decision making related to that issue. As noted above, a strong problem solving approach that uses research to assist in business decision making underlines the assessments in this course. I encourage you to consider the following guidelines in finalising your research question: Choose a business problem relevant to Australia where you can use your research project and its findings to assist in decision making related to the problem. Your research proposal and the project should focus on the business problem/issue that you have identified. You can frame your research question to focus on a particular aspect of the issue, for example, you can look at issue(s)/problem(s) associated with marketing, financial viability, impact on the local community, human resource management. But the issue must be of significance to Australia from a business viewpoint. You are encouraged to use knowledge and skills gained in your discipline area and work experience to decide on the issue you would like to focus on. For example, if you are a studying in the Masters in Marketing program,you may choose to focus on an issue(s) associated with marketing or branding of Australia’s tourism regions. While your program need not be the sole criterion used to select a research question, we encourage you to draw on knowledge and skills learnt in the other courses in the program to complete the research project. The research proposal and project must be your original work. Your research proposal must identify a business problem/issue relevant to Australia, you must source secondary and/or primary data, analyse the data you sourced and present your findings and recommendations based on your research project. Any reproduction of previous projects by others or you is a serious breach of academic integrity. Please read the information under Academic Integrity in the course outline. When choosing a research question, consider the time needed to collect primary data and availability of secondary data that will allow you to answer your research question within the course duration. A list of potential secondary data sources will be available on the course homepage. While you do not have to limit yourselves to these data sources, the data sources should be credible (we will be discussing credibility of sources in Week Three). Please check with the Academic Library Team (UniSA Business School) if you have any queries about secondary data sources. Your proposal should include the following sections: o Introduction This section should contain arguments supporting why the business problem/issue you identified matters in the Australian context. o Literature review A comprehensive review of relevant academic and other literatures relevant to your topic. In order to complete the literature review segment, conduct a search of published material mainly focusing on academic literature and prepare a summary. Your literature review should provide a succinct overview of the field’s state-of-the-art knowledge about your research topic. Warning: ‘Reviewing the literature’ means reviewing the actual research on your topic, do not rely on the literature reviews that the authors present in the introductions of their papers. This section of the assignment is deliberately broad. Part of your responsibility is developing a clear structure for the review: You will need to make some decisions about how you define your research topic and the constructs/concepts that you will be using in your study (we will discuss these in Week Two). You will need to create a framework with which to organise the articles that you locate. You will need to provide a ‘big picture’ set of conclusions that accurately describes the broader literature. The seminar in Week Three will be devoted to a discussion on literature review. Include definitions of concepts/constructs that will be examined in the research project as part of your literature review. o Research problem A clear research problem that is arising from the literature review. o Data sources Identify primary and/or secondary data sources that you plan to use and detail what data will be collected from each source. o References Your research proposal should be accompanied by a full reference list (not part of the word limit). A minimum of 15 academic references (other than the textbook) are expected in this assessment. Length (i.e. 1,500 words) does not include the reference list, bibliography, and appendices. 58.