Format

Good practice advice

Front Cover

The title page should follow the specific format.

The title should be academic

For example:

The Role of the Finance in the Development of SMEs: Opportunities and Barriers in the UK

Whilst there are good and less good journals and good and less good articles, consider how your title compares in terms of conveying information and ‘gravitas’ to those titles that you have read in your literature review.

Try to be very specific regarding what you are examining in your study and state this in your title. You can include specific characteristics or a specific context that relate to your study. These can be a country-region e.g. UK, a type of companies e.g. SMEs, a group of individuals e.g. students etc.

Abstract

[Appox 250 words]

The abstract should not exceed 250 words. Researchers and students who may in the future consult your work will invariably use just the abstract to determine whether it covers their own area of interest. The abstract is not an introduction to the dissertation. Rather, it is a summary of the dissertation, so you should pay sufficient attention to outlining your results and conclusions.

Probably the penultimate task –when you doubtless never wish to see your dissertation ever again but the second thing that your reader will see.

Acknowledgements

It is customary that the dissertation carries an acknowledgement of assistance, supervision or collaboration given by companies, other agencies and individuals.

Customary but not compulsory … your chance to briefly thank whoever you want to … if anyone. Please bear in mind professional courtesy here.

Table of Contents

The table of contents contains the headings and subheadings of the chapters and sections of the dissertation, with the numbers of the pages on which these chapters and sections begin.

The title page and abstract are not entered in the table of contents and therefore the first item to be listed would be the preface.

The minimum content of the table of contents should be the preface, each chapter or main division title, each appendix and the references. All headings should correspond exactly in wording, arrangement, punctuation and capitalisation with the headings as they appear in the body of the written project.

List of Tables, Figures, List of other types of material: maps, photos, etc., and List of Abbreviations (if any)

If the dissertation contains charts, figures, maps, tables, photographs or other types of material, each series of these should be listed separately on the page immediately following the table of contents. Each list should follow the format of the table of contents.

The number of the item is given at the left-hand margin of the page under the appropriate column heading entitled ‘charts’, ‘figures’, ‘maps’, ‘tables’, or ‘photographs’. The number is followed by the title of the item, given exactly as it appears in the body of the thesis tables, figures etc. and should be numbered accordingly to their chapter and position in that chapter. Thus, figure 2.10 is the tenth figure in chapter two.

Abbreviations are a shorter form of a word or a phrase. The list of Abbreviations should be presented in alphabetical order and look like…

SMEs              Small and Medium Enterprises

 TPB               Theory of Planned Behaviour

DO NOT use pictures or cartoons or logos unless they relate to the research. e.g. if you are referring to the company image reference to the logo would be acceptable as would a few illustrations of CD covers etc. (though do not make it too many, you could put them into the appendices.)

Avoid using colour as far as possible. If you are using graphs, try and make sure that they work in Black and white or grey tone. If you are using illustrations colour may be essential but do keep them to a minimum.

Make sure that all Abbreviations used in the manuscript appear in the List. Make sure that the first time that you want to write something about e.g. the Theory of Planned Behaviour you present the full phrase in the manuscript and afterwards using the abbreviation TPB. This will save words and would improve the flow of the manuscript.

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Introduce the subject under investigation (include citations). The background must only include elements relevant to your investigation; so, for example including the history of an organisation would be too descriptive.

Provide the reasons why it is important to investigate the specific subject (include citations).

Present the aim of the study and the research objectives of the study.

Include an overview of the Chapters that follow; this should be concise, perhaps half a page.

This chapter initially sets the general scene and afterwards provides a detailed overview of what the specific study investigates. What you need to do is to articulate your broad perspective and then sub-divide it into researchable components.

Chapter 2 – Literature Review

Introduction: Introduce what you will present in this chapter

Main Body: A Literature review is a discussion of the academic literature by using a logical structure and is written around themes or clusters of ideas. Therefore, it may be helpful to use subheadings.

The literature review (at this level) should be based mainly on academic journal articles, supplemented by respected texts. Make sure the information is correctly cited.

Ensure that you present your argument. Each concept you introduce should be critically analysed; this may include identifying where there is consensus [citing a range of authors] where there is disparity, contextualising, indicating assumptions, limitations, and implications.  This may well call on you to delve into the researchers’ methods.

Academic textbooks are acceptable in some discipline areas but should be kept to a minimum.

If you wish to refer to tables, figures or diagrams, include the source and show in the Appendices.

Summary: Summarise what has been stated in this chapter and link it to the next chapter

A literature review does what it says – it reviews the appropriate literature – what is out there and perhaps what is not out there. You may have to adapt literature to your specific needs. Articles are your tools that help you build your argument.

The literature should be honed to your research objectives or questions. This means that for every research objective/question that you have, you need to present the relevant theoretical background in your literature review.

For example, if your research objective is to determine the opportunities and barriers in the venture creation context then you need to present and discuss the opportunities and barriers that previous research has identified.

You may include readings which offer you a theoretical framework or model.  If that is the case, ensure that you explore areas of it by contrasting this model to other literature about it (or elements of it) before accepting it as a model for use in structuring the remainder of your research.

You may need to revisit your Literature Review Chapter if new themes or issues arise within the analysis of your findings.

Chapter 3 – Methodology

Introduction: Introduce what you will present in this chapter

Main Body:

This section discusses and defends how you are going to methodologically approach your study.

You need to include sub-headings in order to organise your work. Please see below…

Research strategy/design (Present very briefly your overall methodological approach)

Research philosophy (Interpretivism or Positivism)

Research approach (Inductive or Deductive)

Research methods (Qualitative or Quantitative)

Sample size and characteristics (How have you selected your sample? Provide all the info that describes your final sample whether this refers to companies, individuals or both, report the actual response rate e.g. you have distributed 200 questionnaires or asked 30 individuals to participate in your interviews but how many of them did actually participate in the study?)

Data collection (Questionnaires with pilot study or Interviews/Focus groups – What type and which specific questions have been used in the questionnaire to measure the study variables? What type and which specific questions have been used in the interview?).  The research tool (questionnaire or interview questions) should be included in the appendices

Data analysis – techniques to move from data to findings

Ethical Considerations (Anonymity and confidentiality and security of information).

You may consider validity, reliability and transferability.

Summary: Summarise what have been stated in this chapter and link it to the next chapter

In the methodology chapter your competence as a researcher will be examined. This is the tipping point chapter between the literature review and reporting the results. You should be prepared in this chapter to be reflective, to critique (but not to destroy) what you have done … to show that you are a competent and thinking researcher. Therefore, make sure that your research questions can be answered by the research methodology that you have chosen. 

For example, if your research questions are related to whether a relationship between two research variables exists (e.g. Do intentions relate to behaviours?) then you cannot answer this question by implementing a qualitative research design. Instead, you need a quantitative research approach in order to check for the existence of the relationship by using the SPSS software.

However, if your research questions focus on aspects of relationships or how people experience concepts, then you will need to use a qualitative research approach.

The Methodology chapter needs precision…

For example the statement:

“This study has administered 50 questionnaires.” is too vague.

Enrich it with more details…For example:

The questionnaire has been mailed in January 2016 to a convenience sample of customer service managers in three water utility companies in the UK.

Every time that you make a statement regarding the chosen methodological approach you need to justify it.

For example:

Considering that this research concerns the relationship between the variables under investigation, namely intentions and behaviours, and that the aim of the study is to test the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour while generalising the findings, quantitative research methods have been implemented (Saunders et. all, 2012).

Chapter 4 – Results and analysis

Introduction: Introduce what you will present in this chapter

Main Body: This is the chapter where you present your Primary Data analysis.

In qualitative studies, this would mean presenting the themes from your data.  If you have chosen a deductive study, these themes will follow the structure of the conceptual themes from your literature review.  If you are using an inductive approach, you will need to identify these themes by grouping patterns of comments from your respondents.

In quantitative studies, this would mean presenting either cross-tabulations or the SPSS results (only relevant information to your research questions should be presented here – full SPSS outputs can be included in the appendix). In this case, you need to indicate whether hypotheses have been accepted or rejected based on the SPSS output.

Summary: Summarise the main themes

Present the findings according to the research objectives/questions. Try to follow exactly the same order as in your research questions so that the reader can easily make the link between the research questions and the research findings.

Appropriate statistical analysis should be used in quantitative studies (SPSS software). You may want to use tables, graphs to help the reader understand your findings.

Quotes from participants should be presented as evidence of your themes for a qualitative study.

In order to discuss your findings, you also need to compare them with previous research. What did previous research indicate (very briefly present what has been stated in detail in the literature review regarding findings from previous research)? Are your findings in contrast with previous research or do your findings verify previous research results or do your findings extent previous research? What does this mean?

Chapter 5 – Conclusion

A conclusion should summarise whether you have answered the research questions.

Link your findings with your research questions. State why these are important both form a theoretical and practical perspective.   

Limitations of the dissertation may reflect on time, resources available, sample characteristics and size, measurements, data analysis, aspects that have been not included in the study and could potentially provide a more holistic perspective of the subject under investigation etc.

Future research refers to your propositions/recommendation regarding what future studies should do in order to verify your findings or extend your study.

Simplest way is to repeat your research aims and objectives, or research questions and say briefly what you have found.

Do not introduce new information into the conclusion!

The best way is to present each limitation separately and directly link this with future research.

For example:

This study was based on relatively small sample. Future research based on a larger sample group is needed in order to verify the results of this study.

Appendix (singular) or appendices (plural) (if any)

The principal purpose of an appendix is to keep the text of the project from being jumbled and interrupted with supplementary, minor and illustrative materials. The text of pertinent documents, tables that present extensive data, or data of minor or ancillary importance, the text of legal decisions or laws, very lengthy quotations, excerpts from diaries, transcripts of minutes, forms of documents, copies of sample questionnaires, and the like, may be included as appendices.

Each appendix should begin on a separate page. The appendix pages should continue the regular pagination of the dissertation. Appendices should be designated sequentially as Appendix A, Appendix B, etc. and they should appear in the order that they are referred to in the text. Whenever possible and appropriate, the source of the material in the appendix should be given.

References

The Reference section should contain only the works consulted and found relevant and thus cited by the author in the dissertation.

The quality of the references, for example relevance and sources such as peer-reviewed journal articles will positively influence your grade.

No need to separate the list as text or journal articles or internet sources – just have one a-z listing.

Please see guidance at  Lancashire School of Business & Enterprise Referencing Guidance

Referencing creates an audit trail; signals your grasp of relevant literature both historic and contemporary; separates out what is yours from what is somebody else’s intellectual capital.