Business Research Project (MAN3116)
Introduction and Q&A
Prof Liang HAN
L.Han@surrey.ac.uk
Office: 228D Lijin Building
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• This is a 15 credits module, equivalent to a
normal module.
• Aims:
– To manage an independent research project;
– To critically evaluate existing literature;
– To collect and analyse relevant information.
• Approach: a guided and supervised process
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What is it?
• A piece of independent team research on a give
topic of ‘A critical analysis of Company X plc’s
shareholder wealth creation in the five-year
period from 2018/19 to 2022/23 (or 2017-2021)’
• To assess your ability to organise, manage and
complete an independent study connected to A&F.
• 10,000 words in English with a formatted structure ± 10% (excluding refernce and appendics)
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What is it?
• You don’t need to collect primary data via
questionnaire, interview and etc.
• It is not a story telling and descriptive piece.
• It is not a performance evaluation but an analysis
on shareholders’ wealth creation.
• It is not a research project on marketing,
HRM…but a research project on a topic in
accounting and finance.
• It is not a self-structured project and specified
structure is available on pp.7-8.
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What is it NOT?
• Do we need to use econometrics or regressions in data
analysis? NO
• Can we submit before the deadline? YES
• With different supervisors/markers, do we receive
consistent guidance? YES
• What companies are not suitable to choose? Younger than
5 yrs and/or suspended or delisted in the last 5 yrs.
• Can we change mind? YES and please email me.
• What information is available and what is not? THINK
what do you need and what available.
• Any other questions? PLEASE email me.
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FAQs
• Read BRP guide carefully.
• Case company: does it tick the boxes?
• What, how and why?
– What is shareholder’s wealth creation?
– How can I evaluate it?
– Why should we evaluate it in this way?
• Theories? What theories are available?
– Investment? Share prices? Cost of finance? Cashflow?
Dividend? CSR? Corporate Governance?
– ……
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How to start?
• Objective: a critical analysis of shareholder wealth
creation.
• It has to be relevant to shareholder wealth
creation. It is NOT an evaluation of financial
performance etc.
• What makes a GOOD project?
– It has to be critical rather than descriptive.
– It has to be strongly linked to shareholder wealth
creation.
– Your data and analysis have to support your discussion.
– It would be good to see the (in)consistency of your
empirical results with literature.
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Some advices:
• This is an overview of what the project will be
about.
• Aims and objectives are expected to be clear and
some rationale is offered.
• You can develop your introduction by covering:
– Overall research objectives
– Specific research questions
– Case company and why?
– Research methodology and key results
– Any implications
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Introduction
• This is an overview of what existing literature has
shown us.
• It is expected of a high level of scholarship
demonstrated and literature is critically evaluated.
• Literature review is expected to:
– be strongly related to your research objective;
– cover both theoretical frameworks and existing empirical
evidence;
– Add value by critical evaluation rather than being
descriptive;
– Identify some research gaps, ideally.
– Develop some hypotheses to be tested empirically?
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Literature review
• Literature develops around very specific questions. So, the easiest way to approach your
project is to acquaint yourself with the literature that has already articulated a very clear
academic question.
• The best way to introduce yourself to a literature is to look for a survey article. A survey
article tends to review all the questions and sub-questions in an area and lays them out
for you to explore in an empirical paper.
• The survey would also tell you which questions have been fully explored and where
there is a gap in the literature.
• A good literature review is one that tries to explore these remaining gaps in the
literature, which enhances the significance of the study.
• There are journals that exclusively publish survey articles: Journal of Economic
Literature, Journal of Economic Perspective, Journal of Economic Surveys.
• Your problem is not new. Summarise the relevant literature. The best thing to do is to
identify key concepts in this literature you are interested in that you want the reader to
remember.
• Make a table of these concepts and the attributes given in the various papers you
reviewed. In this overview at least the papers that motivated you need to be mentioned.
• It is extremely important to note that you do not need to review all literature, only the
stuff you think that is relevant.
• At the end of the literature review, specify the particular hypothesis you have in mind.10
What makes a good literature review?
• We are expecting thorough understanding of the
data and its relevance to your research objectives.
• The selection of data and analysis has to be
strongly related to the theoretical frameworks you
identify in literature review.
• You are expected to cover:
– The data and analytical approaches
– Justification of your selection (literature?)
• You are not required to do regressions.
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Methodology and findings
• It should provide answers to the research questions
you have identified.
• It should appraise the evidence in light of the
critical review of current literature/theories.
• This should be a summary of your main results,
limitation and future scope of your research.
• Excellent command of the material and the ability
to organise and present the material.
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Discussion, conclusion and implications
• As your project develops, you will need to judge if
all the points made in the notes are relevant or
useful to you.
• Follow your supervisor’s guidance not others.
• Supervisor’s role is to support and help but this is
an independent project which you should lead.
• Any question?
– email me L.Han@surrey.ac.uk
Q&A
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Finally…