Format of Major Research Project

Transcription

1 Format of Major Research Project While there does not exist any one, standard format of Research Reports followed world-wide, the following is the format that shall be used for the MRPs at Pioneer Institute of Professional Studies, Indore. The Major Research Project contains 13 parts as explained below with examples. The language used must be of a formal and academic tone, using Times Roman font, font size being 12. Line Spacing of 1.5 shall be used in the text. The alignment of justify shall be applied to the text. Major headings (such as names of the various parts of the MRP: table of Contents, literature review, data analysis, major findings, etc.) should be typed in bold, with font size of 16. Subheadings would be written in bold, with font size of 14. Writing in point forms and paragraphs needs to be considered as per the various parts of the MRP report (for instance, major findings would be written in point formwith each point/finding explained in some detail). Page numbers are to be inserted on right hand lower column. I: TITLE PAGE: Title of the Research study (e.g.: A Study of Brand loyalty in the product category of biscuits or A Study of Job satisfaction levels among school teachers or A Study of the impact of non-performing assets on select national banks ) Submitted by: (Name of Student, MBA-IV, Batch of.., Roll No....) Name of Guide: Prof/Dr.... II.NECESSARY CERTIFICATES/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III: TABLE OF CONTENTS Including columns for contents, page number Comment [a1]: STANDARDISED; TO BE ADDED TO THE REPORT AT THE END OF THE STUDY Comment [a2]: TO BE ADDED TO THE REPORT AT THE END OF THE STUDY E.g.: 1

2 Contents Page No. Executive summary 1 Introduction/Background of the Study 2-3 Research Problem 4 IV. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A one page summary of the entire study including research objectives, methodology used, analysis and findings and conclusion. Comment [a3]: WOULD BE WRITTEN AT THE END OF THE REPORT, BUT ADDED AS PER THIS ORDER IN THE REPORT E.g.: This objective of this study was... For this, data was analysed using (method). It was found that In conclusion, it may be stated that. V. INTRODUCTION /BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY This section would contain brief introductory information material related to the study. E.g.: In A study of Brand loyalty in the product category of biscuits : this part may contain: Overview of the Branded Biscuit Industry of India Branding and brand loyalty basic conceptual meaning E.g.: In A Study of Job satisfaction levels among school teachers Meaning of Job satisfaction; its importance to employees: improvement of productivity, building of morale, etc. E.g.: In A Study of the impact of non-performing assets on select national banks: Overview of financial performance of major national banks in the country Meaning of NPAs Impact of NPAs on financial performance of banks Size of NPAs in the banking industry and in particular, in the case of national banks. VI. STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM: 1. Research Objectives 2

3 2. (i.e. Scope of the study as decidedby the Guide and Student) Examples: Research Objective: To find... [e.g.: To find the level of customer loyalty in select biscuit brands] 1. What is the level of customer loyalty of select biscuit brands? 2. What, if any, are the differences in the loyalty levels towards the select brands of biscuit brands? 3. What are the reasons for differences (if any) in the loyalty towards select biscuit brands? Or Research Objectives: To find the level of job satisfaction among school teachers Or 1. What are the factors affecting job satisfaction? 2. What is the level of job satisfaction among the school teachers? 3. What impact on...(on all or few of -performance, absenteeism, turnover, etc.) does job satisfaction have on school teachers 4. What are the reasons that explain this level of job satisfaction? Research Objectives: To find the impact of the non-performing assets on the financial performance of select national banks 1. What is the level of NPAs in the select national banks? 2. What is the financial performance/status of the select banks in terms of...? 3. What is the impact of (1) on (2)? 3

4 VII. RESEARCH DESIGN: Research Type (exploratory/descriptive) Sampling : Sampling Method; Sample size Data Collection Methods Data Analysis Method(S). VIII. LITERATURE REVIEW &CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT (findings from previous academic research studies in the topic under study): This part would contain literature review written with proper in-text citations and the material from the literature review would lead to development of the various concepts (conceptual development) or variables used. Following are examples to make this clear: e.g.: In A study of Brand loyalty in the product category of biscuits, finding which bring out role of branding ; branding in the area of FMCGs/low involvement products-which biscuits are); brand loyalty and its impact ; impact of brand loyalty in the specific case of biscuits/fmcgs/lowinvolvement products : all leading to the development of concepts related to brand loyalty such as components of brand loyalty; types of brand loyalty. e.g.: In A Study of Job satisfaction levels among school teachers, findings that bring out meaning and role of job satisfaction in an organisation, factors that affect job satisfaction (which would help in conceptual development of job satisfaction ); how does job satisfaction impact employee ( in areas of chosen in the study, as per research problem/question 3 for the same example) e.g.: In Study of the impact of non-performing assets on select national banks, findings related factors defining bank s financial performance; factors affecting bank financial performance; nature of NPAs; impact of NPAs on banks leading to development of concepts relating to bank financial performance; nature and meaning of NPAs. IX. DATA ANALYSIS: Body of the Report carrying the findings based on data analysis such as description of the sample; findings related to data analysis with Tables, Figures, where needed and used. [Formulae used, Excel sheets not to be used here-but in the Appendices] 4

5 Data Result e.g.: The percentage of respondents who indicated they would not buy another brand of biscuits in case their favoured brand is not available in the case of Parle G is x%, whereas in the case of Britannia is y%. This difference is significant when applying the...test of significance at 95% level of confidence(please see appendix 3.1 ) Interpretation (Data Interpretations emerging from data analysis.) e.g.: (stemming from the above example of data analysis result...)it may thus be said that in terms of not switching to another brand when the preferred brand is not available, customers of Parle (or Britannia) are more brand loyal than customers of Britannia (or Parle) X. MAJOR FINDINGS [in point forms]: Summarised version of Data analysis findings plus interpretations for various findings. e.g.: 1. In terms of unavailability of their preferred brand of biscuit brand, customers ofparle (or Britannia) biscuits exhibited a lower switching behaviour than Britannia (or Parle), indicating that customers of Parle (or Britannia) have greater brand loyalty than those of Britannia (or Parle) etc. XI.CONCLUDING COMMENTS 1. CONCLUSIONS, EMERGING MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS 2. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY XII. REFERENCES XIII. APPENDICES-Questionnaire, analysis carried out in Excel sheets, any graph not considered important enough to be contained in the main body of the report 5