最新糖心Vlog

Dr Rajeev Kamineni
Adelaide Business School
Room 10.47, Nexus 10 Building
Phone: +61 8 8313 7521
Email: rajeev.kamineni@adelaide.edu.au

The course provides a strong grounding in understanding the research process enabling students to either engage an external research organisation to undertake a study on their behalf in a business environment or, alternatively, action and complete a research project themselves as either the sole researcher or as part of a research team. In addition to the technical skills and knowledge required to be successful in these endeavours, the course also provides students with a clear understanding of the ethical considerations involved in undertaking research and the special challenges evidenced in international and cross cultural studies.
On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

David E Gray, , Sage, 9781473938434

For the required level of Advanced Excel Skills: these skills are articulated on the university's ITS online training site. If you are unsure if you have the necessary level of Excel expertise, book the online courses provided by ITS. Note: Excel online training has 3 courses (levels 1, 2 & 3). You need all three. You can only book one at a time. You have 2 weeks to accomplish each level (but can progress faster if you wish or rebook to repeat a level). You will need to have accomplished level 3 by commencement of session 1 in Business Research Methods.

ANDREWS, Frank et al. (2nd edition / 1981). A Guide for Selecting Statistical Techniques for Analyzing Social Science Data, 最新糖心Vlog of Michigan Press (more recent editions exist).
BOYD, Jr. Harper W., R. Westfall, and S.F. Stasch (6th edition / 1985). Marketing Research: Text and Cases, Irwin.
CASSELL, Catherine & Symon, Gillian (Eds). 2004. Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in
Organizational Research - Pub ISBN-10: 0761948880 | ISBN-13: 978-0761948889
CRESSWELL, John W. (2007) Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: choosing among five approaches. 2nd ed. Sage: London.
CROTTY, M (1998) The foundations of social research: meaning and perspective in the research process. Sage: London.
ERIKSSON, Paivi: & Kovalainen, Anne (2008) Qualitative Methods in Business Research. Sage: London.
FLICK, Uwe (2006) An introduction to qualitative research. 3rd ed. Sage: London.
LYNN, Kelley, D. (1999). Measurement Made Accessible: A Research Approach Using Qualitative, Quantitative, & Quality Improvement Methods, Sage Publications.
MARTIN, William E. and K.D. Bridgmon (2012). Quantitative and Statistical Research Methods: From Hypothesis to Results, Jossey-Bass/Wiley, (ISBN: 978-0-470-63182-9).
MAXWELL, Joseph A. (2012). A Realist Approach for Qualitative Research, Sage Publications, Inc.
NEUMAN, William L. (2010). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Pearson.
ROBSON, Colin (3rd edition / 2011). Real World Research, Wiley.
SILVERMAN, David (2005) Doing Qualitative Research. 2nd ed. Sage: London.
SYMON, Gillian & Cassell, Catherine. 2012. Qualitative Organizational Research: Core Methods and Current Challenges. SAGE Publications Ltd (• eBook ISBN 13:9781446258279• Print ISBN 13:9780857024114
SUDMAN, Seymour, and N.M. Broadway (1986). Asking Questions, Jossey-Bass.
ZIKMUND, William G., B.J. Babin, J.C. Carr, and M. Griffin (9th edition / 2013). Business Research Methods, South- Western/Cengage Learning, (ISBN: 978-1-111-82692-5).

3.2 ONLINE LEARNING
Course Website: www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au

3.3 QUALTRICS DATA COLLECTION SUITE
As an important part of your course, you will need to become familiar with the collection of quantitative data using a web survey. You will need to get yourself an account by going to www.adelaide.qualtrics.com and using your university password.

3.4 “ADAPT” FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
ADAPT (Any Device, Any Place and Time) allows staff and students to access their learning and teaching applications on personal devices: desktops, laptops, tablets and smart phones, anywhere:

• On campus via the UofA wireless network; and
• Off campus via broadband access and 3G/4G Mobile networks.

Through this “virtual suite” you will be able to use a range of licensed software products such as Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the nVIVO Qualitative Data Analysis suite.

Details for ADAPT can be found at:

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/technology/yourservices/learning-teaching/adapt/

3.5 NVIVO QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS SOFTWARE
If you have a PC or a Windows MacIntosh, you can download and install nVivo11 Pro version from QSR International. You can install on a two week trial licence and then contact servicedesk@adelaide.edu.au to receive a license code. nVivo11 will not run through ADAPT and the version for Mac does not perform adequately. So we request that you either use the nVivo through the pool computers or on your own PC.

Seminars consist of lectures, practical, and student presentations. Essentially, your job in this course is to develop a well thought out, well justified research proposal and an associated set of research methods to embark on a project of your own, under close supervision. We will also strongly support the face to face work with digital content through the MyUni platform. This will include:
• Three intensive sessions
• Discussion board
• Broadcast Emails
• Powerpoints, Readings and Case Studies all posted online
• Lecture recordings on video
• Digital Feedback on assignments – PDF of assignment rubric & video feedback (YouTube Link)

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.
The 最新糖心Vlog expects full-time students (i.e. those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. This means that, for this course, you are expected to commit approximately 9 hours for private study (i.e., the study time outside of your regular classes). Students are required to attend all class sessions.

4.2 GROUP ROTATIONS
Based on student feedback we have set up a “group rotation” system. You will be assigned your ‘rotation 1” group before the first intensive and you will do your first “research brief” group assignment with them.
4.3 YOU ARE BUILDING A RESEARCH TOPIC
Importantly, this whole course is designed around you developing your own research topic. Sure, there are some practical assignments in there as well – nVivo Qual and a Quant assignment – but by the end of this course we expect that you’ll have your head around a research topic, reflected in a well thought out and well justified research proposal.

Proper class attendance must be observed (this includes, for instance, proper attendance, punctuality, returning from a break in a timely way, and the like).
Academic writing PLC Workshop sessions are available. Students must attend at least one session.

Assessment Task Weight Basis Related Learning Outcome
AT1: Engagement with the course 10% Individual 1, 5, 6, 7


AT2a: Research Brief - Presentation 5% Group 2, 3


AT2b: Research Brief - Document 10% Group 2, 3


AT3: Quantitative Assignment 10% Individual 1, 6


AT4: Qualitative Assignment 10% Individual 1, 6


AT5: Research Proposal Document 35% Individual (negotiable) 2, 4, 5


AT6: Theory Examination 20% Individual 1,2,6,7

The critical things to note about the assessments in this course are that:
• Discussion forum assignments are very interdependent - built on the concept of community of practice and peer support. ie: if you miss deadlines or mess up, your colleagues suffer as well as you.
• The assessment activities contribute significantly to your actual research project.

Therefore:
• be timely - meet deadlines
• but be sane - when you can only do it by half-killing yourself - negotiate
• collaborate (note: acknowledged collaboration is a powerful professional and academic strength; UNacknowledged collaboration is called 'collusion' and is seen as cheating)
• have fun (if you don't learn to enjoy it now, it will be 'unpleasantly hard work')
• know that it DOES get easier - every piece you do makes the next one easier; every impossible-to-understand article you read makes the next one more possible and more readable - and your blogs will help you scale that wall faster and more easily than you can expect... the discussion board collaboration with your peers will make a world of difference. Therefore, your feedback to one another is critical!

AT1 - Engagement with the course; Participation / attendance, Discussion Forums, Blog (Individual grade 10%)
Get involved
By the end of the course, I will have spent over 35 hours in a classroom with you, seen some projects and taken attendance (really just as a reminder to me). This is ample opportunity for me to allocate 10% of the course mark to the quality of your contribution. This can be confronting for some people, but part of the transition to senior manager role involves being prepared to comment when the opportunity arises.
So this component of assessment in the course comes from being involved in the classroom (which is impossible if you aren’t physically there) as well as online contribution an you might even create a blog in the public domain. If I was looking to “make a splash” in this course, that’s exactly what I’d be doing.
Participate in the Online Discussions
We will establish a weekly discussion which we require you to participate in. At the very least, you need to show that you have gotten in there and thought about the things that are being discussed.
Why not build a blog?
Grasp the nettle. Many people in business these days are creating a simple reflective blog – allowing it to be public but enhancing their personal brand. If you feel a little uncomfortable about speaking up in class, then why not do some reflection in a blog – even one that is public. This provides a triple benefit; you learn a few new skills, you can supplement the insights you demonstrated in the class, and it pumps you up the Google rankings against your name. In the first session I’ll show you how to get a blog going. It’s a five minute job. For the “tragic” among us, we might feed the blog with an outreach medium such as Twitter.
So for AT1 the overarching criterion is as follows:

The instructor’s subjective assessment of the student’s contribution to the discussion of marketing concepts, principles and examples. This can occur in a face-to-face, discussion board or blog context, or all three. 
Assignment 2 – Research Brief (15%) total (5% for the presentation and 10% for the paper)
You are required to submit a research brief that summarises a stated business problem that requires specific information in order for Managers to decide a strategic direction to address the issue.

This will include:
• a background to the problem and
• the implications of not finding a solution.
• The nature of the information that needs to be sourced (from both secondary and primary sources):
• concise and actionable research objectives and
• an indicative time frame and budget for the completion of the resulting study.

This is not meant to be an 'argument' for the research per se - but it must provide any researchers that may take on the task with good understanding of the issues involved and nature of the information that is needed to find a solution.
• This brief (including no more than 10 references) may not exceed 2000 words.
• there is no minimum word limit - this will be dictated by the fewest possible words to contain adequate information to fully communicate the brief.
• A sample brief will be provided to students (see attached) and many others can be found from a variety of sources.






Assignment 3 – Quantitative Assignment (10%) total
Students are required to read a short case study provided in this brief and answer 5 questions, selecting the appropriate statistical test to answer each business problem.

You can download the datafile for this assignment from Myuni. You will need to run SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) through the ADAPT platform.

This is an individual assignment. So, make sure you conduct data analysis and prepare a summary report individually. The written report represents a summary of key insight from your data analysis, demonstrating an ability to choose an appropriate statistical technique to provide answers to specific business research objectives, as well as an ability to correctly interpret results and develop preliminary conclusions and recommendations.

The title for this report should also include the words Assignment 1_quant_student ID. Please submit this assignment as a Microsoft Word file. The assignment should not exceed 1,500 words (excluding the Appendix). Please use only the key tables or charts in the main body of your report with all support tables attached in the Appendix.

Learning Objectives
This assignment focuses on student’s ability to:
• Develop skills in statistical analysis
• Understand the need to relate research and management objectives to analysis and findings
• Demonstrate an understanding of quantitative research and required analytical skills
• Develop knowledge in the choice and application of inferential and descriptive statistical tests
• Understand how quantitative research fits into the broader management and business planning process
• Apply an advanced understanding of quantitative analysis methods to a specific research problem

In addition, the aim of this assignment is to develop advanced knowledge in relation to the fundamental quantitative business and marketing research processes, such as:
• Data preparation and re-coding
• Descriptive data analysis and charting in SPSS and Excel, use of filters
• Significant difference testing using ANOVA or an Independent-samples T-test
• Factor analysis
• Correlations and regressions
• Provision of a short summary of key findings and recommendations

A comprehensive assignment brief is provided on MyUni.

Your report will be assessed on the following criteria:



Assignment 4 – Qualitative Assignment (10%) total
Assessment item: submit an NVivo Project that supports the development of the Literature Review (Background and Introduction) of your Research Proposal, identifying your Research Gap and Research Questions and/or Hypotheses.

Using NVivo software, students will:

1. Import and collate relevant materials to support the development of their Research Proposal. This may include academic literature, government reports, white papers, business articles, survey data, photographs and other images, marketing media, audio and/or video clips.

2. Use the node & coding, classification and query tools to analyse and explore the imported documentation and materials, for the purpose of:
a) summary of “what is already known” about the research topic
b) identification of themes and patterns in “what is already known” about the research topic
c) identification of need for research (research gap/justification)
d) formulation of research question and hypotheses / propositions to address the research gap.

A comprehensive assignment brief is provided on MyUni.





Assignment 5 – Research Proposal (35%) total
This Proposal is not only the culmination of the work in this course, it is also the official proposal that will be used to shape the required research in the 6 unit Research Project for most degree programs (or the equivalent for students in other disciplines).

(as above) In order to pass this course, students must achieve at least 50% overall, and achieve a passing mark of at least 50% for their final research proposal.

This document will be assessed on:
1. Short restatement and justification of the research problem
2. Relevance of objectives to the stated problem
3. Adequate assessment of the relevant secondary data
4. Justification of the research design and proposed methodology, including data collection and sampling methods. Questions to be answered include:
a) can it be done this way?
b) is it an appropriate design - is there a precedent for this design/approach?
c) will it provide the right kind of data and enough of it?
d) will analysis of the data provide the insights required?
e) are projected costs defendable?
5. Proposed analytical methods
6. Research budget and timelines for completion of the project
7. Quality of written presentation (referencing, grammar, punctuation and clarity).

For the purposes of this course, this document is expected to be no more than 15 pages (not including references and appendices), and follow the "Document Guidelines".

Note: where students come from a Discipline that has a specified Research Proposal descriptor, the Proposal must conform to that Discipline’s specifications.

Presentation of Assignments
• Please must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.
• All assignments must be submitted electronically through the MyUni assignments portal
• Assignments cannot be reworked and resubmitted after marking.