Define and justify an appropriate business-related research issue to investigate empirically.

Programme:

Business & Tourism Management

Level:

Level 5

Module Title:

Research methods - 1

Module code:

U14886

Module leader/s:

Assignment No:

Choose an item.

Assignment Type:

Research Proposal

Assignment

weighting %:

50%

Assignment Word

Count: (or equivalent)

2000 words

Penalties

All penalties that are listed at the end of this document in the Table of Penalties.

Submission Dates and Times (Day: Date & Time)

Summative Link

Friday, 4 October, 2024

U14886_JAN22: Research Proposal - First Submission Inbox (globalbanking.ac.uk)

Late Submission

Tuesday, 8 October, 2024

U14886_JAN22: Research Proposal - Late Submission Inbox (globalbanking.ac.uk)

Resubmission 1

Friday, 29 November 2024, 2:00 PM

U14886_JAN22: Research Proposal - Resubmission 1 Inbox (globalbanking.ac.uk)

Grade & Feedback release Dates

All Grade and Feeback release dates are 21 days after the submission date. If an assignment deadline is Monday 1st 2:00pm then the grade release date will be Monday 22nd 2:00pm

This assignment has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your achievement of

the following module learning outcomes:

Module Outcome 1

Define and justify an appropriate business-related research issue to investigate empirically.

Module Outcome 2

Explain and critically evaluate the main social scientific research methodologies and methods appropriate for the business.

Module Outcome 3

Draw on relevant academic literature and appropriate data sources to develop and evaluate insights from published materials related to chosen research area.

Module Outcome 4

Demonstrate an informed understanding on key ethical considerations of conducting research projects.

Module Outcome 5

Demonstrate appropriate academic writing skills, referencing and good academic practice and make decisions on organising material in a logical and coherent way with an audience in mind.

Assignment Requirements

Overview

1. Students are required to develop a research proposal in tourism sector in the UK or in the international tourism market.
2. This research proposal will be presented in one structured document using the Research Proposal Template available on Moodle and be the equivalent of 2000 words of the main body, excluding the Table of contents, References and Appendices which are mandatory.
3. This assignment will prepare students to do individual research in Level 6 and further in their careers. It aims to equip students with skills of identifying the research problem in the field of tourism and developing the research proposal which will reflect the research design, methods and instruments to resolve this problem. These are core employability skills.
4. Successful completion of this assignment will demonstrate student’s ability to understand and interpret information relevant to the research methodology and present it to a number of audiences in both academic and business environments in a written form.
5. The research proposal will be submitted on Moodle as a Word Document file in due date anonymously – without the assessment front sheet. Page 1 will list the Contents.
   1. You must NOT give your name or Student ID anywhere in the text.
   2. You should NOT name the submitted file as your name or Student ID

Assignment task/s to be completed

a) Students are encouraged to investigate needs in the jobs they occupy if they are related to tourism or examine the current need for research in the sector in the UK or internationally and develop the research proposal according to the identified research question.

b) A practical problem might be more suitable for an undergraduate level as it is the first attempt to undertake research. Therefore, a research proposal might seek a solution to a problem in an existing UK-based or overseas tourism business, a tourist destination, DMO or any other organisation in the tourism sector.

c) Students will use the Research Proposal Template and follow the suggested structure and word count of each section.

d) Page 1 of the submitted Research proposal will open with the Title of the research proposal and will present its structure (see Assignment Guide, section The structure of the Research proposal).

e)    Students will need to explore the theoretical background of the research problem, review research literature and verify if the research question they ask is responded in the previous research, or, alternatively, there is a gap in the research and no solution has been found yet. In the latter case, students will set the research aim, objectives, and develop research methodology, including research design, research methods, research instruments, and a feasible timeline.

f) See the Assignment Guide for a detailed explanation per section.

g) The Research proposal must be supported by three Appendices.

Additional Information required to support completing the tasks above

1. The Research Proposal must be developed individually, and students are responsible for submitting their own piece of research and demonstrating academic integrity.
2. The written Research proposal (Assignment 2) will be explained by each student orally as an Individual presentation of the Research Proposal (Assignment 1). Therefore, both assignments will have the same topic, aim, objectives, utilize the majority of resources, and mainly discuss the same research methodology and predicted outcomes.
3. There will be NO Figures or Tables in the body of the research proposal. See Assignment Guide as for how to refer to statistical data in the text when you need to.

Mandatory Referencing and Research Requirements

Referencing

Style

CCCU Harvard Referencing Style harvard (canterbury.ac.uk)

CCCU Harvard Referencing Guide · CCCU Harvard citation (updated Jul 23 2024) · Citationsy

Mandatory Sources to be included in the Assignment

• Include at least 15 references. Sections where resources are expected to be used are highlighted in green throughout the Research Proposal Template available on Moodle.
• Please, be aware that you CANNOT USE books on RESEARCH METHODS as resources for Literature review on Tourism or Theoretical or Conceptual Framework.
• The only section in your Research Proposal and Individual Presentation of research proposal is Research Methodology.

Learning Materials/ Resources

At GBS you have access to our online databases through ESBCO, which can be accessed through the Moodle page. You also have access to the CCCU library which can be accessed online at:

https://ulms.ent.sirsidynix.net.uk/client/en_GB/CCCU https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/library-services

Essential Resources (available on shelves and electronically in GBS library)

Bell, E., Bryman, A. and Harley, B. (2019). Business Research Methods. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2019). Research Methods for Business Students. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Flick, U. (2020) Introducing research methodology: Thinking your way through your research project. London: SAGE.

Tracy, S.J. (2020) Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis,

Learning Materials/ Resources

Communicating Impact. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

eBooks (unlimited user access):

Big Data for Qualitative Research / Kathy A. Mills

International Organizations and Research Methods: An Introduction / Fanny Badache, Leah R Kimber and Lucile Maertens

Research Methods for Business and Social Science Students / John Adams, Hafiz T. A. Khan and Robert Raeside

Research Methods for Graduate Business and Social Science Students / John Adams, Hafiz T A Khan, Robert Raeside and David I. White

Other recommended reading:

Abdulai, R. T., & Owusu-Ansah, A. (2014) Essential Ingredients of a Good Research Proposal for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students in the Social Sciences. SAGE Open, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014548178

Booth, W.C., Colomb, G.G., & Williams, J.M. (2016) The Craft of Research. University of Chicago Press.

Cooper, D.R. (2019) Business research: a guide to planning, conducting, and reporting your study. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Cottrell, S. (2019) The Study Skills Handbook. 5th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 352-361. Creswell, J.W. (2017) Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five

Approaches. SAGE Publications.

Creswell, J.W., & Plano Clark, V.L. (2017). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. SAGE Publications.

Davies, M. and Hughes, N. (2014) Doing a successful research project: using qualitative or quantitative methods. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Ford, N. (2012) The essential guide to using the Web for research. London: Sage

Kirk, R. (2012) Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences. SAGE Publications. Kumar, R. (2019) Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. SAGE

Publications.

Laetus O K Lategan, Liezel Lues and Hesta Friedrich-Nel (2011) Doing research. Bloemfontein, South Africa: Sun Press. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=nlebk&AN=225 6576&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 19 December 2023).

Neuman, W.L. (2019) Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Pearson.

Punch, K.F. (2001) Developing Effective Research Proposals. London: Sage

Romberg, S. (2018) Business Research: A QuickStudy Laminated Reference Guide. [S.l.]: QuickStudy Reference Guides. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=nlebk&AN=280370 1&site=eds-live (Accessed: 4 April 2024).

Yin, R.K. (2017) Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods. SAGE Publications.

Journals:

Educational Researcher: Sage Journals (sagepub.com)

International Journal of Research & Method in Education: Vol 46, No 5 (Current issue) (tandfonline.com)

Journal of Business Research | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier

Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics: Sage Journals (sagepub.com) Journal of Mixed Methods Research: Sage Journals (sagepub.com)

Journal of Research in Science Teaching - Wiley Online Library Journal of Research Practice – DOAJ

Qualitative Research: Sage Journals (sagepub.com)

Open Access SAGE Journals with a Research Methods Focus:

Big Data & Society (BD&S) Methodological Innovations

Learning Materials/ Resources

Research Ethics

Teaching Methods Identifying & Planning Research The International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Websites and Electronic Resources:

• On Academic Writing and writing a Research Proposal:

Academic Phrasebank | The University of Manchester

An Ultimate Guide to Write a Tourism Business Proposal - HttClub Course: Study Skills (globalbanking.ac.uk)

McCombes, S. & George, T. (2023). How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/research-process/research-proposal/ (Accessed: 18 December 2023)

National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) Research Objectives (manchester.ac.uk)

• On Research in Business and Tourism:

All data related to leisure and tourism - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) Article Archives - CMI (managers.org.uk)

Businessweek - Bloomberg

Census - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

CMI Career Confidence | Management & Leadership Development (managers.org.uk) ETC Corporate - The European Travel Commission (ETC) (etc-corporate.org)

Financial Times (ft.com)

Harvard Business Review - Ideas and Advice for Leaders (hbr.org) Hospitality & Tourism Complete | EBSCO

International tourist arrivals by world region 2022 | Statista Oxford Economics

Statistics of tourism | World Tourism Organization (unwto.org)

The Economist | World News, Economics, Politics, Business & Finance The UNWTO Tourism Data Dashboard | Tourism Data

Tourism Statistics | World Tourism Organization (e-unwto.org) Tourism Statistics Database (unwto.org)

UK Tourism Statistics 2023 - Latest Data (condorferries.co.uk)

• On Research Ethics:

Global Banking School (2024) GBS Code of Practice for the Ethical Conduct of Research. Available at: https://www.globalbanking.ac.uk/media/jh4bi33o/code-of-practice-for-the- ethical-conduct-of-research-jan-2024.pdf (Accessed: 24 July 2024).

Governance and Ethics - Canterbury Christ Church University

Format of your submission and how your assignment will be assessed

1) This research proposal will be presented in one structured document of 2000 words of the main body, excluding the Table of contents, References and Appendices which are mandatory.

2) You will use the Research Proposal Template available on Moodle and will follow its instructions as for word count per section, content and you are encouraged to use some tips about the language and resources.

3) Please, delete the text in red after you complete the draft of your research.

4) This submission will be marked anonymously. You must not have an assessment front sheet or a cover page.

5) You must NOT give your name or Student ID anywhere in the text.

6) You should NOT name the submitted file as your name or Student ID.

7) Please ensure that your work has been saved in Microsoft Word format. Your file must contain at least 2000 words of text without the Table of Contents, References and Appendices and be less than 40MB in size.

8) You CANNOT submit a set of images of the text, as this will be viewed as Academic Misconduct and the attempt to avoid similarity check on Turnitin. See all details in the Table of Penalties (Appendix A).

9) Your submitted text must be editable, and not in the textbox or frame.

10) You can submit your work as many times as you like before the submission date. If you do submit your work more than once, your earlier submission will be replaced by the most recent version.

11) Once you have submitted your work, you will receive a digital receipt as proof of submission, which will be sent to your forwarded e-mail address (provided you have set this up). Please keep this receipt for future reference, along with the original electronic copy of your assignment

12) Please, get acquainted with the following documents to comply with the requirements on Academic Integrity, preventing and handling cases of Academic Misconduct. By submitting your assignment, you are acknowledging that you have read and understood these regulations.

- Student-Academic-Integrity-Policy (canterbury.ac.uk)

- Student-Academic-Misconduct-Procedures-staff-students (canterbury.ac.uk)

Marking Scheme / Rubric - The Marking Scheme (otherwise known as a rubric) is available on the Module Assessment Tab on Moodle.

Submission Requirements

Submission Platform

This assignment should be submitted electronically using Moodle to the Module Submission link

Submission Date &Time

All submission & resubmission dates and time are as stated at the beginning of this Assignment brief.

You should submit your Assignment for all deadlines earlier than 2:00pm on the date stated.

Late submissions can be accepted for Summative Submissions only up to a maximum of 2 working days after the submission deadline. This does not apply to resubmission deadlines. A 10 mark deduction will be made by CCCU for all late submissions.

Work submitted more than two working days after the deadline will not be accepted and will be recorded as a non-submission.

Assignments submitted to the Resubmissions deadlines will be capped at 40 by CCCU.

If you are affected by events which are unexpected, outside your control and short-term in nature (i.e. lasting one to two weeks), under the exceptional circumstances procedure you may be eligible for:

• A seven day extension to your coursework (via self-certification request).
• A 14 day extension to your coursework (via evidence-based request).
• To defer your exam or time-constrained assessment if you have not yet submitted/attempted it (via self-certification or evidence-based request).
• To re-take an exam/time-constrained assessment, if you feel your performance on your first attempt was negatively impacted (via impaired performance request).

Please note students are only eligible to have a maximum of 2 self-certification requests per academic year.

You can make a self-certification request up to 14 calendar days before your deadline:

• for coursework it must be no later than 2pm on the deadline date
• for exams and time-constrained assessments, the request must be submitted no later than the start time of the assessment.

Table of Penalties

Issue with the Assignment

Penalty to be Applied

Suspected Academic Misconduct or Breach of Academic integrity

The Assignment will be graded zero. Written feedback will be ‘This assignment has been identified as potential Academic Misconduct/Breach of Academic Integrity. You will be invited to a meeting to discuss’.

You will be invited to a meeting with an academic Misconduct reviewer. When you attend the meeting if Academic Misconduct or the breach of Academic Integrity is upheld you will be asked to rewrite the section of the assignment it applies to and re-submit the assignment.

Do not upload any assignments to the AMC submission links before the meeting otherwise it will be removed.

Failure to attend the meeting means the assignment will remain graded at zero and you will be unable to pass the module until you have attended the meeting.

The assignment is more than 10% over the prescribed wordcount i.e. for 3,000 words, if 3,400 is submitted excluding the cover page, table of contents, references and appendices.

A 10-mark deduction applied to the overall grade that is manually entered by the Lecturer. This deduction is capped at 40%, which means an assignment cannot get less than 40% if a deduction has to be made.

For example, if the mark for the assignment was 60. The lecturer would deduct 10 marks and the mark will be 50. Written feedback will also state ‘This assignment is 10% over the wordcount and 10 marks have been deducted’.

Where assignments are more than 10%

This assignment will be graded below 40.

less than the prescribed wordcount and lecturers cannot identify if the learning outcomes have been met.

Where a student submits a .pdf instead of a word document.

This assignment will be graded a Fail. The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘This is a pdf submission and is not allowed. All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format’.

Students not working in their groups as agreed by the lecturer.

This assignment will be graded a Fail.

The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘This submission was not completed in the designated group’.

Please note: Where a student has asked the lecturer to move from their original group and the lecturer has agreed this does not apply.

For a presentation assignment that requires oral delivery, and the student does not present in person.

The Oral rubric criteria is not moved, and the oral criteria will remain at zero.

For a presentation assignment and the student does not upload a converted PPT To Word File with speaker notes.

The communication rubric criteria is not moved, and the communication criteria will remain at zero.

For a presentation assignment that requires oral delivery, and the student did not present on the day or upload the presentation to a Word document with speaker Notes.

This assignment will be graded a Fail.

The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘There was no Oral presentation in class and the submission was not converted to Microsoft Word’.

For a presentation assignment the student uploads a file that contains no slides and is simply continuous text.

This assignment will be graded a Fail. The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘There are no slides present in the assignment submission’.

If the assignment is group work and the resubmission is not changed to individual work.

If a group assignment is failed then the resubmitted work must be changed by a minimum of 25% to make it an individual piece of work.

This means if a Group Presentation is 12 slides a minimum of 3 must be different to the group submission. If the assignment is a Group Poster with 6 text boxes then a minimum of 2 of them must be different to the Group Poster.

This assignment will be graded a Fail.

The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘This resubmission should be individual and a minimum of 25% of the assignment has not changed’.

Where a written assignment has text that is unable to be read by Turnitin because it is either a graphical image (excluding Presentations & Posters); for example, a screenshot or the assignment is written within text boxes on each page.

This assignment will be graded 0 and the written feedback should state ‘This assignment is unreadable by Turnitin and cannot be checked for Academic Misconduct. It has been referred for an AMC meeting’. The assignment will then be referred for Academic Misconduct investigation.

An assignment that does not make use of any Mandatory references provided in the assignment brief/Module Handbook.

The reference rubric criteria is not moved and that criteria will remain at zero

An assignment has a reference list, but no citations.

The reference rubric criteria is not moved and that criteria will remain at zero. Written feedback should state ’The reference criteria has been graded Zero as no citations have been used. Please include citations in your assignment to support the academic points being made’.

An assignment has no citations and no reference list.

Foundation & Level 4 - The reference rubric criteria is not moved and that criteria will remain at zero. The written feedback will state ‘Please ensure that you use citations and references to support your assignment submission’.

At Level 5 and Level 6 this would be graded as a Fail. The lecturer will grade as 1 and written feedback will also show ‘This assignment has no citations and no reference list’.