Newcastle University Fraudulent Return Behavior and Return Policy Dissertation 12000 words, 3 weeks, good literature review, qualitative research, need des

Newcastle University Fraudulent Return Behavior and Return Policy Dissertation 12000 words, 3 weeks, good literature review, qualitative research, need design and analysis a survey. Master degree dissertation. A clear statement of the problem you have chosen to investigate A thorough reading of the relevant literature Appropriate selection of empirical material An ability to synthesise various academic perspectives A good grasp of the theoretical and practical issues A critical stance (in relation to the literature and your own research) and an ability to evaluate evidence, drawing appropriate conclusions and acknowledging ambiguity; A set of arguments that are logically and coherently developed Clarity of presentation A fluent style Dissertation Guidelines
MA ABC
MSc E-Business
MSc ICE
Academic Year 2019-2020
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Staff Contacts
Your contact for the dissertation will primarily be with your allocated
supervisor who will be officially assigned to you early 2020. However,
each programme has a dissertation co-ordinator responsible for co-ordinating
the assignments. Their names and contact details are listed below:
Dissertation Co-ordinators
ICE/ABC
Dr Paul Richter paul.richter@ncl.ac.uk
E-Business Dr Arturo Vega Arturo.Vega@newcastle.ac.uk
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Contents
1 Beginning the dissertation ………………………………………………………………………….. 5
1.1 The dissertation in your programme of study ……………………………………….. 5
1.2 Some readings (for more, see research methods module reading lists) . 6
1.3 Goals for Postgraduate Dissertations…………………………………………………… 6
1.4
Empirical material …………………………………………………………………………….. 7
1.5
The Literature Review ………………………………………………………………………. 8
1.6
Method……………………………………………………………………………………………… 9
1.7
Ethical Issues, risk assessment, and GDPR …………………………………….. 9
1.8
Sources for Topic Ideas ………………………………………………………………….. 12
1.9
Guidelines for suitable topics ………………………………………………………….. 12
1.10
Writing your Full Dissertation Proposal ……………………………………….. 13
1.11 Submission deadline for Research Methods Assignment 2 – Full
Dissertation Proposal……………………………………………………………………………….. 13
1.12 Submission of final dissertation………………………………………………………… 13
1.13 Penalties for late submission ……………………………………………………………. 14
2 Assessment Criteria …………………………………………………………………………………….. 15
2.1. The scope of assessment …………………………………………………………………. 15
2.2 How your work is marked …………………………………………………………………… 15
2.3 Presentation and format …………………………………………………………………….. 19
2.4 General points ……………………………………………………………………………………. 22
3. Citation and referencing ………………………………………………………………………………. 24
3.1 Plagiarism ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 24
3.2 Referencing ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 26
3.3 Definitions …………………………………………………………………………………………. 26
3.4 Why write references? ……………………………………………………………………….. 27
3.5 Harvard Referencing System ……………………………………………………………. 27
4 Student’s responsibilities ……………………………………………………………………………. 28
4.1 Meeting Guidelines in this Manual ……………………………………………………… 28
4.2 Selection of Topic ……………………………………………………………………………… 28
4.3 Contact with Dissertation supervisor …………………………………………………. 28
4.4 Managing the Dissertation Supervision Sessions …………………………….. 29
4.5 Meeting Deadlines …………………………………………………………………………….. 31
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4.6 Originality ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 31
4.7 Referencing ………………………………………………………………………………………. 31
Appendix A …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 32
NUBS Ethical approval form for student projects ………………………………………………. 35
Risk Assessment ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 40
Risk Assessment form – No travel outside University ………………………………………… 40
Newcastle University Travel Risk Assessment ………………………………………………….. 42
GDPR DATA MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT ……………………………………………… 52
Appendix B (example Contents page) ………………………………………………………………. 54
Appendix C – The Harvard Referencing System ………………………………………………. 55
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1
Beginning the dissertation
1.1 The dissertation in your programme of study
The words “Dissertation” and “research” can seem quite daunting. However,
most of you will have completed some sort of project during your previous
education, and, in many ways, a dissertation is just an extension of individual
project work. The key differences are:1. You choose your own question/problem/issue – preferably one in which
you are interested and/or engaged in some way.
2. You must review the relevant academic literature and explore the
methodological issues in your project area.
The dissertation forms a major part of your Masters programme, counting for
60 out of the total 180 credits (or up to 33% of your Masters degree). Strictly
speaking, students are only entitled to ‘proceed’ to the dissertation once they
have successfully passed the teaching component of the programme.
However, in practice work on the dissertation begins earlier in the academic
year. You undertake postgraduate research methods training (NBS8062) as a
preparation for the dissertation work and will prepare an initial/developed
research proposal for your dissertation as part of that module.
These guidelines are intended to help you in the dissertation process. Given
that a dissertation is an individual piece of work there is no intention unduly to
restrict you in your approach. This document presents guidelines to support
your work, therefore, and is not a set of absolute rules or procedures to which
you must adhere. You will talk in more detail about your own project with your
dissertation supervisor. Nonetheless, it has been carefully prepared and you
should read it to understand the important aspects of the dissertation process,
as well as the standards required within the Business School.
In accordance with the module guidelines (NBS8039/8241) for the ICE and
ABC dissertations, students on these programmes may choose to have a
more explicit practice-orientation for their research project. In all cases,
however, the research project will always include a critical review of the
relevant academic literature and will explore the methodological issues in the
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project area.
1.2 Some readings (for more, see research methods module reading
lists)
Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2011) Business Research Methods, 3rd Edition,
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Saunders M, Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for
Business Students, 5th Edition (Prentice Hall).
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P. (2012) Management
Research, 4th Edition, (Sage: Sage Series in Management Research)
Collis, J. and Hussey, R. (2009) Business Research, 3rd Edition, (Palgrave)
Alvesson, M. and Deetz, S. (2000) Doing Critical Management Research
(Sage: Sage Series in Management Research)
Silverman, D. (2013) Doing Qualitative Research, (Sage)
Silverman, David (2011) Interpreting Qualitative Data, 4th Edition (Sage)
Yin, R. K. (2014) Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 5th Edition,
(Sage: Sage series in Applied Social Research Methods)
1.3 Goals for Postgraduate Dissertations
The primary goal of the dissertation is to allow you to integrate your academic
study with the analysis of some material, preferably empirical.
More specifically, dissertations should:
1. Be based on either:
a. Empirical work undertaken by the student; And/Or
b. A very in-depth review of current academic theoretical work;
2. Provide an academic framework within which that empirical or
theoretical work is evaluated;
3. Include a discussion of appropriate research methods issues;
4. Arrive at a conclusion justified by the empirical and/or theoretical
material.
Putting this in a different way, your research may be:PG Dissertation
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•
Descriptive – describing the features of a setting or a case, or the
views of a group or individual; And/Or
•
Explanatory – testing or attempting to derive a theory or model.
Your research methods may be:•
Qualitative (e.g. observation, interpretation of interviews); And/Or
•
Quantitative (e.g. survey or experimental).
1.4
Empirical material
This may include any one or more of the following:•
Financial, economic and statistical information (e.g. from Datastream,
Labour Force Survey, Household Survey, etc);
•
The results of questionnaire surveys you have conducted yourself;
•
Interviews or Focus Groups you have conducted;
•
Participant observation of an organisation – e.g. a place of part-time
work; a voluntary group or an organisation for which you have
previously worked;
•
Non-participant observation (also known as ethnography) of an
organisation to which you can gain regular and reasonably extended
access – e.g. a company where a friend or family member works;
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•
Written or multimedia documents whose independent existence can be
verified
o Newspaper articles; Film, Television, Radio, Videos;
o Official records and reports from companies, trade unions,
professional associations, voluntary bodies, local & national
government, independent research units and ‘think tanks’,
industry forums & trade associations;
o Confidential documents internal to an organisation – be very
careful of the confidentiality and ethical issues
o Published diaries, biographies & autobiographies, histories of
companies, industries or other relevant organisations;
o Archived correspondence;
o The archived content of an internet discussion forum;
o Historical academic literature (generally over 15 years old).
In rare circumstances it may be feasible (but only with the full agreement of
your dissertation supervisor) to conduct a totally theoretical dissertation – for
instance on the philosophy of Business Ethics or the social theory of
organisational analysis. Even with this type of dissertation, it is usually wiser
to relate relevant theoretical argument to empirical or practical issues, such as
current debates on corporate governance or research methods.
Whatever data are collected (e.g. interview recordings; completed
questionnaires etc.), along with the data analysis outputs (e.g. interview
transcripts/coding schemes; database files etc.), these should be kept
securely in case they need to be made available to the marking team. Further,
if these are electronic, you should ensure they are securely backed-up.
1.5
The Literature Review
The literature review should be a separate chapter. It should review the
relevant literature in order to provide a framework within which your empirical
material can be evaluated. It should be succinct (i.e. you should not attempt to
describe a whole body of literature in detail, but focus on those areas which
are relevant to your research aims and questions) and should link directly to
your own investigation. Be critical in your approach: be clear about areas of
disagreement, in terms of views or research findings. Attend the relevant
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library sessions on the Research Methods course and make good use of the
library resources available.
A good literature review does more than simply restate the literature. You
need to consider the difference between a literature report and a literature
review. A report of the literature simply describes what theoretical and
empirical work exists in the topic area under discussion, summarising perhaps
but not adding analysis or commentary. A literature review goes much
further. It discusses theoretical and empirical work thematically, bringing out
inconsistencies and controversies and relates your detailed research
questions to that discussion. Ideally a literature review will develop an
argument that justifies your research question/issue/problem.
1.6
Method
If you have formulated your research question/issue/problem fully, then it may
already suggest a particular approach to the design of the research project. In
any case, in selecting a method you must ensure that it is appropriate to your
research question. This chapter should first describe and briefly justify your
overall research strategy, with reference to the research methods literature.
The specific data collection methods you employ – surveys, interviews,
observation, analytical models – should clearly fit within the overall
methodology. For instance, it would be inappropriate to adopt a qualitative
interpretive methodology and then rely mainly on quantitative tools or SWOT
analyses. You should clearly describe and justify the methods and tools you
employ. Where there are constraints on the kind of investigation that you can
conduct, you should acknowledge them. You should include samples of the
data collection instruments you have used (e.g. copies of your questionnaire)
in the appendices, where appropriate.
1.7
Ethical Issues, risk assessment, and GDPR
You are required to comply with the Newcastle University Code of Good
Practice in Research. This is available at:
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/research/researchgovernance/goodpractice/
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Prior to commencing your dissertation you are required to consider the
Newcastle University Ethical Approval Process for Research, the School’s
Fieldwork & Travel Risk Assessment, and GDPR regulations (3 forms in
total). Further details can be found in Appendix A, where you will find the
appropriate forms and guidance. It is essential that you complete the forms
and submit them with your full research proposal (assignment 2 on NBS8062
Research Methods module) by uploading them via Blackboard (please create
one document consolidating the three forms prior to uploading it). Your
dissertation supervisor will then consider the forms for approval (clearly
indicating if they give approval or if they are passing it to the Ethics Convenor
for further consideration). You cannot proceed with your research until
these forms have been completed and approved. If approval is not granted
by the time of the Board of Examiners (end of semester 2) you may be
prevented from proceeding to semester 3 – you are responsible for ensuring
that the forms are approved by your supervisor by the end of semester 2.
During semester 3, you may be away from the university for short periods
conducting fieldwork for example. If this is the case, you will, of course, still
need to consider the university’s notice of absence and attendance monitoring
procedures. As a general rule, you should treat semester 3 as a normal
semester in terms of your availability even if there are no formal lectures
during this period.
Please note that if you change your research design at some point after
getting your original research design ethically approved, you may well need to
obtain further ethical approval and fieldwork and travel risk approval, and
reconsider GDPR issues in the light of the revised research design. This issue
should be discussed with your supervisor as appropriate.
Within your discussion of Research Methods in the dissertation, you should
show that you are aware of the ethical issues raised by the practice of writing
about other people’s lives. If it is appropriate, ensure that your research
subjects are aware of the kinds of thing you are planning to write. If
necessary, use pseudonyms and change identifying details.
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Discuss these issues with your dissertation
supervisor.
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Topic Selection
It is your responsibility to ensure that your approach to the project topic is
reasonably original and unique.
1.8
Sources for Topic Ideas
You can explore ideas for topics from many sources: any work placement
experience; past work experience; current part-time work; other empirical
material to which you can gain access; course work; academic readings,
especially current and recent issues of academic journals; regular reading of
business & management trade press.
1.9
Guidelines for suitable topics
You can assume that the topic as you initially conceived of it will evolve as the
project progresses. By “evolve” we mean that the particular aspect of the topic
which becomes central to the project may well change, in one direction or
another as the project progresses. As a result, you may adjust your
dissertation title, final research questions or data collection method as you
develop your work. This evolution or ‘fine tuning’ of a project is quite usual.
The goal is to find a topic which is general enough to be significant, but
specific enough to become focused.
You are expected to identify a research topic in line with the programme
that you are studying (e.g. Arts, Business & Creativity; Innovation,
Creativity & Entrepreneurship; E-Business) in order that you can
demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of your discipline,
including a critical awareness of current issues.
Here are some examples of purely imaginary but conceivable dissertation
titles. See if you can identify how they might match the styles of research and
the types of empirical material set out above.
1. The Tensions Within Family Owned Firms: A Case Study.
2. The impact of WTO membership on small businesses in China: a
case study.
3. Applying Virtual Ethnography (Hine, 2000) To Internet Shareholder
Discussion Forums.
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4. A Comparative Study of the Adoption and Use of information
systems in SMEs
5. The Impact Of The Euro On The UK North East Textile Industry
6. From Bloggers To Dot.Coms: E-News, E-Leisure, Or E-Business?
7. Open Innovation adoption in dynamically evolving SMEs In NorthEast England
1.10 Writing your Full Dissertation Proposal
You will discuss this in detail as part of the research methods module; the full
dissertation proposal is Assignment Two for this module. In general, you
should be clear about the aims of your research: What is it that you are
attempting to achieve? Will the research be descriptive, explanatory, or both?
Will it use quantitative or qualitative methods, or both? What will be your
empirical material? – this is one of the most important questions to settle
before writing your outline. There is no point proposing a wonderfully
original dissertation if you cannot get access to the required material.
You need to remember that a dissertation operates as a research project and
is, therefore, a combination of both practical and theoretical elements. You
need to pay careful attention to both aspects if your work is to be successful.
Again, consult with your dissertation supervisor!
1.11 Submission deadline for Research Methods Assignment 2 – Full
Dissertation Proposal
The Deadline for submitting your full proposal is 10am, 23rd March 2020.
Remember that you are requi…
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