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Dissertation Support Guide

This guide provides you information that will help you throughout the process of preparing and writing your dissertation.

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to provide a rationale for your research, detail your research question, objectives and hypotheses and  provide a background of the research topic.

A good  introduction follows the broader to narrower approach, where you first introduce the topic on a more general level, and then narrow it down to  more specific aspects of the problem.

The rationale indicates the reason why your specific research topic is relevant and worthy to be researched more in more detail and explains how your study fits with previous research. Ideally, your rationale should fulfill one or more of the following requirements:

  • Filling a gap in the literature- This is one of the main requirements of your study. You can fill a gap in literature by analysing a problem from a different perspective and provide a fresh overview of the issue.
  • Solving a specific problem - You have to highlight the practical benefits associated with the solution of the problem. Is it going to help streamline a process, provide a better understanding of a specific issue, provide a possible solution to a problem?
  • Contributing to your own professional development - Explain how the research contributes to your own professional development and how it will help you achieve your career goals.

The purpose of the research context is to:

  • Provide a background of the topic for the reader.
  • Explain why the topic of your choice is relevant and current.
  • Detail the gaps in knowledge (aspect of the problem that have not been researched) that your research is going to address.

Ask yourself:

  • What is the problem?
  • Why is it an important topic to investigate?
  • What is already known on this topic?
  • What are the gaps in the existing research?
  • How will this study create new knowledge on the topic? (e.g. if research on the topic has been conducted in other Countries but not in Ireland, your research will fill a gap in knowledge by providing an Irish perspective on the issue)

"The research question is a clear, focused, concise, complex and arguable question around which you centre your research".

  • What to avoid when creating a research question:

    •  Generic questions (If the scope of your research is too broad it will be difficult to collect the required primary data to answer the question).

     Questions that require collecting data from too many sources (too time consuming).

     Questions that can be answered using the literature, the answer to your question must be provided by your primary data.

     Questions on topics that have already been extensively researched.


  • Turn what you want to know into a question.

    • If the purpose of the research is to identify how effectively change management practices are implemented in the tour operator industry in Ireland, your question could be phrased as:

    " How effectively are change management practices implemented in the Irish tour operator industry?”


  • You could also add one or more sub-question(s) to help you gather a better understanding of the issue such as:

    • “Are change practices communicated effectively to Irish tour operators in order to overcome or minimise possible resistance to change?”

    In this case, the main question pertains the effectiveness of the implementation of change management practices, while the sub-question investigates how effective the communication of the practices to staff is.

  • Why do I need objectives?

    • The research objectives are a fundamental part of your dissertation because they indicate what you wish to achieve at the end of your research.

    Even if your research question is narrowed down, there may still be too many aspects of the problem to analyse. By establishing objectives, you clarify which aspects of the problem you will address in your research. The research objectives also inform the content of your literature review and help you identifying the type of questions you should ask in your interview, focus group, questionnaire, etc.


  • How should I phrase research objectives?

    • Objectives are usually headed by infinitive verbs such as:

    To identify...

    To establish…

    To describe…

    To determine…

    To estimate…

    To develop…

    To compare...

    To analyse…

    To collect…

Hypotheses are statements, developed on the basis of the findings of existing research, that clarify what you expect to find in your research. It is important to remember that hypotheses are based on the findings of the main studies on your research topic.


The presence of hypotheses in a study depends on the chosen research approach:

  • Inductive research(usually qualitative) does NOT support the development of hypotheses
  • Deductive research (quantitative)supports the development of hypotheses.

Types of hypotheses

  • Null hypothesis: H0 (this type of hypothesis is used to indicate that there is no relationship between variables)
  • Alternative hypothesis: either H1or HA (indicates some sort of relationship between variables)

Example:

Let’s assume that existing research suggests that generation Z uses social media to create and distribute content, generation Y uses social media to get access to news, and generation X uses social media primarily to stay in contact with family and friends.

On the basis of this knowledge, you may develop the following hypothesis:

H0 (null hypothesis): There is no relationship between age and social media activity.

HA (alternative hypothesis): There is a relationship between age and social media activity.


You should always test the alternative hypothesis!