Topic: The international development of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Business 2 Business Company)

Section 1: Introduction

You need to provide an outline of a researchable topic that is focused on what you are going to address through the collection and analysis of data rather than literature review. You need to provide a clear and coherent outline of the purpose and objectives of the research. You are required to specify what it is you want to find out and why. You will need to consider the question; what will we know once you have completed the research that we do not know now? You need to explicitly address the following items: - The background and issues underlying the research aims, objectives, and questions; - Justification for, and significance of, the research (personal motivation is not enough; you need to embed the justification for the research topic in the literature and provide an indication of why others might be interested in the research).

Section 2: Literature Review

You need to develop a critical, rather than just descriptive, review of the peer reviewed literature pertinent to the focus of the research objectives. The literature review should be written in a narrative style, organised under themes rather than an article by article summary of the literature. This will have a significant impact on the grading of the proposal. It should provide good coverage of the following: 1. Identification, description and review of the relevant conceptual literature (theory / models / frameworks related to the research objectives; 2. Relevant empirical literature (data based) completed on the research focus; 3. A review of the relevant contextual literature for your topic (covering the development of ideas central to your research focus, recent developments, etc.) 4. Identification and review of the debates within the literature.

Section 3: Research Strategy and Methods

Research strategy the overall logic that links the various research design choices (e.g. quantitative survey strategy, case study strategy, Delphi strategy, etc.) Methods and tools for collecting data and the sources of DATA you intend to access (NOT LITERATURE) including the criteria for selection of respondents, sector, companies, people, etc. Nature of data you intend to collect; the kind of questions you are going to ask, the kind of observations you are going to make, the kind of documentary and archival sources (NOT LITERATURE) you intend to use Access and research ethics issues to collecting your data Possible techniques you intend to apply for analyzing/interpreting data. This should provide details of the type of statistics (descriptive, inferential, etc.) you intend to use if doing quantitative analysis or the interviews/ questionnaires/case study analysis, etc. you intend to use if doing qualitative analysis. It is vitally important that for each component of your research design, that you provide justifications for your choices at every stage and, where relevant, the implications of those choices.

Section 4: Critical Discussion of Findings

Critically discuss the outcomes of your research. What have you achieved? Why does that matter? How can it be used?

Section 5: Conclusions This chapter should summarize the key findings and discuss the contribution and the implications of the study as well as the recommendations and future research objectives.

ReferencesYou should have a full reference list at the end of the assignment with ALL sources used in the assignment formatted according to the Harvard Citation and Referencing system.