The course is being presented in Intensive mode with seminars, workshops, and group discussion. All activities will be streamed and recorded for the benefit of students that are studying remotely.

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from the Course Planner. Note: this course is run on a participatory seminar-basis , and a considerable degree of the course assessment will occur during seminars (Intensives' sessions). Intensives tend to be run on irregular weekends.  For specific dates, see your Course Calendar and/or MyUni. 

The distribution of materials covered, topics, workshops, and other seminar details can be found in the Learning Activities session below. 

Note 2:  topics sometimes shift from one intensive to another, but any change in required readings is always posted well in advance in MyUni. The information below is presented here for your convenience; however, any changes to the timetable will be recorded in the Course Planner.

The course provides a strong grounding in understanding the research process enabling students to either engage an external research organisation to undertake a study on their behalf in a business environment or, alternatively, action and complete a research project themselves as either the sole researcher or as part of a research team. In addition to the technical skills and knowledge required to be successful in these endeavours, the course also provides students with a clear understanding of the ethical considerations involved in undertaking research and the special challenges evidenced in international and cross cultural studies.

On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

1. Apply an advanced understanding of business research design options, methodologies and analysis methods (both qualitative and quantitative), including respective terms, definitions and applications to the design, implementation and evaluation of a research project.
2. Distil an identified business problem into a succinct research problem (or problems) and articulate this into a comprehensive research brief for investigation by a research team locally or internationally.
   • This brief will include a statement of the resulting research problem and the objectives that need to be achieved to provide the information necessary to tackle the business problem and the decisions that need to be made respective to it.
3. Complete, from the brief created, a research proposal for implementation at either a local or international level.
   • This will include (but not be restricted to), a literature summary at the necessary level of depth to ensure a thorough understanding of what is already known about the problem to be addressed, the proposed research design, data collection, sampling, analysis methods to be employed along with an indicative time frame for each stage of the research proposed and budget.
4. Apply a broad understanding of issues specific to undertaking business research across international boundaries, including cultural, geographical, language and cost related challenges and respective strategies and approaches that may be employed to solve them to the design, implementation and evaluation of a research project.
5. Recognise, and take account of, the importance of ethical conduct in undertaking research, including potential implications for business relationships, effects on potential respondents and sensitivity to cultural differences and honesty and integrity in analysis and reporting in the design, implementation and evaluation of a research project.

Business Research Methods, 2nd Edition, 2019

Authors: William G. Zikmund/Dr Christina Quinlan/Mitch Griffin/Barry Babin/Jon Carr

ONLINE LEARNING

Course Website: www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au 

All topic lectures will be recorded for the benefit of those that can't attend the sessions. (Interactive discussions and sessions cannot be recorded without permission from every person participating). A comprehensive reading list will also be available in addition to lecture slides (although this is not a 'slide intensive' course) etc. All resources will be available via the course MyUni site.

All assessments are to be provided electronically and will be marked and returned electronically, where possible, mostly via the Turnitin portal on the MyUni site. Online discussion tools will be available for students to maintain contact with each other between intensive sessions.

In order to perform well in this course, students must have a strong command of the relevant research theories and concepts covered in preparation and in class and successfully apply them in their assessment and project. Therefore, students are expected to have completed all the preparation and engagement work every week (including non-seminar weeks) and be fully prepared. In addition, there is a strong assumption that students will engage in seminar discussions in an informed way. The communication skills developed in seminars by regularly and actively participating in discussions are considered to be most important by the School and are highly regarded by employers and professional bodies.

The University expects full-time students (i.e. those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. This means that, for this course, you are expected to commit approximately 9 hours for private study (i.e., the study time outside of your regular classes). Students are required to attend all class sessions.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES SUMMARY

This course is taught in intensive mode fortnightly (6 sessions in total). Each intensive session will incorporate revision, lecture, group and individual discussion and Q&A. Topics presented in each intensive session are structured as below:

Intensive Session	Topic
1	Introduction to the course Research topic and Research question Research Philosophy
2	Literature review Ethics
3	Selecting methodology Sampling Introduction to Qualitative research design
4	Qualitative methods and Qualitative data analysis
5	Quantitative research design and analysis SPSS training
6	Overview Presentation of research proposal

SPECIFIC COURSE REQUIREMENTS
This course is preparatory to the culminating Research Project. Each School and Discipline has specific Research Project criteria, so students undertaking the Business Research Methods course must prepare for their Research Project specific to their home Discipline’s criteria rather than in a uniform manner across the course.

Students are responsible to be familiar with their own Discipline’s criteria for length and style of written work.

SMALL GROUP DISCOVERY EXPERIENCE
This course is inherently conducted for development of individual Research Projects. Teamwork and small group discovery may be part of the class activities, but all assessment and primary focus is on individual accomplishment.

This course is preparatory to the culminating Research Project. Each School and Discipline has specific Research Project criteria, so students undertaking the Business Research Methods course must prepare for their Research Project specific to their home Discipline’s criteria rather than in a uniform manner across the course. Students are responsible to be familiar with their own Discipline’s criteria for length and style of written work.

Proper class attendance must be observed (this includes, for instance, proper attendance, punctuality, returning from a break in a timely way, and the like).

Academic writing sessions are available from the Writing Centre in Hub Central. Students must attend at least one session.

Assessment Item	Assessment Task	Task Type	Weight	Length(Word,Time)	Learning Outcomes
1	Engagement and participation	Individual	10%	N/A	1 - 5
2	Literature review and Research Brief	Individual	35%	2500 words	1,2,3
3	Proposal Presentation	Individual	15%	N/A	1 - 5
4	Research Proposal	Individual	40%	4000 words	1 - 5
Total			100%

The critical things to note about the assessments in this course are that:

• Active engagement in discussion forum are required.
• The assessment activities contribute significantly to your actual research project. 
  Therefore:
  
  • be timely - meet deadlines
  • but be sane - when you can only do it by half-killing yourself - negotiate
  • collaborate (note: acknowledged collaboration is a powerful professional and academic strength; UNacknowledged collaboration is called 'collusion' and is seen as cheating)
  • have fun (if you don't learn to enjoy it now, it will be 'unpleasantly hard work')
  • know that it DOES get easier - every piece you do makes the next one easier; every impossible-to-understand article you read makes the next one more possible and more readable - and your blogs will help you scale that wall faster and more easily than you can expect... the discussion board collaboration with your peers will make a world of difference. Therefore, your feedback to one another is critical!

Assessment task 1: Engagement and Participation

This assessment requires students to attend all classes and participate in individual exercises and group work in face-to-face and online discussion forums.

Assessment task 2: Literature Review and Research Brief

Students are required to submit a research brief with a specific section on the LITERATURE REVIEW that summarises a stated business problem that requires specific information in order for Managers to decide a strategic direction to address the issue.

This will include:
o Introduction
o Background to the problem and the implications of not finding a solution (research importance).
o Literature review*
o Research objective, research question and sub-questions, possible hypothesis and theoretical framework
o Methodology
o Timing

*In this assignment 50% of the mark is allocated to the literature review and 50% to other sections

Assessment task 3: Proposal Presentation

Students are required to prepare a 5 minutes PowerPoint presentation outlining the key parts of their research proposal and present it in the final session. The feedbacks will be given to students to improve their final proposal.

Assessment task 4: Research Proposal

This Proposal is not only the culmination of the work in this course, it is also the official proposal that will be used to shape the required research in the 6 unit Research Project for most degree programs (or the equivalent for students in other disciplines).
In order to pass this course, students must achieve at least 50% overall, and achieve a passing mark of at least 50% for their final research proposal.

This document will be assessed on:
• Short restatement and justification of the research problem
• Relevance of objectives to the stated problem
• Justification of the research design and proposed methodology, including data collection and sampling methods. Questions to be answered include: • Proposed analytical methods
• Research timelines for completion of the project
• Quality of written presentation (referencing, grammar, punctuation and clarity).

All assignments are to be submitted by the due date using the Turnitin facility on the course MyUni site, unless an alternative submission site is required. Software-based assignments (qualitative and quantitative) will require additional electronic submission. Assignments will be marked and returned electronically, when possible. Please remember to keep a copy of all your work. Each assignment must also have a cover sheet as its first page and title page after that.

Late Assignment Submission
Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late.

Return of Assignments
Lecturers aim to mark and return assignments to students, with written feedback, within two (2) weeks of the due date.