Dissertation Guide

2012-2013
Master of Business Administration

Prepared by
Dr Mathew Shafaghi
Bolton Business School

GUIDELINES FOR MSC DISSERTATION

This dissertation guide is intended to provide an overview of the content and structure of
your proposal and dissertation, together with a range of modern and traditional
methodologies that may be followed to conduct your research.

Content

Section

Topics

12345678-

Introduction
Timetable and Submission
Choosing a Research Topic
Content and Structure of the Research Proposal
Content and Structure of the Dissertation
Style of Writing and Presentation
Assessment
The Role of the Supervisor and the Researcher

Appendix 1 Title page

Appendix 2 Dissertation Assessment Form
Appendix 3 Dissertation Monitoring Log

Page
3
4
5
6
7
12
13
14
15
16
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1- INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the dissertation is to provide you with an opportunity to undertake a
substantial piece of research with a view to demonstrate mastery of a particular subject
area within the areas of business and management including; E-business, Business
Information Systems, E-marketing, HRM, and Logistics and Supply Chain Management
and to assist you to synthesise your academic knowledge acquired from the taught MBA
modules. The MBA dissertation should be at least 14,000 words and must demonstrate
that the learning outcomes stated in the module specification have been met. All MBA
students are required to complete a dissertation. This typically involves:

Identifying a problem, and establishing its significance

Review of the relevant literature
Design and develop a suitable research method
Develop detailed research proposal
Obtain ethical approval (if required)
Collect and analysis data relevant to the research objective
Formulate hypothesis/propositions
Designing means of testing hypothesis (if required)
Evaluating the results
Writing the thesis
Presentation

1.1- MBA RESEARCH COMPONENTS

As well as conducting research for the purpose of assignments, All MAB students are required to
conduct research in an area of their interest and submit a dissertation. The research components
of the MBA programme for the purpose of dissertation are as follows;

Components

Output

Credit

Assessment

Research Method module

Provisional proposal
Max 500 words

None

No assessment
(formative)

Dissertation

MBA dissertation
Minimum 14000 words

60

Assessed

2- TIMETABLE AND SUBMISSION

You may commence your research upon completion of your stage one modules and after
successful submission of your research proposal. Upon submission of your research
proposal, your proposal is assessed to ensure that it responds to the criteria indicated in
page 6. If your proposal is successful a supervisor/supervisory team will be allocate to
supervise your dissertation. You are then required to contact your supervisor/supervisory
team providing them with a copy of your proposal and seeking feedback. A typical duration
allocated for the conduct of research and submission of the dissertation is illustrated in the
table below. Table 1 shows the timetable for MBA
MBA Programme
Stage One
Modules
1, 2, 3,
4, 5

Workshop Date

Submission Date

Stage 1 modules

As per timetable

As per timetable

Research Methods

10th Sep 2012

A Provisional Research Proposal (max 500

words) is required to ensure the selection of a
suitable topic, a tentative methodology, and a
brief review of the literature. Your proposal is
expected to follow the structure below.

Introduction
Literature review
Research objectives
Research Method
Research Ethics
Research Contribution
Timescale
References

All MBA students are allocated supervisor/s to

guide and support them from the submission
of research proposal to completion. Upon
approval of provisional Research Proposal,
students are advised to contact their
supervisor.
Submission date:- 26th Oct 2012

Stage Two
Modules
6, 7, 8,
9

Stage 2 modules

Dissertation Submission

As per timetable

As per timetable

Stage Three
28th Sep 2012 (14.000 words).

3- CHOOSING A RESEARCH TOPIC

Selecting the right topic of study is important, and you are advised to undertake a
dissertation in an area in which you have an interest, or, would like to develop your
expertise, or, it is directly relevant to your specialisation, work, or career development.
There are no specific criteria for choosing a dissertation topic. The initial ideas for your
dissertation could be generated from your own expertise and experience, meeting and
discussions with MBA programme leaders at Bolton, local tutors in HCMC, other
academics, and professionals in the sector. Alternatively, the dissertation topic may be
chosen jointly by yourself and the MBA programme leader.
Upon approval of your provisional proposal, a supervisor/supervisory team will be allocate
to your dissertation to provide you with the required supervisor support. The allocation of
supervisory support is based on the areas of expertise of the supervisors in relation to your
proposed area of research.

4- CONTENT AND STRUCTURE OF YOUR PROVISIONAL/TENTITIVE PROPOSAL

Your research proposal (up to 500 words) should be submitted after the completion of the
Research Method module. This is intended to provide you and the MBA programme leader
with a clear idea about your research topic, how you are going to conduct your research,
and at the same time enable the Programme Leader at Bolton to allocate the required
supervisory support for your research. It is important to note that this provisional/tentative
proposal is not assessed and may be subject to modifications based on the
recommendation of your supervisor/supervisory team.
ID

Section

Tentative Content

123-

Title page
Table of content
Introduction

4-

Literature review

Brief information about the work conducted by other

authors in the proposed area of research, and what
areas of the literature would you focus on for the
purpose of your research

5-

Research objectives

What is/are the objective/s of your research

6-

Research Method

What methodology would you used to collect and

analyse the relevant data.

7-

Research Ethics

All research conducted at the university of Bolton, must

follow the Research Ethics guidelines provided by the
University of Bolton

8-

Research Contribution

The contribution that your research would make to the

knowledge and professional practice

9-

Timescale

A chart illustrating the timescale and milestones for your

research

Appendices

If required

References

A list of references used according to the Harvard

Referencing Style

Brief information about your proposed area of research

including; the setting, the reason for conducting the
research, and what is to be achieved.

5- CONTENT AND STRUCTURE OF YOUR DISSERTATION

The style and structure for your MBA dissertation is intended to ensure and enhance the
quality of work. The proposed structure is intended to provide a clear format from the
beginning to conclusion, and should be as follows:
5.1- Title page
5.2- Abstract (max 300 words)
5.3- Contents
5.4- Acknowledgements
5.5- Main body of the dissertation
5.5.1- General overview
5.5.2- Literature review
5.5.3- Research design
5.5.4- Data collection and analysis
5.5.5- Conclusion and recommendations
5.5.6- Appendices
5.5.7- Bibliography
5.6- Appendices
5.7- References, or Bibliography

5.1- Title page

The title page is illustrated in Appendix 1 and should conform to the following pattern:
The University of Bolton Logo (current logo)
The full title of the dissertation
The name of the Author
A statement that it is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the
award.
Title of the award
Name of the University
Date of submission

5.2- Abstract of the research

The function of the abstract is to provide a brief summary describing your research and the
issue under investigation, including the aims and outcomes of the study. The abstract
include the following:

The nature and scope of the study

Research methods
The main conclusions
The contribution it makes to the knowledge of the field
Recommendations

The abstract should be bound into each copy of the dissertation, and a separate copy
should also be supplied. It should be headed with the name of the author, the title of the
dissertation and the year of submission. The abstract should not exceed 300 words.
5.3- Contents Page
The Contents Page should show chapters and pages, lists of tables, figures, appendices
and glossary of abbreviations, terms and special symbols (if required).
5.4- Acknowledgements
It is customary to acknowledge individuals and or organisations for their assistance,
support, or contribution to the work leading to the dissertation report.
5.5- Main body of the dissertation
The main body of your dissertation should contain the following structure:
5.5.1- General Overview; introduction, background, rationale and aims
Based on the introduction and background to the problem, the central argument and
objectives should be made clear so that the reader is able to understand the problem or
issue that is going to be investigated. This chapter should provide a summary of the
central points of the research including; the structure of the dissertation, timescale,
research ethics, and the contribution of the study to knowledge and professional practice.
5.5.2- Literature Review
One of the most important early steps in a research project is the conducting of the
literature review. This is also one of the most humbling experiences you're likely to have.
Because you're likely to find out that just about any worthwhile idea you will have has been
thought of before, at least to some degree. According to Trochim (2002), students
frequently complain that they cannot find anything in the literature that is related to their
topic, because:
They only look for articles that are exactly the same as their research topic. A
literature review is designed to identify related research, to set the current research
project within a conceptual and theoretical context. When looked at that way, there is
almost no topic that is so new or unique that we can't locate relevant and informative
related research. (Trochim, 2002)
Here are some tips about conducting the literature review. First, concentrate your efforts
on the scientific literature. Try to determine what the most credible research journals are in
your topical area and start with those. Put the greatest emphasis on research journals that
use a blind or juried review system. In a blind or juried review, authors submit potential
articles to a journal editor who solicits several reviewers who agree to give a critical review
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of the paper. The paper is sent to these reviewers with no identification of the author so
that there will be no personal bias (either for or against the author). Based on the
reviewers' recommendations, the editor can accept the article, reject it, or recommend that
the author revise and resubmit it. Articles in journals with blind review processes are likely
to have a fairly high level of credibility. Second, do the review early in the research
process. You are likely to learn a lot in the literature review that will help you determine
what the necessary tradeoffs are. After all, previous researchers also had to face trade-off
decisions.
What should you look for in the literature review? First, you might be able to find a study
that is quite similar to the one you are thinking of doing. Since all credible research studies
have to review the literature themselves, you can check their literature review to get a
quick start on your own. Second, prior research will help ensure that you include all of the
major relevant constructs in your study. You may find that other similar studies routinely
look at an outcome that you might not have included. Your study would not be judged
credible if it ignored a major construct. Third, the literature review will help you to find and
select appropriate measurement instruments. You will readily see what measurement
instruments researchers used themselves in contexts similar to yours. Finally, the literature
review will help you to anticipate common problems in your research context. You can use
the prior experiences of others to avoid common traps and pitfalls.
As well as academic journals, conference proceedings are often useful sources of data.
Textbooks are clearly important, but it should be remembered that they are not always
based on evidence and research, and therefore may be considered less substantive than
academic journals. Further, they may also be less up to date in a rapidly changing
discipline. Weekly and monthly magazines in the discipline must be located and regularly
reviewed. The articles in such papers are often merely gossip, items of news and the like.
They may therefore be considered to be lightweight and subjective. However, they often
contain leads to important research documents and reports.
The expectations of a literature review can be said to have increased in recent years,
because the process is assisted by electronic searching techniques. The student must
clearly endeavour to make best use of the Internet, commercial CD Roms, library search
catalogues etc. Students may become aware that their subject area is one for which a
particular university may have specialised staff. It follows that there may be several
dissertations or theses stored on that university's shelves, and which are not listed on
commercial CD Roms or the like. The Internet can be useful in obtaining direct access to a
university library search catalogue and thereby access to this specialised work. Equally as
important as the electronic search is the 'browse' search. Libraries often contain paper
documents that list publications relevant to particular disciplines. Bolton Institute library
has a booklet called 'Index to Journals'. If the discipline relevant to the research project is
ICT it is useful to look for titles beginning with 'i'. At the end of the literature review process
the student should clearly know:

What the leading academic journals are?

What the lead industry magazines are?
What the leading conferences are?
Where the centres of knowledge/excellence in the field are?
Which are the relevant professional institutions?
Which is the lead government department in the field?
9

Which are the relevant government bodies?

Which other countries in the world have an interest in this field?
Who the national and international leading figures in the field are?
What are the leading web sites in the field?

The literature review is an important component of your dissertation and it is often feasible
to assess the quality of the dissertation by the literature review contained in it. Within the
literature review it would be useful to examine important contributions of researchers and
scholars in the context of the problem or argument that is central to the dissertation.
A characteristic that could add value to the quality of the work would involve a relative
judgement of the contribution that these different experts, proponents have made.
Rejecting some of these contributions as being inappropriate to support the central
argument is as much a part of a good literature review as adding new and relevant
material that has existed within the domain. Therefore it would be helpful to agree or
disagree with existing and/or traditional viewpoints.
5.5.3- Research Design, Methodology
Different terminologies are use to describe the components of the research. It is important
that your chapter on the Methodology make clear references to various research
philosophies (positivism, interpretivism, and realism), research process (induction and
deduction), research approaches (Qualitative and quantitative), and research
methodologies. A number of methodologies are listed below, and their combination
(triangulation) often leads to a better understanding of the research problem:

Survey
Statistical/data analysis
Semi-structured Interview
Observation
Case Study
Ethnographic study
In-depth Interview
Focus group
Content analysis
Action research
Personal reflection
Participant Observation
Telephone Survey
Online Focus Groups
Ephone survey
Internet survey
Mystery shopper

5.5.4- Data Collection and Analysis

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This chapter should address the development of the research in terms of data collection
and analysis, pointing out; variations, similarities, and trends. An important component of
this chapter is detailed analysis and synsethis of the results leading to a detailed
understanding of the problem under investigation. Self-constructed diagrams, tables and
figures could facilitate and should be used to support the findings, and arguments. Further,
discussions that enable pattern recognition including the evolution of a story would
certainly demonstrate quality and would add value to the research. This chapter should
conclude with the principal emergent points of the analysis with references to the
questions put forward in the early chapters of the dissertation, and the research
objective/s.
5.5.5- Conclusion and Recommendations
The purpose of the concluding chapter is to satisfy a number of objectives. It needs to
connect the research questions raised in the early part of the dissertation through to the
literature search and then reiterate from a comparative perspective what was found within
the dissertation. Reiterating the findings within a discussion will facilitate appreciation of
the quality of work undertaken. This chapter should also point out the central
characteristics, the limitations of the study, and the areas for further research that might be
necessary to extend
5.5.6- Appendices
The aim of appendices is to provide a repository for supporting information relevant to the
research. They are excluded from the word count of the dissertation. Typical appendices
may include; blank questionnaires, interview schedule, observational notes, list of
participating companies, etc.
5.5.7- References, or Bibliography
A list of references after the appendices should include all sources and texts (Harvard
Style) referred to within the body of your dissertation (Rudd, 2001). Some examples of the
general format for such references are listed below.
Books
Name, Initials (Year of publication) Title in Italics. Place of publication: Publisher e-g
McKellar (1957).
Journals
Name, Initials (Year of publication) Article Title in inverted commas Journal Title in Italics,
Vol. Number, no. of part, pp. [i.e. pages e.g. pp. 23-34] e.g. Hepburn (1991).
Newspapers and Magazines (any publication which appears more frequently than once a
month)
Name, Initials (Year of publication) Article Title in inverted commas Newspaper Title in
Italics Date [i.e. day and months], pp. [i.e. pages e.g. pp. 23-34] e.g. Anon (1980).
Internet/WWW site, page, document etc

11

Name [or indicative name] (year) Item title [or indicative title]. Medium [i.e. Online]. Host
if there is one. Available: [specify URL, etc]. [date of access].
6- STYLE OF WRITING AND PRESENTATION
The style of writing and presentation should conform to the following guidelines:
Paper size
Margins
Typeface
Line spacing
Paragraphs
Page
numbering
Numbers

Symbols
Abbreviations
References

Tables and
figures

A4 portrait mode printed on one side only

Top, bottom, and right-hand margins (20mm)
Left-hand margins (40mm)
Arial, 12 point
Lines should be spaced at one and half spaces
An extra blank line should be inserted between paragraphs
Pages should be numbered sequentially. The title page is
considered to be page one, but not explicitly numbered
Numbers less than one hundred and round numbers should
be spelled out in full. Fractions that are not part of a mixed
number should be spelled out. Numbers in sequence should
be presented as Arabic numerals. Arabic or Roman numerals
can be used in the main text to indicate chapters, figures,
tables, etc
Symbols such as % in the main text should appear in full as
percent
Acronyms are acceptable in the main text provided that the
acronym is defined in full when it first arises, and is defined in
a list of abbreviations
In the main text references should appear as (name, date),
eg (Laudon, 2001).
For information on Harvard system referencing, please refer
to Cite Me Im Yours Harvard Version (Rudd, 2001).
They should follow the first reference to them in the text, they
should have an appropriate heading and be numbered
sequentially

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7- ASSESSMENT
Normally, failure to meet one or more of the following basic
requirements could result in an overall fail for the dissertation.

Clear identification of aims and objectives

Limited exploitation of the area under study
Originality

Format, clarity and readability of the dissertation

Word count (14000)

Referencing procedures (Harvard system)

Your dissertation will be marked by your supervisor and an internal second marker
designated by the MBA Programme Leader. Normally and when practical all dissertations
are moderated by the external MBA examiner for moderation, Otherwise a representative
sample is forwarded for external moderation. The final mark will not be agreed until the
meeting of the Examination Board and no marks will be released until finalised by the
board. Your dissertation will be assessed according to the criteria described in Appendix 2.

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8- THE ROLE OF THE SUPERVISOR AND THE RESEARCHER

The role of the supervisor is to help the student to:
Clarify objectives.
Read and comment on produced work with a view to advise on; style, level of

analysis, implementation, logical structure and use of sources.

Your role is to:
Prepare a manageable timetable of work.
Select appropriate method of inquiry.
Select and design appropriate methods of data collection, analysis and

investigation.
Decide how to present your solution.
Assume ownership of the work
Plan and execute the work on your own initiative.
Communicate with your supervisor on a regular basis (please refer to Appendix 3,
dissertation monitoring log).
Submit materials for comments during all stages of the work (do not complete the
majority of your work before submitting any materials for comment).
To comply with the recommendations made by the supervisor
Complete the work on-time to the required quality standards

Your research proposal and dissertation is the most essential element in your MBA as it
represents one-third (60 credit) of the total credit (180). The amount of time and effort that
you put into your proposals and dissertation should reflect this, and the dissertation should
contain intellectual content commensurate to Masters Degree.

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Appendix 1 Title page

TITLE OF THE DISSERTATION

Name of the author

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

BOLTON BUSINESS SCHOOL

Date

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Appendix 2 - Dissertation Assessment Form

BOLTON BUSINESS SCHOOL

Master of Business Administration

Dissertation Assessment
Date of Assessment
Student Name and ID
Dissertation
Dissertation Supervisor
Components
Knowledge
Approach
Intellectual
challenge and
activity
Outcomes
Critique and future
development
Project
Management
Presentation

Total

Allocated
Mark
Quality, utilisation and
interpretation of relevant source of
materials
Suitability of the research design
and methods
Evidence of intellectual challenge,
innovative thinking and rigorous
analysis
Conclusions including implications
Critical assessment of results
against objectives including future
development
Evaluation and progress in terms
of planning, execution and
achievements
Format, clarity and readability of
the dissertation together with the
standard of written English.

Supervisor

10
15
25
10
25
5
10
100

16

Comments (supervisor)

BOLTON BUSINESS SCHOOL

Master of Business Administration

Dissertation Assessment
Student Name and ID
Date of Assessment
Internal Moderator
Components
Knowledge
Approach
Intellectual
challenge and
activity
Outcomes
Critique and future
development
Project
Management
Presentation

Total

Allocated
Mark
Quality, utilisation and
interpretation of relevant source of
materials
Suitability of the research design
and methods
Evidence of intellectual challenge,
innovative thinking and rigorous
analysis
Conclusions including implications
Critical assessment of results
against objectives including future
development
Evaluation and progress in terms
of planning, execution and
achievements
Format, clarity and readability of
the dissertation together with the
standard of written English.

Supervisor

10
15
25
10
25
5

The same as
1st
Supervisor

10
100

Comments:

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Agreed Mark
External Examiner:
Comments

Date:

Final Mark

Appendix 3 Dissertation Monitoring Log

Topic of Communication

Date

Action agreed

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