MODULE GUIDE
NBS8372
Research Methods
2023/24
1
Please note, ALL of this information is available to you on Canvas.
However, it is a University requirement that ALL modules should
make a Module Handbook available, so we suggest you download
this document and keep it for your offline records.
Contents
1. Module aims, learning outcomes and research-informed teaching......3
2. Staff Contacts........................................................................................4
3. Attendance and participation.................................................................6
5. Communication......................................................................................7
6. Reading list............................................................................................7
7. Assessment...........................................................................................8
2
1. Module aims, learning outcomes and research-informed teaching
1.1
Intended Knowledge Outcomes
By the end of this module, students should:


1.2
have gained an understanding and be aware of the nature and
scope of advanced research in Business and Management.
be aware of, and familiar with, the facilities available for
conducting literature searches and obtaining relevant data to
facilitate empirical investigation.
Intended Skill Outcomes
By the end of this module, students should:



1.3
have developed the ability to operate independently on a research topic
and exercise appropriate judgement in the selection of material.
be able to effectively organise, structure and manage a research
project at an advanced level, including undertaking critical appraisal, of
relevant literature.
have further developed the skills of inquiry, research design, data
collection and information retrieval, bibliographic search, measurement
and analysis, interpretation and presentation, self-discipline and timemanagement and the ability to work autonomously.
How research informs this module
Research is at the heart of your programme of study. In this module, you will
be engaging with research in the following ways.
1. Learning about research in your discipline: You will learn about
classic, contemporary, applied and critical research around research
methods and your chosen topic;
2. Engaging in student-led research discussions: You will discuss
research topics and approaches with fellow students through
Seminars and Discussion Boards; as well as in group
supervision meetings;
3. Developing research skills: You will learn about how
research is conducted and how knowledge is produced in
a robust manner;
4. Undertaking research and inquiry: You will conduct research in
the form of an academic Dissertation research project.
1.4
Assurance of Learning
The Business School has three overarching learning goals that graduates
from all our programmes should attain. These goals are derived from our
mission and are:
Disciplinary Competency “Our graduates will have acquired a theoretical
understanding of their chosen subject area and its applied relevance to
contemporary business and management practice”
Ethical Awareness “Our graduates will have the ability to understand and
articulate relevant ethical values, principles, rights, and virtues from the point
of view of different stakeholders”.
Global Perspective “Our graduates will have critical awareness of the
interactions of individuals and organisations within a global community and
an awareness of issues affecting the global business environment”
In this module we will cover all these learning goals.
2.
Staff Contacts
Module Leader:
Dr Jiayao Hu
Email: Jiayao.Hu@newcastle.ac.uk
Office: NUBS 3.05
Module Lecturer:
Dr Josephine Go Jefferies
Email: josephine.go-jefferies@ncl.ac.uk
Office: NUBS 8.21
Unless you require specialist advice or confidential support, we encourage
you to use the allocated time on a weekly basis throughout the module to
raise queries with the module team.
We can offer one-to-one support appointments where necessary, however
we recommend getting in touch with any support enquiries in the first
instance by e-mail.
This module also features speakers from industry and other parts of the
University to enhance your experience. Individual contact details will be
supplied by these professionals when relevant.
3.
Module Schedule
In the academic year 2023-24, we are running this module through a
‘blended learning’ approach; this means that whilst many of the session will
take place in person, there will also be scheduled online activities included
in this module.
This means that all Lectures, Workshops, Seminars, and Computer Lab
sessions will be delivered on campus. Online activities take the form of
Tutorial sessions (the entire class joins this one session but may be invited
to work more closely in ‘virtual breakout rooms’).
3.1
Semester 1
Timetable Teaching
Week
Topic
Week
week
commencing
4
1
25/9/23
L1 What is Qualitative Research;
Assessment Brief
5
2
2/10/23
L2 Developing Research Projects
6
3
9/10/23
L3 Qualitative Data Collection
7
4
16/10/23
L4 Qualitative Data Analysis (Thematic)
8
5
23/10/23
L5 Project brief, topic selection
9
6
30/10/23
S1: Interview techniques, guides &
design
Enrichment Week
11
7
13/11/23
C1: Data analysis: Nvivo 1
12
8
20/11/23
C2: Data analysis: Nvivo 2
13
9
27/11/23
OT: Pre-Assessment Support, Proposal,
Preparing for your Dissertation
Contents are subject to change; L=Lecture; S=Seminar; C=Computer Lab; OT=Online Tutorial
3.2
Semester 2
Timetable Teaching
Week
Topic
Week
week
commencing
22
1
29/1/24
L1: Introduction to quantitative methods
23
2
5/2/24
L2: Sampling & Hypotheses
24
3
12/2/24
L3: Descriptive statistics & Data reliability
and validity
25
4
19/2/24
L4: Inferential statistics 1
26
27
28
29
5
6
7
8
26/2/24
4/3/24
11/3/24
18/3/24
L5: Inferential statistics 2
S1: Questionnaire design
C1: SPSS 1
C2: SPSS 2
OT: Assignment support
Contents are subject to change; L=Lecture; S=Seminar; C=Computer Lab; OT=Online Tutorial
3.3
Timetabled sessions
Your timetable will include all sessions for this module. You should attend all
your timetabled sessions on time. For online tutorial sessions, a Zoom link
will be posted on the Canvas page.
3.4
Other Learning Opportunities
The Module team will make you aware of other development opportunities
outside the module sessions, which are not compulsory but highly
recommended in helping you to meet your development goals and evidence
your entrepreneurial development.
4. Attendance and participation
You are expected to attend all timetabled module sessions classes and
engage with the materials provided in the Canvas site.
We expect you to:
1. arrive on time for all sessions;
2. prepare for all sessions by reading and doing other preparation work
as specified in advance;
3. engage with the materials that are being discussed in sessions;
4. give respect and consideration to your peers and tutors.
We wish to establish an environment that encourages learning through:
1. Multi-directional communication that is supportive and challenging at
the same time.
2. Openness in expressing views, feelings and opinion with respect for
others whose views may differ.
3. Appreciation that everyone is different and that differences can
lead to new perspectives on both social and intellectual
interaction.
4. Constructive ways of dealing with differences without offending others.
5. Openness to give and receive honest feedback.
5. Communication
Canvas and Email are the most important mechanisms by which we will
communicate with you. We recommend that you check it regularly for any
updates, ideally daily.
All Learning materials are available on Canvas. If you have any questions
relating to module sessions or assessments, please refer to Canvas in the
first instance – it is likely the answer to your question is already on the
module site. If not, simply email either (or both) Josephine and Jiayao.
We value your informal feedback over the course of the module. Rather
than wait for the next Student-Voice-Committee meeting, we encourage you
to come to talk to us about your experiences on the module. Most issues
can be addressed relatively quickly!
6. Reading list
The Reading List for this module is available through links in both Canvas
and the Library website. The list is extensive to provide students with
different options for their own reading and learning preferences; however,
this list is not exhaustive, and we recommend reading widely both around
your topic of interests and within the area of Research Methodologies.
Many more Digital texts have been made available for your ease of access
during 2023-24.
Journals and other articles:
Articles from academic journals provide a valuable learning resource for
your study. The information is more current than that contained within
textbooks, is of good quality, and presented in a few thousand words, rather
than at more length. Journal articles can sometimes be difficult to work with,
because they are aimed at an academic audience of scholars as well as
students and their language reflects this constituency. However, if you
persist you will be able to build up a developed and deep understanding of
the subject by reading journal articles regularly. The university subscribes to
a wide range of hard-copy and electronic journals, which can be easily
accessed through the library catalogue.
Articles from other kinds of publication (management magazines,
newspapers etc.) vary in quality and tend to be aimed at practitioners rather
than students or scholars. Their focus is on providing news- type insights
into current practice or issues that are important to international managers.
Most will contain a strong editorial bias in the way they report information.
As part of your background reading, they can be very helpful and may
assist your ability to assemble practical case examples for your
assessment exercises or to use during each weekly session. Before using
them as references within formal assessments, you should consider their
reliability as a source of information and whether or not the article provides
good evidence for its arguments or conclusions.
In the research methods area, journals you might look at divide into roughly
two groups: those which focus specifically on research and methodological
issues and mainstream management and business journals, from which
you can draw useful insights into the practice of research. You can make
use of both of these sources of information and discussion during your
study on the module and in preparing for your dissertation.
Some examples of journals you might choose to look at include:
Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations and
Production Management, European Journal of Operations Management,
Decision Sciences Journal, International Journal of Production Economics,
International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Supply Chain
Management, Supply Chain Management: an International Journal,
Production, Planning & Control, etc.
For a comprehensive list of Journals see the Association of Business School
Journal list available via https://charteredabs.org/academic-journal-guide2021/
The Internet as a source of information:
You may wish to use information from the Internet as an input to your work
for the module assessment. As an information resource, it can be very
powerful and can quickly guide you to useful sites, if you carry out a
disciplined search. The greatest value of internet information is its richness
– anyone can deposit information about whatever they want on the worldwide-web. For students, however, this richness is also its greatest potential
weakness. Web-based information is of highly varying quality and can at
times be very misleading or even inaccurate. The information that you find
might be aimed at any kind of audience, sometimes the general user,
sometimes more specialized in nature. It is often difficult to discriminate
about which information is most suitable for your purpose.
Always use web-information carefully. As with any source of information,
take care not to assume that what you are reading is reliable and check
out its origin (e.g., Wikipedia source). Finally, make sure that you cite the
full web address with any information to which you refer in written work.
7. Assessment
Full details of the assessment tasks can also be found on Canvas.
7.1
Assessment 1: Initial Research Proposal (20%)
Submission date: Monday 8th January 2024, 10am GMT
7.2
Assessment 2: Dissertation Research Proposal (80%)
Submission date: Monday 13th May 2024, 10am BST
7.3 Submission
Assignments must be by uploading relevant documentation to Turnitin
through Canvas Assignment links.
Please note you have only one attempt at submitting your work through
Turnitin. Turnitin will show if your attempt has been successful – you will not
get a receipt as you would have before.
7.4
Assessment criteria
Refer to the assessment criteria in the completion of all assessments, which
are all available in Canvas. Further guidance and advice and formative
feedback will be provided during teaching weeks.
7.5
Interpretation of word limits
Your work must comply with the assessment word limit +/- 10% (excluding
reference bibliography and appendices). Work that does not comply will not
be marked.
7.6
Formats
Format requirements include 1.5 line spacing, a font of no less than 12
point and 2.5 cm margins on all four sides. All pages should include Page
Numbers.
In addition to these requirements, you should also make sure you understand
additional guidance on academic writing, referencing and plagiarism provided
as part of your programme of study.
7.7
Assignment Guidance
Written presentation: Your work should take the form of a written paper and
meet the required word limits as outlined above, which exclude References.
Please include a word count.
Citation: You should ground your proposal in the research methods and
subject-based literature through reference to or direct quotations from
appropriate sources. Do not simply regurgitate diagrams or extensive general
information from the textbooks or articles. You should assume that we know
the workings of any basic theoretical or analytical models you use and will
allocate marks for the way you apply them to the question or to clearly
support a line of argument that helps you to make your proposal. Where you
use direct quotations, try to keep them short and ensure that they make a
direct and clear contribution to your argument. The Harvard Referencing
format must be applied.
Graphics and presentation: Use headings, diagrams and brief tables, if
appropriate, to illustrate points and to support your arguments. Ensure that
these are relevant, based on your reading, and their contribution to your
proposal is clear.
Style and content: Your work summarises your dissertation plan and
provides evidence that is relevant to its execution. You do not need to
make a complete listing of all the analytical and interpretative processes
you went through. You should expect, therefore, to carry out more analyses
in the process of exploring the question than you will use in your final
dissertation proposal.
Combine practical information and theory: We will give marks for a wellsupported argument and discussion of your proposed project that draws on
evidence, applies the evidence intelligently and shows some insight in
drawing conclusions. The aim of the assignment is to evaluate the issues
embedded in your proposed topic, not to produce an unrealistic proposal that
does not recognise established subject and research methods literature or
the practical limitations which exist.
Sources of research information: You will find information from a variety of
sources, including academic and trade journals, press reports and companyor industry-produced information. Remember to consider the validity of the
information and the writer's viewpoint in the sources that you use in your final
text. You should minimise the general descriptive information you include.
You should focus on analysis and interpretation of the significant issues you
identify, rather than describing them in excessive detail. Remember to credit
all sources of information that you use, in your text and in the bibliography.
Structure and development: Try to ensure that the structure of your work
follows a clear pattern and that the themes develop in a way that is
appropriate. Ensure that what you write makes a direct contribution to your
project and try to avoid including general or irrelevant information in your
answers. Please include appropriate headings, sub-headings and other 'signposts' so that we can see the direction of your thinking.
In addition to the guidance above, a suggested template and accompanying
guidance will be provided during teaching weeks.
Note that plagiarism is a serious offence that can lead to you failing the
module and your suspension from studies.