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Proposal Writing for Business
Research Projects

This book helps students with the initial phases of their business research
project, offering a clear step-by-step approach from defining aims and
research questions through to conducting literature reviews and writing a
methodology.
Features to aid learning include chapter objectives, plentiful real-life
examples to demonstrate good practice, exercises to apply the concepts and
further reading for proactive investigation.
A self-contained guide to every stage of writing an effective business
research proposal, this text should be recommended reading for all advanced
undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Business Research
Methods and embarking on a research project of their own.

Dr Peter Samuels graduated with a first class honours in mathematics from

Cambridge University and a PhD in mathematics and cognitive psychology
from the University of Reading. He currently works as Senior Lecturer in
Research Practice in the Business School of Birmingham City University.
He leads undergraduate and master’s level dissertation modules with about
1,000 students per year. He is passionate about developing both staff and
students into competent academics and researchers. He is a self-taught
academic writing tutor and previously set up and led a statistics advisory
service at his university. He is involved in project and voluntary work in
East Africa where he trains doctoral students in research proposal writing
and research methods. He has published widely in mathematics education,
research methods and learning development.
Routledge Focus on Business and Management

The fields of business and management have grown exponentially as areas

of research and education. This growth presents challenges for readers try-
ing to keep up with the latest important insights. Routledge Focus on Busi-
ness and Management presents small books on big topics and how they
intersect with the world of business research.
Individually, each title in the series provides coverage of a key academic
topic, whilst collectively, the series forms a comprehensive collection across
the business disciplines.

Neuroscience and Entrepreneurship Research

Researching Brain-Driven Entrepreneurship
Víctor Pérez Centeno

Proposal Writing for Business Research Projects

Peter Samuels

Systems Thinking and Sustainable Healthcare Delivery

Ben Fong

Gender Diversity and Inclusion at Work

Divergent Views from Turkey
Zeynep Özsoy, Mustafa Şenyücel and Beyza Oba

Management and Visualisation

Seeing Beyond the Strategic
Gordon Fletcher

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/

Routledge-Focus-on-Business-and-Management/book-series/FBM
Proposal Writing for Business
Research Projects

Peter Samuels
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Peter Samuels
The right of Peter Samuels to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-032-22721-4 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-25812-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-28513-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003285137

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents

Preface x
Why this book? x
A bear eating fish x
Who is this book written for? x
What is unique about this book? xi
Who is the author? xi

Acknowledgements xii
Reference xii

Introduction 1
Context 1
What is a proposal? 1
Why write a proposal? 1
What makes a good proposal? 2
Added benefits 2
Types of dissertation 2
Outline of the rest of this book 4
References 5

PART ONE
Selecting and presenting your topic 7

1 Selecting your topic 9

Introduction 9
The creative process 9
The importance of data 12
vi Contents
Other topic selection strategies 13
Qualities of a good topic 13
A final word 14
References 14

2 Writing your front matter 15

Introduction 15
Writing your title 15
Writing your aim 15
Writing your objectives 18
Writing your research questions 19
Exercises 19

PART TWO
Academic writing 21

3 Structuring your proposal 23

Introduction 23
Essential and optional elements of a proposal 23
Using section numbering 24

4 Academic writing style 27

Introduction: busting a common myth 27
Use the third person, passive voice 27
Some dos and don’ts 28
Avoiding subjective writing 31
Use hedging 32
Reference 33

5 Using evidence 34
Introduction 34
Backing up specific claims 34
Avoiding plagiarism 35
Quoting 35
Summarising 37
Reference 38
 Contents vii
6 Paragraph writing 39
Introduction 39
Definition 39
Length 39
Structure 40
Using transitional words 41
Examples 41

7 Argumentation 44
Introduction 44
Two styles 44
Examples 45
Argument planning 46
Example 47
Exercise 49
Reference 50

PART THREE
Writing the rest of your proposal 51

8 Writing the rest of your introduction 53

Introduction 53
Writing your background 53
Example 54
Writing your problem statement 54
Example 54
Additional parts 56
Example 56

9 Literature reviews 58
Introduction 58
General principles 58
Obtaining evidence 59
Deciding on your themes 62
Including theory 63
Including critical analysis 64
viii Contents
Concluding your review 67
Exercise 68
References 69

10 Conceptual frameworks 70
Introduction 70
General advice 70
Examples 71
Exercise 72
References 72

11 Writing your methodology/method section 73

Introduction: why the name confusion? 73
Purpose and argumentation style 73
Structure 74
Philosophy 75
Approach 75
Strategy 76
Data collection 80
Validity, reliability and hypotheses 81
Data analysis 81
Ethics 83
Limitations 84
Common mistakes 84
Evaluating methodology/method sections: DECJAD 85
Exercise 86
References 86

12 Producing a schedule 88
Gantt charts 88
Research phases 90
Accompanying narrative 90
Exercise 92

13 Referencing 93
Introduction 93
Citing 93
 Contents ix
Tables and figures 95
Reference lists 95
References 98

PART FOUR
Beyond your proposal 99
Introduction 99

14 Time and stress management 101

Time management 101
Stress management 105
References 107

15 Your supervisory relationship 108

Introduction 108
Have correct expectations 109
Preparing for supervisions 110
Learn to be assertive 111
Tips for a successful relationship 112
References 114

16 Next steps in your research 116

Introduction 116
Responding to your proposal feedback 116
Drafting your introduction chapter 117
Doing and drafting your full literature review 117
Drafting your methodology/method chapter 118
Requesting ethics approval 118
Designing your data collection instrument 118
Bibliography 119

Index 120
Preface

Why this book?

Hello. My name is Dr Peter Samuels and I work for Birmingham City Uni-
versity. Taylor & Francis asked me to write this book because they had seen
some of my online resources (such as Samuels, 2017), and thought I might
be able to write a book to help business students undertaking dissertations.
As far as we are aware, this is the first book on research proposal writing
specifically for business students. Proposal writing is the important initial
phase in doing a dissertation project. It combines many aspects of the whole
dissertation process. We believe this specialist book on proposal writing in
the context of doing a business dissertation project will be a useful resource
to many students.

A bear eating fish

The main message of this book is the importance of putting the reader
first. I like to think of writing proposals like a bear eating a fish as shown
in Figure 0.1.
The fish represents your proposal. The bear represents your target reader –
the proposal reviewer. You can see that this bear has too many fish to eat so it
will focus on eating the high-protein parts. In the same way, proposal review-
ers are busy people and probably have many proposals to read in a short period
of time. Therefore, they will be looking for certain essential elements in your
proposal, which you can think of as the high-protein parts. By following the
principles explained in this book you will be able to give them a good taste.

Who is this book written for?

This book is written for final-year undergraduate and master’s business
students undertaking a dissertation. It might also be relevant to doctoral
students, especially those for whom English is an additional language. The
 Preface xi

Figure 0.1 Bear eating fish

content is also largely relevant to social science dissertations, although the

examples are all taken from the business context.

What is unique about this book?

Apart from the title, this book uses actual business students’ examples of
writing.
It also emphasises academic writing development within the proposal
writing process.
There are also some appendices at the end which address the next steps
in the dissertation supervision process.

Who is the author?

I am Senior Lecturer in Research Practice. I work in the Business School at
Birmingham City University. I have been teaching dissertation writing for
over ten years. I am responsible for teaching and coordinating the supervi-
sion of over 800 undergraduate and master’s dissertations students every
year. I am also involved in voluntary work in East Africa where I teach
intensive courses on proposal writing to doctoral students.
Acknowledgements

I would sincerely like to thank four dissertation students from Birmingham

City University who allowed me to use their proposals as examples in this
book. Their first names are Kate, Mollie, Tappasiya and Thomas. Each of
them was awarded a distinction grade for their proposal but their work was
not perfect. They therefore provide useful examples for learning purposes.
I would also like to thank my colleague Andrew Hambler for being my
critical friend in the writing of this book.

Reference
Samuels, P. C. (2017) How to write a PhD proposal. Technical report. ResearchGate.
Available at: www.researchgate.net/publication/322077097_How_to_Write_a_
PhD_Proposal.
Introduction

Context
This book assumes that you are undertaking a research project in the aca-
demic subject of business as part of your undergraduate or master’s degree.
Business includes areas such as business management, human resource
management, leadership, supply chain management, business information
systems, entrepreneurship, marketing, economics, finance and accounting.

What is a proposal?
A proposal is a statement of what you intend to do. Proposals are com-
monly required in many areas of research as they encourage the researcher
to think about, decide on and articulate what exactly they are planning
to do. This provides an excellent opportunity for them to receive feedback
at the formative stage of their research which can improve their perfor-
mance and reduce the risk of them going in the wrong direction.

Why write a proposal?

Most undergraduate and master’s level students are required to write a pro-
posal for their dissertation projects. This comes at the start of their projects.
It is likely to form part of their dissertation assessment with its own assign-
ment brief and marking scheme. However, this is not the main real reason
for writing a proposal.
The real purpose of a proposal is to persuade the academic staff respon-
sible for reviewing proposals that you have chosen a viable research proj-
ect in a context which you understand, and that you have a credible plan
to carry it out.
Proposal reviewers are busy people (remember the bear and the fish met-
aphor from the preface). They will not be impressed by long words, long

DOI: 10.4324/9781003285137-1
2 Introduction
sentences, a long document, or complex ideas. Instead, they are looking
for interesting ideas and to be persuaded by a clear and concise argument
that is correctly structured.

What makes a good proposal?

The first and most important aspect of a good proposal is to choose a good
topic. This means that it should be within the scope of your course, of
interest and importance to some group of people and narrowly focused
so that it is original and achievable.
Secondly, your argument for choosing your topic (known as your ratio-
nale) needs to be clear and persuasive.
Thirdly, you need to demonstrate that you understand the context of
your chosen topic in your background and literature review.
Fourthly, you need to have a credible and persuasive plan for collecting
and analysing your data (your method), the theoretical context of this plan
(your methodology) and its practical outworking over the time available
(your schedule).
Finally, your proposal needs to be well written and presented and fol-
low the correct academic writing conventions.

Added benefits
Proposal writing is the first phase on the dissertation journey and the first
subject for discussion with your supervisor. It therefore acts as a gateway
into your research experience.
Learning how to write a good proposal can help you to become a bet-
ter academic writer. I do voluntary work helping doctoral students in other
countries understand these principles because I have seen that this can
change their lives and open doors for them.

Types of dissertation
All dissertations involve the systematic collection and analysis of data.
However, in some places in this book, it is important to understand the dif-
ferences between three main types of dissertation. These are distinguished
by the type of data that is being collected and how it is being analysed,
as shown in Table 0.1.
The three main types of dissertation are:

1 The normal primary research dissertation involves the researcher

collecting and analysing some data themselves, for example by car-
rying out a questionnaire or interviews.
 Introduction 3
Table 0.1 Types of dissertation

Collected data
Primary (you) Secondary (others)

Analysis Primary 1. Normal primary research 2. Secondary data primary

(you) dissertation analysis dissertation
Secondary 3. Systematic review
(others)

2 The secondary data primary analysis dissertation involves the

researcher analysing a data set that someone else has already col-
lected. This could be data on the financial performance of organisations
or some form of textual data already available in the public domain,
such as customer comments on a product, advertising on social media
or company reports. However, this does not include published journal
articles.
3 The systematic review dissertation involves the researcher carrying
out a systematic secondary analysis of data which was collected,
analysed and published by other researchers. The main kind of data
used is published journal articles.

Both the normal primary research dissertation and the secondary data pri-
mary analysis dissertation involve carrying out a literature review before
the data is collected and analysed. This kind of review is known as a narra-
tive review as it does not follow a systematic method.
However, in the systematic review dissertation, the literature review
replaces the systematic collection and analysis of other kinds of data.
This means that the review should follow a prescribed method, known
as a protocol. The topic of a systematic review style dissertation is usu-
ally broader in scope than for the other two kinds of dissertation. For
a recent publication on business systematic reviews, please see (Paul
et al., 2021).
It is also useful at this stage to explain three common terms relating to
types of research:

• Quantitative research refers to the collection and analysis of measur-

able quantities, such as numbers and frequencies
• Qualitative research refers to the collection and evaluation or inter-
pretation of data which is often in open textual form
• Mixed methods research refers to a combination of qualitative and
quantitative research
4 Introduction
Outline of the rest of this book
The rest of this book is divided into four parts:

Part 1: Selection and presenting your topic

The first part covers the topic selection and presentation process. Chapter 1
is about how to select a topic. Chapter 2 explains how to present your topic
in what is known as its front matter.

Part 2: Academic writing

The second part covers some of the principles of academic writing. The dif-
ferent competencies involved in academic writing can be viewed as a tree,
as shown in Figure I.1.
The competencies below the red dotted line are to do with writing gen-
eral English rather than academic English (known as functional skills). For
more information on these please refer to Bailey (2018) and Gillett (2021).
All the other competencies are covered in this part except for document
genre (as proposals are a type of document genre).

Critical thinking Critical analysis

Document genre Literary subgenre

Using evidence Argumentation Reader psychology

Academic writing style Structuring

Paragraph writing

Sentence construction

Grammar

Vocabulary Spelling Punctuation

Figure I.1 The academic writing tree

 Introduction 5
Chapter 3 explains how to structure your proposal. Chapter 4 introduces
basic aspects of academic writing style. Chapter 5 covers issues of academic
integrity, including the correct use of evidence and avoiding plagiarism.
Chapter 6 explains the principles of paragraph writing. Chapter 7 Intro-
duces the two main argumentation styles and how to plan your argument.

Part 3: Writing your proposal

The third part of this book is about how to write the other essential parts of
your proposal.
Chapter 8 covers writing the other parts of the introduction, including
the background and the problem statement. Chapter 9 goes into depth on
researching and writing a proposal literature review. Chapter 10 introduces
conceptual frameworks. Chapter 11 explains how to write a methodology/
method section. Chapter 12 is about writing a project plan and Chapter 13
covers how to cite and reference correctly.

Part 4: Beyond your proposal

The fourth part of this book provides advice on the next steps after you
submit your proposal.
Chapter 14 covers time and stress management. Chapter 15 explains how
to get the most out of your supervisory relationships and Chapter 16 intro-
duces the next tasks to focus on after you submit your proposal.

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edn. London: SAGE.

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