Assignment Paper

6.1Routes to Topics
Choosing a topic can be either one of the hardest aspects of the BRP or one you find
to be relatively easy. It may be that if you choose to study a topic that interests you,
you are more likely to be enthusiastic and well-motivated – and you might find it easier
to maintain your interest over the course of an academic year.
Topics That Interest You
• You might want to consider a subject area in your degree you have found
particularly interesting.
• You might focus on a sector you would like to work in after your graduation.
• The advantage of the BRP is that, unlike the Dissertation option, you can (without
worrying about the access required to collect primary data or ethical issues) explore
questions and issues of interest that may be controversial in some way, or be
difficult to collect primary data on. For example, it may be that you want to explore
something with an ‘international’ or ‘sensitive’ focus – difficult with a Dissertation –
but very possible with a BRP.
6.2 Talk about It to A Subject Expert
• When deciding on a BRP title or area, you might like to discuss it with a member of
staff who lectures or conducts research in that subject area, and seek advice about
turning your idea into an interesting and worthwhile area to explore.
One of the quickest and simplest ways of reviewing the areas of interest of staff is
to visit the Faculty of Business & Law Home Page on the Internet and read the Staff
Profiles. From here you can view members of staff in the different departments,
their interests, current research and consultancy experience may provide you with
several ideas for your BRP.
• Talking to friends or family or people you know who are in employment may also
lead to some ideas.
6.3 Topics arising from an Industrial Placement or Work Experience
• A BRP can arise from a student’s placement, or other work experience.
• Talking to people you have worked with might lead to some interesting areas you
want to explore. However, the BRP does not include primary data collection – so
your justification will have to come from secondary sources.
6.4 Statistics and Journals
• Another strategy might be to use statistics to help devise a question. Identifying
trends or changes in statistics (e.g. from industry reports, news articles or from sites
such as http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html) might lead you to ask some
interesting questions.
• In the Initial Proposal you would need to explore existing interpretations from
industry and different perspectives of those statistics – from different sources. You
might then be in a position to try and justify why it is worthwhile going into more
depth to explain the statistical trends and explore possible explanations using
relevant academic literature.
• You can also explore the journal databases to see what research has been
conducted in your general area of interest. This may inspire you, and lead you to
question something you had not previously thought about.
6.5 Read the News
• Try reading around areas that interest you, and see if you can formulate some initial
ideas for your research questions. You may find it easier to develop sub questions
first.
• You may discover a lot about a topic whilst working on your Initial Proposal. For
example, your justification may come from recognising a mismatch between the
conventional wisdom on a particular topic and the academic research evidence –
discovered in your initial academic literature review (in the initial Proposal).
• Do politicians say one thing, and academics or different sections of the labour
market say another? Why? What might actually be happening?
• This is one way you might start to justify that a topic is worthwhile exploring.
• Or, you might want to explain/explore something because you think the business
world could do with some more detailed and thorough answers and understanding
on an issue.
• Check the news headlines. What is happening in the business world?
• Reading news headlines, professional websites (e.g. CIPD), and online (business)
magazine websites might help. A few suggestions are presented below:
Marketing:
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/

6.6 Can You Employ An Analytical Focus?
The BRP must be analytical rather than purely descriptive or narrative. If you have any
doubts as to your abilities to formulate an analytic research proposal, discuss this with
your Workshop tutor so that this analytic focus is attained as early as possible. This
issue of analytic focus usually forms one of the main areas of discussion with your
Workshop tutor. You will need to have this in place – and have done plenty of reading
– before you progress to the Final Report.
If your BRP idea refers to a specific company or organisation, ensure that you set
yourself up to explore the theoretical explanations of what, how and/or why something
is happening. You need to research a problem or issue – not a company. Focus less
on the company, and more on the business/organisational problem / issue.
6.7 Relate to Course Content
The BRP topic of your choice must use parts of your course content particularly in the
analysis of the material that you have obtained. For instance, a BRP about the
effectiveness of performance related pay could be based upon such concepts as
workplace motivation, the “psychological contract” and other theories drawn from
Organisational Behaviour or Human Resource Management. A BRP can become
more sophisticated and analytical when drawing on, analysing and critiquing, different
perspectives from different areas of study – e.g. topics in HRM and organisational
behaviour can link together very well in a lot of cases.
7 Example Topics
7.1 Topic examples
There are some examples of topics – they are examples only. You will need to
think of your own (original) ideas.
See Moodle for examples of Business Research Projects written by previous BRP
students.
***You cannot copy any of the questions listed below for your own BRP***
You will need to think of your own topic, the following are basic ideas, to get you
thinking – and to help you make a start in choosing your own.
• Do firms need to be innovative to survive?
• Should small businesses should be expected to comply with environmental
legislation to the same extent as large businesses?
• Statistics suggest that bullying increases in the workplace during tough
economic times. To what extent does academic research evidence support this,
and how can this be explained?
• How can managers prevent bullying at work?
• Do employee share ownership schemes make employees work harder?
• Is money the greatest motivator for an employee?
• How can non-monetary rewards be used effectively to motivate employees?
• It has been reported by the BBC1
that that four out of five start-ups end in failure.
Why do so many start-up businesses fail?
• David Cameron states “Britain’s boardrooms need more women…there is clear
evidence ending Britain’s male-dominated business culture would improve
performance”2
. To what extent is David Cameron correct?
• Can discounting serve to win back consumer trust after a crisis?
• Is ambush marketing always highly effective for companies?
7.2 Past examples from previous BRP students
(Some relate to Marketing, some to HRM and some to Strategy):
Title: Is employee resistance is the main factor preventing the successful
implementation of shared services?
Sub question 1: What factors are essential to the relative success of shared services?
Sub question 2: What can be done to help reduce employee resistance to shared
services?
Title: Does managing change influence employee engagement?
Sub question 1: How can the ways in which organisations manage different types of
change affect employee engagement?
Sub question 2: How is communication linked to employee engagement before, during
and after change within an organization?
Title: To what extent does product involvement affect the decision to use sex in
advertising?
Sub question 1: Why is sex used within advertising?
Sub question 2: An analysis of high vs. low involvement: how has sex been used to
advertise? (a) High involvement products/services; (b) Low involvement
products/services.
Title: An analysis of the risks and benefits of mergers: why would you merge –
and how can failure be avoided?
Sub question 1: What are the advantages/disadvantages of engaging in M&A activity?
Sub question 2: What are the factors most common in M&A that make them successful
or not?
Title: Do small-medium enterprises have the right characteristics to enhance
leader-member exchange relationships?
Sub question 1: What effect does the span of control have on the leader-member
exchange relationship in small medium enterprises?
Sub question 2: Are smaller groups more effective in enhancing higher-exchange
leader-member exchange relationships in small-medium enterprises?
Title: Would the introduction of a gender quota on board members of UK
companies be an effective method for increasing the number of women on
boards?
Sub question 1: In countries outside of the UK, what evidence exists to show that
positive discrimination is the most or least effective method for advancing women into
the boardroom?
Sub question 2: Are gender quotas a positive way to overcome the glass ceiling effect
on high level positions, or would other methods be more appropriate?