One of the research elements for this course involves developing one 800-word research paper. You must select acceptable business topic areas s as a facet from one of the chapters addressed in this course such as big data, business analytics, artificial intelligence, so on so forth. Be sure that your topic selection has an appropriate scope for an 800-word paper. It is not necessary to submit a proposal for approval. However, please feel free to contact me to discuss topic selection and paper development as early as possible. Care should be extended to read and follow these requirements and instructions.
Research Paper Development Guidelines
Students often ask whether he or she should research a general area or a company. My answer to the question is the two are inseparable.
When you decide to work on a general area (i.e., SCM, competitive advantage, business process re-engineering, etc.), you must include several examples such as companies, products, or services to showcase your “research” and your taking from the research. Without concrete examples, it is very likely that your paper ends up rephrasing what is in the textbook and has no value added for a good grade.
When you decide to research on a company or a specific business solution, you should not develop your paper as a chronicle of the company. For instance, “I am interested in Apple because Apple is an innovative company. It was founded by Steve Jobs, Wozniak, and Wayne in 1976 in his garage! It introduced the first iPhone in 2007. Features included in the phone were …, how awesome they are! The company will remain successful in the future because it is innovative.” This paper is not a research paper, that most likely ends up a C grade or lower. To be a research paper, you must approach the case from a theoretical or conceptual background. Without such synthesizing, there is no evidence of your input.
The key to a successful research paper is to demonstrate how well you can apply what you learned from the course to a business case or an information technology. In the Apple example, a proper approach is to derive questions like “How and why did Apple’s smartphone become so successful?”, “Will it be able to stay competitive in the current and future market?”, “What are some threats against and opportunities to sustain competitive advantages?”, and so on.
So, here are some tips.
Start from the textbook. Choose a chapter or a topic that intrigues you most. You can also find examples in the book and study more. For instance, mobile-business is a very general topic, but mobile banking gives a better perimeter for your research paper.
Derive a research question, “How does mobile banking change banking business?” “How does mobile banking impact customer satisfaction? and so on. Think about whether you can write about the topic from a clear perspective such as competitive advantages, service-oriented architecture, information security, and so on.
Search some examples, such as companies or business models that leverage the potentials successfully (i.e., Venmo, BOA, ApplePay, etc.). The cases must be relevant to answer your question.
Then, organize them like a story. In a story, there is a beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, etc. Embellish your story by including some competitors, limitations, and resolution.
Wrap up your research paper with a concise discussion. The discussion section should not repeat what you have written so far. It must present your critical thinking of future opportunities and constraints concerning the case.
Remember that all components are needed to constitute a good research paper (B). An excellent job on every element deserves an A!
Note that grammar errors or writing issues should be minimal in the submission as they severely detract from the quality and professionalism of the content. Papers submitted after their respective deadline would receive a zero (0) grade.
Note that unauthorized collaboration, falsification of research data, plagiarism, or undocumented use of materials from any source constitute academic dishonesty and would be grounds for a grade of zero (0) on the research paper or a grade of ‘F’ in the course.
Paper Format Requirements and Checklists
To be evaluated, the completed research paper must be submitted as a single Microsoft Word document via the Submit Completed Research paper link in Blackboard (Turnitin) before the deadline. Specifically, do not submit your paper in PDF file format.
Be sure to read and understand the “Academic Integrity” section of the syllabus.
The paper should be grammatically correct and free of spelling errors.
The paper should be meaningfully organized with section headings, content-rich, and factually supported by references.
This formal business-style paper should not be written as a conversation, reflect personal
scenarios, or use clichés.
This paper should use
12-point Arial font
left justification
single line spacing
Zoom = 100%
View = Print Layout
This paper should avoid the use of bold fonts, underlines, images, and bullets.
Quoted material is limited to a total of 50 words in the paper, and each quote must be followed with an explanation of its relevance to the paper.
Each paper should represent at least 800 words in the body of the paper but no more than 1,000 words.
The paper must include a title page revealing the paper’s relevant title, course name, instructor’s name, the student’s name, and submission date.
Do not include an abstract.
The submitted file should be named as course + student name (e.g., “MIS360 Joe Smith”).
References should be listed in alphabetical order at the bottom of the paper. the paper must be supported by at least THREE credible references (e.g., academic articles and practitioner journals such as Harvard Business Review) dated after 2015.
Each Reference citation must adhere to proper formatting guidelines as set forth in the APA Style.
Form Guide. For this course, credible references must identify an author and a publication date, and be sure to include the “retrieved from” link in each reference.
Additional references may be added to enhance a paper’s content.
The en.wikipedia.org site is a non-credible source and cannot be used as a reference.
Use in-text citations. Avoid starting sentences with a structure similar to these examples:
According to an article by Chris Cringle, ….
As noted by Paul Greenberg in his article….
According to an article from the Houston Chronicle, ….
The Financial-dictionary stated, .…
According to the article titled “How to define the….
Bill Smyth, the author of…stated….
According to Larson and Gray, ….
Gibson expresses the worst case scenario in saying….
Common Grammar Issues (the list of Avoids…)
Avoid packing excessive content into a single sentence. Sentences longer than 30 words would be commented as too long.
Avoid beginning a sentence with a conjunctive adverb (e.g., “However”). If a conjunctive adverb is used to join sentences, it should have a semicolon in front of it and a comma behind it.
Avoid beginning a sentence with a transitional phrase (e.g., “for example” or “in fact”). If a transitional phrase is used to join sentences, it should have a semicolon in front of it and a comma behind it.
Avoid starting sentences with “But”, “And”, “Also”, “Moreover”, “Like”, “Yet”, or “So”).
Avoid one-sentence paragraphs.
Avoid the use of first or second person.
Avoid the use of clichés, colloquial expressions, and conversational writing.
Avoid personal scenarios.
Avoid posing questions when describing content to be addressed.
Avoid expressing personal opinions unsupported by reference materials.
Avoid using nonstandard expressions (e.g., use “thereof” versus “their of”).
Avoid overuse of absolutes (e.g., “must”, “always”, “all”, or “will”).
Avoid ending a sentence with a preposition (e.g., “with”, “about”, “for”, “to”, “into”, “above”, “after”, “below”, or “until”).
Avoid overuse of common words (e.g., “some”, “other”, “when”, “that”, or “then”).
Avoid wordiness or disorganized focus on topic.
Avoid subject/verb tense disagreements or sentence structure problems.
Avoid using incomplete sentences.
