What is a dissertation
•An independent research project which addressed a research question formulated by the student
•You will develop subject expertise, social research, intellectual and organizational skills.
Where do ideas come from?
•In order to start a research project you must have some interest in the topic
•Curiosity is important but not enough!
•Few initial tips
–Think imaginatively
–Try not to be too constraint by previous work
–Think about the type of answers that a question can produce and keep an open mind about findings
The role of the literature. Starting with the literature or with a question?
•If you only have little knowledge of the topic some reading is essential
•How to generate ideas for research topic:
–Important newspapers (The Economist, the FT, the guardian ect…)
–Cources that you are currently taking or have taken in your studies
•Spending time at the start to think about the research question will help you in saving time later in the literature review
The role of the literature. When do I start reading and when should I stop?
•Look at some introductory textbook
•Look at specialised journals:
–Journal of institutional economics
–Journal of development economics
–Social Indicators Research
•If a question has already been identified (this is common in applied research), then link this to more general questions
•If you have a topic but not an exact question, then you need to browse some publications to narrow down your research interests
•Never completely disengage from the literature rather you should return to it several time
The role of the literature
What is a gap in knowledge? What counts as originality?
• It is important to know what is already known to identify “gap in the literature”
• Replication of other studies is valuable but must be explained
• Remember knowledge is cumulative!
• A study can be considered original if it makes a novel contribution to one or more of the following areas:
– Topics, data, methods or analysis
What makes a research question?
• A topic of interest is a useful starting point but it is not enough to produce a well structured and coherent question.
• Moving from topics to aims can be useful
• Example
– Aims: why certain firms adopt new technology before others?
– Research questions: What are the pattern of new technology consumption across different firms in the UK?
• Your dissertation should answer a question:
– So, for example, ‘Economic Crises’ is not a good title for your dissertation (too broad)
– Whereas, ‘Did Economic Crisis in Europe result in an increase in smoking: Evidence from the European smoking survey’ is a good title (very specific question)
– Or, ‘Entrepreneurship development’ = a too broad title
– But, ‘What are the determinants of entrepreneurial entry in emerging economies’? = more precise, narrower title
• Avoid tautological questions
– Do working class individual work in certain occupations?
• Stick to domains relevant to business/economics/social science
• Avoid normative questions
– E.g. Should corporation avoid corrupt practices?
Tips
• relevant;
• manageable in terms of research and in terms of your own academic abilities;
• substantial and with original dimensions;
• consistent with the requirements of the assessment;
clear and simple
Research Strategy: Quantitative Research
• Quantitative research is a research strategy that emphasizes quantification in the collection and analysis of data and that:
• entails a deductive approach to the relationship between theory and research, in which the emphasis is on the testing of theories;
• has incorporated the practices and norms of the natural scientific model and of positivism in particular; and
• takes a view of social reality as an external, objective reality
Dissertation outline (empirical project)
} Introduction
} Discuss motivation for your study and research questions; give outline of the dissertation
} Literature review
} Theoretical arguments
} Empirical Evidence
} Hypotheses setting
} Data and Methodology
} Description of a sample
} Variables definition
} Methodology
} Analysis
} Discussion
} Conclusion
Your introduction to the dissertation:
• Motivation
– Why is it interesting?
– What gaps in the literature does it address?
– What do you find?
– How is your dissertation structured?
The Literature Review
A literature review can be:
• a list of relevant theories;
• a search for relevant information;
• a survey of writing on the subject;
• a way of learning about the subject;
• a help in finding dissertation topics and research methods;
• an important component of a dissertation or report.
It is important to critically analyse the material you are reading
Academic journal articles are a premier source for a literature review.
§ You need to know what is already known about your research area;
§ You can learn from the mistakes of others;
§ You can learn about different theoretical and methodological approaches to your research area;
§ It may help you to develop an analytic framework;
§ It may lead you to consider including variables in your research of which you might not have thought;
§ It may suggest further research questions;
§ It is required!
Two main approaches to a literature review
Systematic review:
• Very extensive search of the specific research field;
• Grouping of sources into categories:
– very relevant, based on good research,
– very relevant, weak research,
– low relevance, or too general;
• Giving a step-by-step report on the search method used, decisions taken and derived conclusions.
2. Narrative Review:
• Limited search for the most interesting contributions
• Concentration on connections between sources located and research questions
• Revision of research questions in the light of readings
Types of Methodology / Types of Data
• Empirical work testing existing ideas/theories
– Qualitative analysis using case studies, Interviewing and Focus Group, Qualitative Data Analysis, Mixed methods
– Quantitative analysis base on numerical data and econometric analysis (STATA software)
• Cross-sectional data
– Data collected from different entities/individuals at a particular period.
– Observations run from to , refers entity.
– e.g: Wages of 2000 Hungarian people in year 2021. ()
• Time-series data
– Data collected for a particular entity at consequent periods.
– Observations run from to , refers periods e.g: 50 monthly wages for sales manager Tom from 2000 Jan. ()
• Panel data
• Data collected from different entities at consequent periods.
• Observations run from to , to . e.g: 50 monthly wages for 100 sales managers from 2000 Jan. ()
Which type of data needed for the Dissertation?
• Short-cut: refer the most related empirical papers on the similar research question.
1) Replication: employing a new dataset with similar data structure but different level / region may lead to the results diverging from previous studies
• Based on your understanding to different types of data, does a new type data could better answer the research question?
2) Reformulate/Extend the existing model taking into account new developments in the field/controls (context specific) etc.
Reminder: I want the work to be 100% plagiarism free and 100% Human generated (tests will be made to check AI) Also, don’t forget the appendixes with the charts and tables from data.
