Format:
1 online resource (182 pages)
Edition:
1st ed.
ISBN:
9780415596787
,
9780203816158
Content:
This short book from an international, best-selling author offers a practical guide to conceiving, researching and writing a business or management dissertation
Note:
Front cover -- Mastering Your Business Dissertation -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- The Purpose of This Book -- How to Use This Book -- 1. Understanding Business Research -- Why Research? -- How Do You Think? -- Sorting the Sheep from the Goats -- Platonism -- Aristotelianism -- Working To Your Strengths -- Forming a Study Group and Keeping a Learning Log -- Group Discussion Topic For Chapter 1 -- 2. Where Do You Start? -- Stakeholders, Problems and Choices -- A Simple Taxonomy of Business Problems -- An Aristotelian Approach -- A Platonist Approach -- Problems of Observation -- Problems of Prediction -- Problems of Planning -- Problems of Business Theory -- Group Discussion Topic For Chapter 2 -- 3. Has Somebody Answered my Question Before? -- Topping the Cornucopia of Information and Possibilities -- Untangling the Fuzzy Ball of Knowledge -- By Relevence -- By Date of Publication -- Using Amazon -- Using the British Library Catalogue -- Using Metalib to Search for Data on Specific Problems -- Organizing Your Data and Theories -- Using World Outline -- Keeping Track of What You Find -- Using EndNote -- Knowing When To Stop Searching -- Group Discussion Topic For Chapter 3 -- 4. Different Questions Need Different Answers -- Taking the Measure of an Answer -- How To Answer Your Question -- The Nature of Data -- What is Acceptable Error in Data? -- Dependent and Independent Variables -- Problems of Observation -- Problems of Prediction -- Based on Past Behaviour Patterns -- Horizontal or stationary patterns -- Trend patterns -- Seasonal patterns -- Did it fit past events? -- Can it reliably estimate future developments? -- Problems of Planning -- Showing the Plan is Appropriate -- Showing How the Plan Can Ameliorate the Problem
,
Goodness of fit and independence -- Correlation and regression -- Group Discussion Topic For Chapter 5 -- 6. Planning Your Research Project -- How Do You Know That? -- The Use of Evidence -- Building an Historical Sequence Using Dated Events -- Building a Chain of Logic -- Planning Your work -- Getting to a first draft -- Group Discussion Topic for Chapter 6 -- 7. Creating a Narrative Thread for Your Dissertation -- The Serious Business of Fairy Stories -- The Power of Myth -- Applying Narrative Structure to Business Writing -- Draft 1 -- Draft 2 -- Draft 3 -- Group Discussion Topic For Chapter 7 -- 8. The Mechanics of Writing -- Make the Reading Easy -- Writing Style and Readability -- Copy-editing -- Hitting the Word Count -- Layout -- Further Reading -- Index
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Showing How Implementing the Plan Worked as Predicted -- Problems of Bussiness Theory -- Developing a New Theory From Scratch -- Showing How an Existing Theory Can Be Adopted to a New Situation -- Testing If an Existing Theory Remains Applicable in New Circumstances -- Source of Data -- How to Find Appropriate Data -- Internal Data From Your Organization -- Internal Data From a Marketing Department -- Sales volume by product and product group -- Sales volume by area -- Sales volume by market segment -- Sales volume by type of distribution channel -- Sales volume over time -- Pricing information -- Communication mix information -- Sales promotion data -- Sales representatives' records and reports -- Inquiries received and quotations dispatched -- Intenal Data From Other Departments -- Finance Department -- Purchasing Department -- Transport Department -- Production Department -- Using Departmental Plans -- External Secondary Data -- Government Statistics -- Non-government Statistics -- Data from Original Research -- Using Marketing Research to Gather Primary Data -- Market -- Packaging -- Sales -- Communications -- Pricing -- Customer -- Distribution -- Product -- Other specialist areas -- How to Collect Primary Data -- Observation -- Mechanical or electronic devices -- The audit technique -- Human observation -- Experiment -- Surveys -- Methods of Inquiry -- Postal surveys -- Telephone surveys -- Personal interview surveys -- Focus groups and depth interviews -- Group Discussion Topic For Chapter 4 -- 5. How to Use statistics -- Rummaging in the Statistician's Toolbox -- Statistical Definitions -- Sampling -- Population -- Census -- Sample -- Elementary sampling unit (ESU) -- Sampling frame -- Statistic -- Parameter -- Sampling variability -- Sampling distribution -- Stratified sample -- How to Take a Sample -- Probability Sampling (Random Sampling)
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Simple random sampling -- Systematic or quasi-random sampling -- Cluster sampling -- Multi-stage sampling -- Master samples -- Non-probability Sampling -- Quota sampling -- Characteristics of samples -- Accuracy of estimation volume sample size -- The Scope of Statistical Analysis -- Understanding Your Project Data Set -- Data types -- How to Capture Categorical Data -- Likert scaling -- Semantic differential scale -- Descriptive Statistics -- Tables -- Frequency table -- Relative frequency table -- Cross-tabulation table -- Graphs and Charts -- Line graph -- Line chart -- Bar chart -- Histogram -- Frequency polygon -- Cumulative frequency charts -- Pie charts -- Pictograms -- Logarithmic graphs -- Scatter graphs -- Summary Measures -- Meassures of Location -- Arithmetic mean -- Mode -- Median -- Geometric mean -- Measures of Spread -- Range -- Quartiles -- Interquartile range -- Semi-interquartile range -- Deciles -- Interdecile range -- Interpercentile range -- Mean Deviation -- Standard Deviation -- Variance -- Coefficent of Variation -- Index Numbers -- Analytic Statistics -- What is Probability -- The Algebra of Probabilities -- Addition rule of probabilities -- Conditional Probability -- Multiplication rule of probability -- Bayes' rule for conditional probabilities -- Subjective Probability -- Probability by experiment -- Probability by logic -- Probability Distributions -- Binominal Distribution -- Poisson Distribution -- Normal Distribution -- Time Series Analysis -- Time as a Proxy -- Identifying the historical data pattern -- How to Analyse Stationary Data -- Moving Averages -- Exponential Smoothing -- How to Calculate Trends -- Seasonality -- Statistical Inference -- Estimating and Predicting -- How Reliable Are Estimates Based on Limited-size Samples? -- The Limits of Uncertainty -- Hypothesis Testing -- How to Test for Relationships
Additional Edition:
Print version Lomas, Robert Mastering Your Business Dissertation Oxford : Taylor & Francis Group,c2011 ISBN 9780415596787
Language:
English
Keywords:
Electronic books
URL:
FULL
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