Here is a blog post that I found in my notes that I thought I would share to help those in the dissertation phase of their doctoral program. Specifically, writing the methodology for a business dissertation. The data collected was country data and had been previously collected by other databases. For those of you on this doctoral journey, I applaud you. And yes, you will get through it.
Writing a dissertation can be difficult. Ok. Let me rephrase. It is one of the most challenging tasks you will ever accomplish. You spend countless hours trying to determine the best topic to write about for the next few years of your life. It consumes you and it is all you think about it until it is done. And even when it is done, you realize that if you want any academic recognition you now have to pull apart your dissertation and publish it. Little rant, sorry.
Once you have decided on a topic that will be your life for the next few years, the next step is to research, research, research and then do a little more research. After all of the research is done you come to the point where you need to determine the best methodology to analyze your topic. Connecting the dots between the research, the methodology and data is time consuming but extremely rewarding when it comes together.
Tonight, on a Friday night, on the 3rd Friday night in a row, I find myself at home being more excited to work on my dissertation than enjoying the company of my friends (if any of you are reading this… I still love you). With a glass of wine in hand, I am writing my methodology section of my dissertation.
As I’ve been writing, I’ve noticed that there are no clear descriptions on how to create a methodology section. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, you’re getting your Ph.D. you should know how to write this section, but with all learning it’s important to know what you know. And more importantly, what you don’t know. And me, I am exploring a new type of methodology that I’m not familiar with. So, here I am, distracted and determining that writing a blog about how to write a methodology will be the best way to figure it out myself.
My Methodology Tips
Methodology
This should be an introduction to the research you are going to be doing after you have already gone through the literature review.
Explain your purpose.
What are you doing? What has been done? What hasn’t been done? Why is there a need for you to do the research? What hole in the literature are you filling with your research? In a nutshell.
Explain your study.
How did you do it? What is it that you actually did? Was it empirical? Exploratory? Descriptive?
Research Questions.
What are the questions that you are hoping to answer? With justification for the RQ.
Hypothesis
What is your hypothesis? What will you be trying to disprove or fail to disprove?
Data
Sample
What was your data source? How large was your sample size? What are you researching i.e company data, country data, people, behaviors etc. etc.? Were there any limitations?
Variables
What variables are you testing? What is your justification for the variables? What are the scales based on? What is the reliability/ validity of the scale?
Statistical Model
What statistical models are you going to test? Why? Include Equations.
This is just a quick explanation of how to write a methodology section for a business dissertation!
The most important part of writing a marketing dissertation is choosing the right topic. While there are many marketing dissertation topics to choose from, the one you decide on has to be relevant to the marketing discipline as well as one in which you have an interest.
dissertation topics in marketing