Write and accounting Research Proposal. Must include.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL/STUDY

Chapter One

Introduction

Background of Study

Description of Personal Interest to the Topic

Academic Themes and Definition of Terms

Theoretical Background

Identify and describe the theory or theories related to your research topic. These could be theories related to financing, business, administration courses/psychology course/accounting course/ Human Resources Courses or any other course. The important objective is to use a theory or more than one theory that directly underpins your study or is very relevant to your topic. Example: if you are writing about a topic that deals with online learning, then you would use the Learning Theories.

Scope, Delimitations, and Limitations of Study

Scope

Define firstly what the scope of study is and then state what the scope of your study is. Be specific and also include time span of study.

Delimitations of study

Define the term delimitations with regard to a study and then state the boundaries to include what your study will not address.

Limitations of study

Define limitations in the context of a study. Include the perceived challenges that will limit or affect the outcome of the research. Example: doing face to face interview due to the pandemic might not be possible; or you might not be able to have the questionnaires face to face so you might have to let them do them via Google Docs what will be the implications etc. Think of what hindrances you might come upon. What will be the limits of your study in terms of participants, design, etc.

Statement of the Problem

Define the term and then go on to describe the problem. In other words, describe/tell explicitly what the issues are and then state what the research will highlight.

Topic of Research and Research Questions

State the topic of the research and then give an introductory sentence before listing your research questions or hypotheses.

Significance and Purpose of Study

Significance of study

Identify and then state who will be the beneficiaries of the findings/results of the study and in what way will they benefit. Also include how the findings will provide a base for further research.

Purpose of study

You will introduce the purpose of the research in terms of what is intended by representing the questions in objective form. Then you will make reference to the gap in the literatures that you have read/reviewed that your research will fill especially on the national and local levels. You will show how yours will add pertinent information to what already exists.

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW (20 MARKS)

Research other studies, articles, journal entries, newspaper

articles about your topic

Discussion of literature related to academic theme/research questions

Identify 8-10 sources that provide information to support your research

Literature must be current (use sources published in the last 10 years)

Chapter Three (Research Proposal)

Methodology

Introduction

Keep the introduction brief. Begin by stating again the purpose of the study. Write an overview of the chapter and ensure that the information recorded in the introduction is in the same order as it in the chapter. That is, you write what the chapter entails. You can also include the research questions or make reference to them.

Please bear in mind that this chapter for the most part will be written in the future tense because it is a proposal; telling how you will go about conducting this research. Remember that Accounting and HR students do not do an actual research.

Participants and Sampling

Target population

Define population. State what the target population will be and what will be the composition of persons: - number that will be in each category where applicable/ total number of persons that will make up that population.

Sample and sampling technique

Define sample. Tell what will be the sample size and how you will arrive at this number and why this number of persons will be adequate for your research design. You will also describe the sampling technique (type/design) and the process that you will use to arrive at the number of actual participants. You will give plausible reasons for choosing these specific participants. Where you have to pilot your instrument, you will need to write about the number of persons that you will use for the pilot study and from which target population they will be taken and how you will select these participants. If there are different categories of staff you can make a table to show each category and number of persons from each category to show composition of sample as well as sample size and places from which sample is drawn. You will describe the participants and whatever demographic information that your participants will have. For example: if you will use participants between a particular age range, from particular company/companies; number of male and females etc.

Location

In this section you say where the study will take place. You will give a brief description of the establishment, and if the history of the place is important to the study, you will give a brief account of it..

Procedures

Research design

This section will comprise the method (qualitative/quantitative/mixed methods) that you will use and you will give reasons for choosing it by making reference to its appropriateness to the topic and what it is you want to find out.

Data Collection

Instruments (a copy of each instrument should be placed in the Appendices)

In this section you will identify the data sources: primary data sources are the instruments that you will use to gather the data yourself and secondary sources are from documents and other such sources that you may need from an institution to help you answer a research question. They are not done by you but are done by another person/group. You declare the authenticity of secondary sources to support the trustworthiness of the research/study. You will state what your primary sources are interview /questionnaire / observation and also secondary sources if they will be needed for your study. You will use relevant literature sources to support your decisions. You will ensure that you show the benefits of each instrument that you will use as it relates to the collection of the type of data that you need. Support same with relevant literature.

Steps in the research process

Step by step recording of the research process in sequential order from identifying the problem to plans for how data will be presented and analysed.

Discussion of ethical issues

In this section you will first explain what are ethical issues and their importance in the research process. Use source to support what you write. Then you will record what you will do to ensure that you will observe all the ethical guidelines.

Validity and reliability

Validity

First define validity and have information supported by a source especially from a research textbook. For qualitative research, you will allow the lecturer and an expert in the field of study to go through each item to check wording of items and distribution of items per research question (make reference also to the Matrix Table showing alignment of items per instrument per research question) to establish content validity. Define what you understand content validity is and support with a reliable source.

For quantitative validity both content validity and face validity are used. Define both terminologies. Establish content validity and face validity first through an expert in your field of study and then your lecturer. Then you will test instrument with a small group of persons of similar type for any ambiguity, vague or difficult to answer question. It will indicate what changes you will need to make as well as allow for observation of time it will take for participants to complete the items on the instrument. Vetting of instrument by lecturer will follow. Through pilot testing the instrument with a similar type of participants you will be able to further establish validity of the items on the instrument prior to administering to the main sample,

Reliability

Define reliability supported by a relevant source. For qualitative research, you will use triangulation (more than one instrument example: an interview, an observation schedule and observers comments) to indicate trustworthiness of the data. You can also state for the interview how you will ensure that the participants verify their responses

For quantitative research, after defining reliability state how you will go about establishing the reliability of your instrument. Pilot testing is a popular route to take. Piloting the instrument will further help you see if the instrument is worthy to use as is or if changes/adjustments are necessary. After piloting the instrument you will use an appropriate test for the reliability coefficient as well as internal consistency reliability (read up on these and define what each is supported by a source). Decide what you will use to determine the reliability coefficient (item to total) and internal consistency (item to item correlation) of instrument.

Presentation and analysis of expected data In this segment, you will outline step by step how you will go about presenting and analysing the data per research question. A lot depends on the research method (qualitative, quantitative or mixed) and the research design that you will use.

Bear in mind for quantitative data whether you will be using descriptive statistics or inferential statistics. You will use tables/graphs/figures to present your data for quantitative research.

For qualitative, you may use tables to show a summary of coded responses that are similar. However, tables are minimally used. Highlight common themes and use narration, vignettes, quotes as you present and analyse the data.

References