Actual Text

You could use the following division as a stepping-stone for the content of the actual text of your report. After the summary (1.4), the subdivisions mentioned in section 1.5, and sections 1.6 and 1.7 can be used as a guideline for chapter divisions. Of course you have to adapt the titles to your own research paper. Attractive titles are appreciated, but the general structure and main line of argument in your thesis should be maintained.

1.4 Summary

Professionals like to read the most important information first in order to decide whether reading the complete report is relevant to them. Therefore it is necessary to give an informative summary of the report before the beginning of the actual text. Make sure the summary is no longer than 1 or 2 pages of A4 and make sure it describes at least:

- the aim and problem definition of the research/project - the outline of the research design

- the main research results - the main conclusions.

Please note that you can make this summary only after finishing the complete report.

1.5 Actual Text

There are different guidelines for the size of the thesis for the different programs at Nyenrode.

Inquire for the right size at the different Program Offices. However, bear in mind that the

"weight" of the report is not linked to the number of pages. The fact is that a research report is in essence a series of arguments, and it is more important to show that you are capable of

Nyenrode Guidelines - 5 consistent writing than to produce lots of pages. This section describes the different parts of the actual text, which are in fact the six chapters of your report.

1.5.1 The introduction

A good introduction has three important functions: it contains background information, serves as an appetiser and sums up the structure of the report. This means that in the introduction you include:

a. The nature and relevance of the research project

Give a short description of the research topic and give the relevance of the project for the company, and furthermore how this research project can contribute to the increase in knowledge in the field of business administration. A good description can be very motivating for the reader.

b. Relevant information about the company

What is relevant depends partly on the topic of your research. General information about the company is necessary, but research into the functioning of a certain department within the company requires different background information than research into the logistic aspects of a certain production process. Be selective and be concise.

c. Relevant information about the branch or industry of the company

Here, again, the topic of your research is relevant for the information you can or need to give about the branch or industry your company is working in. Put yourself in the reader's position and think how you can portray a relevant picture of the branch.

d. Other relevant information

Again, depending on the topic, you may have to give some extra information, which is relevant for the reader in order to understand your report. This might include historical aspects of the company, the corporate culture, the environment of the company, etc.

e. The structure of the report

Before you move on, you first give information about the structure, which means the different chapters of your report.

1.5.2 Problem definition and objective of the research

A problem definition consists of a practical objective and one or more related research questions.

It is very important from the start to realise what the company wants to do with your research.

To which problems will your report give a solution or a contribution? This practical value has to be mentioned in the objective of your research.

Show here, with arguments, that the choice for the formulation of the problem definition is a justified one. It is important that you reach an agreement on this formulation with the company representative, as well as with the faculty supervisor. Both will almost certainly have different interests in the research. The company representative is interested in a contribution to a solution of a problem in his company; the faculty member looks at the "scientific" quality. The latter is interested in the methodological design of the research and its connection with the state of the art in the field researched.

Nyenrode Guidelines - 6 1.5.3 Discussion of the literature and theories used

You start your literature research with this temporary problem definition in mind. You study literature about the research topic, about relevant management theories, and about methods and techniques that you want to use for your project. The library has quite a lot of books about the methodological aspects of research and about writing reports. You make your final problem definition on the basis of the results of the literature study. Do not forget to check whether the company will accept the final problem definition, and make sure that you give good definitions of the concepts used.

You have to explain the relationship between your research and former research on this subject (the historical dimension). You have to show the reader that your contribution is different from other research and important enough to justify it. You do not have to make a summary of all the literature you have been reading; be selective and state what purpose a book or an article has for your research.

In other words, this chapter is meant to give an overview of your arguments and so convince the reader of your critical insight into relevant literature. Finally it has to show the relevance of your problem definition and hypotheses. Relevant is only that literature which is important for your problem definition and which is related to your research questions and/or hypotheses. What is also relevant, of course, is the literature, which possibly contradicts your hypotheses. It is important to realise that building up a good argumentation does not mean that you exclude

"undesirable" information!

1.5.4 Research design and data collection

After the discussion of relevant concepts and theories, you develop a suitable research design, appropriate for your problem definition, and you think of the best methods for data collection.

The construction of this chapter is very important and we recommend you to use the following division:

- Give an explanation of the structure of the chapter

- Present your argumentation for the research design chosen (e.g. survey, experiment, qualitative fieldwork, etc.)

- Describe the kind of data collected for your research project and the arguments for your choice

- Discuss the limitations of your research - State your ethical code.

Two topics will be discussed here: limitations of the research and ethical code.

a. Limitations of the research

You can give arguments for ("We decided to use design A, because...") as well as against ("We decided not to use B, because...") the decisions you made when justifying your choices. The arguments for not taking a particular course of action are usually viewed as limitations of the design chosen. Every research has its deliberately chosen limitations. It is necessary to realise this and present them in your report:

- Which limitations did you yourself impose voluntarily (e.g. time, organisational circumstances)?

- Which methodological or operational problems were you unable to solve?

Nyenrode Guidelines - 7 b. Ethical code

The ethical code means that you should do whatever is necessary to prevent causing any damage to the company you are doing your project thesis for. This means, for example, that you have to be very careful about giving personal opinions about the functioning of departments or

particular persons. In general, it is better to be noncommittal than to offend someone; however this also depends of course on the subject of your research. The company can also qualify certain business information it gives you for your research as "confidential". You have to be careful when handling this!

1.5.5 Results of data collection and analysis

After collecting the data for your research, you will have to analyse them. You present the results of this analysis in this chapter. Be aware that these results are only a part of the research. The completed report is the full result of your research project. A convenient way to structure this chapter is:

a. A brief introduction

You start this chapter with a brief introduction, with at least:

- a description of the way you collected your data and an account of the reliability of this method of data collection

- an outline of the structure of this chapter to let the reader know what topics you are going to discuss.

b. Give the answers to questionnaires in a systematic way

In many theses the students use questionnaires to collect data. This section is limited to the reproduction of the results of these. In this chapter (Results...) you have to summarise the answers to the questions in tables and/or text. Make sure the reader understands what questions were asked. Give the answers to each question briefly and in a structured way and then you connect the results to each other. Keep the same sequence you used in the original questionnaire.

You can start, for example, with "simple" tables and extend them to more complex ones.

Which results are relevant depends on your problem definition and your research questions. The original questionnaire can be added to the thesis as an appendix.

1.5.6 Conclusions and recommendations

Management research is usually done in order to solve a business problem. Therefore, the input of the company representative and other company members is considerable at the beginning of the project. The thesis also needs certain scientific criteria, for which the faculty member is responsible. At the end of the research, when you draw your conclusions and give your recommendations, both parties re-emerge.

a. Conclusions

Your conclusions relate to the original problem statement. So, to draw conclusions you create a link between the results and the problem. This means that you have to answer the questions, which you posed at the beginning of the research. Present your conclusions in a logical way:

- By giving an overview with the most important conclusions, including those that do not or only partially support your hypotheses

- By relating the conclusions to the literature discussed.

Nyenrode Guidelines - 8 It is not easy to draw good conclusions. Make sure not to speculate; this might be attractive, but it cannot be confirmed by research results. Therefore please note the following advice:

- Make sure that every conclusion is based firmly on the research results

- Relate your conclusions clearly to your original problem statement and research questions - Formulate concisely and precisely.

b. Recommendations

In general, management projects are more than just research projects. You also have to be able to explain how the existing company situation can be improved. Making recommendations does this. Both the company and the University expect you to give these. However, keep in mind that:

- The research period is a very limited period of time. It will be difficult to get a complete overview of the company and the market in which this company operates. It is difficult to make recommendations because the quality and the completeness of the research results determine the correctness or incorrectness. Matters outside your field of vision can influence the quality and completeness of these results and therefore influence your advice

- There might be mistakes in your research results, which may only come to light with the evaluation of your report. Your advice might even change considerably due to small methodological mistakes or misinterpretations.

Because of this it is recommended that you talk to the company supervisor and perhaps to the faculty member in order to discuss your recommendations beforehand. Keep your own

limitations in mind as well as the needs of the company. Only if all parties concerned agree about your recommendations you should put them in your thesis.

1.6 Appendices

Modern reports contain an increasing number of appendices, because the actual report should be written as concisely as possible. Appendices contain illustrative material, e.g. supplements and all the material on which your research is based. Inclusion of all of this material in the main text would result in a very confusing and unbalanced report. Examples of appendices are:

- the planning of your research, e.g. a time and activity table - raw data gathered

- all the actual research results

- copies of letters, questionnaires and forms

- any extensive tables or graphs that are not used in the text of the report - organisation chart or other pictures or schemes

- list of symbols and/or abbreviations used.

When you use appendices, present them in the following way:

- List them after the actual text in the sequence in which you refer to them

- Give every appendix a capital letter and a title. When referring to an appendix in the text always use the capital letter belonging to this reference, e.g. "More detailed information on this topic can be found in Appendix A".

1.7 Bibliography

In the Bibliography the reader will find the sources the author used in writing the report. The bibliography is a list of books, reports, journal articles, web-sites, etc., which are for preparing the text or that are referred to. It is very important that you make proper and correct references,

Nyenrode Guidelines - 9 because the reader has to be able to verify the information in the thesis. This means that every reference has to be as complete as possible. Personal communications, such as conversations, telephone calls and personal letters, are not included in a bibliography, because they cannot be verified.

Nyenrode Business Universiteit wants to standardise the way bibliographic references are made in the theses, and in the chapter 2 examples of different publications are given.