BUSI48Y15: RESEARCH METHODS (MSc Management - Finance)

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• To provide students with an introduction to a variety of research methods in the social sciences, including both qualitative and quantitative methods
• To enable students to use a range of perspectives to critically review research studies in terms of theorising, methods and findings
• To develop skills research methods to address complex organisational problems, both systematically and creatively.

• Introduction: approaches to social research;
• Formulating a research question: conducting a literature review, and developing a research strategy that fits your question;
• The nature of qualitative research;
• The nature of quantitative research;
• Data gathering methods (incl. interviews and focus groups, and archive document collection; survey and experiment designs, and panel data)
• Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data (incl., respectively, t-tests, correlations and regressions, as well as panel data; interview transcripts and document analysis);
• Ethics of research.
• Planning and managing a research project.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of the module students should have:
• a critical appreciation of the range of philosophical approaches to research in business and management;
• knowledge of the facilities available for conducting literature searches and data collection methods for obtaining relevant data to facilitate an empirical investigation;
• a critical understanding of data analysis techniques, both qualitative and quantitative, that are relevant to a given topic;
• a critical understanding of the principles of research design proposals;
• an advanced knowledge of statistical analysis for finance, including regression analysis, cross-sectional data analysis, and panel data analysis.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of the module students should have:
• The ability to apply relevant knowledge to critically analyse existing research, in terms of method and the veracity of the findings.
• The ability to construct a viable research proposal, including theorising anticipated relationships among variables and/or exploratory research questions; feasible and appropriate data collection and data analysis methods.
• The ability to select from a toolkit of techniques in research inquiry, identifying advantages and disadvantages, and opportunities and problems, associated with different methods.

Key Skills:

• Planning and organising;
• using initiative;
• computer literacy;
• numeracy;
• written communication of research on a chosen topic;
• time management
• self-discipline;
• problem solving and analysis.

• The module combines a range of approaches to learning and teaching. Students take part in research methods seminars and lectures to provide a foundation for the preparation of the research proposal element of the module and also to ensure that they have the option to complete a dissertation, or business project, or placement.
• The assessment is closely linked to the learning and allows the students to learn from planning a viable research proposal.

A group presentation, delivered in the final seminar, on how to design a research study into one of three typical research questions for the students discipline (questions to be released to the students with three weeks notice). The presentation should incorporate a very brief summary of the relevant literature to the research question selected (definitions, key previous findings), the data to be collected (e.g. interviews; surveys; experiments) and likely methods of analysis, including techniques to be used (e.g. template analysis; linear regressions).

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