Abstract
Making Profits While Sustaining A Competitive Advantage Within the Market
Shape and Look Good
by
Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctorate of Business Administration
Entrepreneurship and Business Management
January 25, 2021
Abstract
To follow:
Making Profits While Sustaining A Competitive Advantage Within the Market
by
Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctorate of Business Administration
DRP 801-2021
January 21, 2021
Dedication
The literature is dedicated to my family and mentors, words cannot explain the gratitude I have towards all people who have help shape and form my beliefs. From all successes and failures, words can not explain how thankful I am to those who have helped me become a better person, thanks mom, Jim, Chris, Coach Fuller, Vincent Vigilone, my lacrosse coaches at Hofstra University, and my school adviser at California Intercontinental University Eduardo, for if it was not for him and my present teacher, Dr. Foster, for understanding me and my way of thinking, I would have given up.
Acknowledgement
I want to thank all the staff at California Intercontinental University for having the vision to obtain an accredited distant leaning certification, which allowed me to proceed with my academic career while working full time with my business passions. I can not thank the school and faculty enough for understanding the needs and wants of their students and allowing them breathing room within the school curriculum to navigate their own way through the hard course load in obtaining their Doctorate diploma in business.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
Background of the Problem…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
Problem Statement…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
Purpose of the Study…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Nature of the Study…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Research Questions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Interview Questions (Qualitative Only)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
Hypotheses (Quantitative/ Mixed Methods Only)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Significance of the Study…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7
Definition of Terms…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 8
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 9
Chapter 2: Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10
Historical Development of the Topic…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10
Contemporary Perspectives…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11
Directions for Future Research…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13
Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13
Chapter 3: Research Method………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 14
Purpose Statement…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 14
Research Method and Design…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 14
Appropriateness of Design…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15
Procedure…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15
The Role of the Researcher…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16
Research Questions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16
Hypotheses…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16
Population and Sample…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16
Geographic or Virtual Location…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17
Instrumentation…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17
Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18
Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18
Human Participants and Ethics Precautions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 19
Validity and Reliability…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 20
Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 21
Chapter 4: Results………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 23
General Description of the Participants…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23
Research Questions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23
Sample Size…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23
Pilot Tests…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23
Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23
Unit of Analysis and Measurement…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 24
Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 24
Coding and Codebook Generation…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 25
Qualitative Results…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 25
Results of Hypothesis Tests…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 26
Between Group Differences…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 26
Outliers…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 26
Validity and Reliability…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 27
Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 27
Ethical Dimensions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 28
Limitations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 28
Overview of the Population and Sampling Method…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 28
Data Collection and Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 28
Summary of Findings…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 29
Explanation of Findings…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 29
Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 30
Reflecting Upon the Study…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 30
Suggestions for Future Research…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 30
Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 31
References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 32
Appendix A: Tables………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 33
Table A1:
This is an Example APA Table in Appendix A and Uses the APA Table
Title Style 34
Table of Figures
Competitive advantage is a well-accepted term within business management (Sigalas, 2015). Managers, CEO’s, corporate executives and all business entities need to find ways to generate revenues, minimize costs, and create profit. What has not been clearly defined is why various companies can sustain creating profits and others fail and go bankrupted. Within this dissertation, competitive advantage and profit-making operations will be explained in its entirety, so all stakeholders can understand what attributes are needed in creating and sustaining a company’s competitive advantage so profitability can endure indefinitely.
Starting a business is no easy task, nor is maintaining one during fluctuating economic times. There are approximately 600,000 startups every year in America; 30% of those fail in the first two years, and 50% fail within five years (McIntyre, 2020). Every year, several companies drop off the S&P 500 list and are replaced by other firms; within the calendar year 2017, 26 companies were removed from the S&P 500 and 26 entered the list (Finch, 2019).
Most business failures can be blamed on poor planning and the inability to adapt to meet new market demands (Kücher et al., 2018). Unsuccessful companies ultimately are poorly managed through incorrect notions and assumptions. Business- and team-related issues are usually noted as the cause of these problems (Garton, 2017). These issues may be tied to the leader’s ability to build a strong team and drive an effective business model, thought process, and discipline (Haseeb et al., 2019). It is the hope of this researcher that a convergent mixed methods approach will help answer these questions and offer a fresh insight on how to maintain profits and a competitive edge in the market.
Businesses are failing all the time; one cannot be 100% certain as to the main cause leading to company failures. Cashflow and company management play a major role with company sustainability within the marketplace. When the marketplace becomes competitive and profit margins begin to lower, business operations begin to unwind and profits begin to dwindle to the point of net losses. In order to sustain profitability a firm and its management team must successfully operate within its marketplace. When a firm can compete successfully as an ongoing concern, it can successfully create a competitive advantage and that advantage with the proper management and strategy will proceed to become a sustainable advantage among their competitors. The sustainable competitive advantage is the only way a company can earn profit indefinably, if a sustainable advantage cannot be created, over time the firm’s profitability will decline and the company will begin to unwind to the point of bankruptcy.
Researching competitive advantage, sustainable advantage, and profitable will offer insights on what attributes are needed in successfully navigating companies within ultra-competitive marketplaces to sustain profit. When profit can be sustained indefinably all stakeholders are rewarded because the net effect is profits to be disbursed as dividends to shareholders and stakeholders as returns on investment.
Identify a general problem in the business discipline that supports the need to conduct the proposed research. The problem statement should include the following components (i) hook, (ii), anchor, (iii) general business problem, and (iv) specific business problem. Your problem needs to be researchable. Briefly explain how the results of the study could be used to address the specific business problem. The problem statement should be between 1-2 paragraphs.
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to clearly explain how to sustain a competitive advantage within the business market place perpetually. This study will clearly outline what business owners and all stakeholders need to understand when doing business. The study will delineate needed actions so all stakeholders can perform business operations at an optimal level, while creating a sustainable Competitive Advantage.
Design/methodology/approach – Business operations and Competitive Advantage was explored within this research report by applying an observation based self-administered email survey consisting of the cross-sectional methodology (Institute for Work & Health, 2015).
Findings – Qualitative data that was gathered from the research design based on observations and self-administered emails showed empirical evidence that business owners, management, and all stakeholders lacked the needed knowledge to help their organizations establish a sustainable competitive advantage within their market place environment (CFI, n.d.). This lack of sustainably led to the decline in earnings, which ultimately affected its owners and stakeholder’s profitability.
Research limitations/implications – The research results create a premise that business owners and managers need to better understand business operations and how to skew their operations into a sustainable profit-making entity by creating a competitive advantage for their businesses (Wordvice, n.d.). Future scholars can utilize the research premise to proceed in establishing further results and skills sets in establishing a sustainable competitive advantage and profitability.
Practical implications – The research results gathered from the qualitative study has helped establish the needed understanding and requisites from business owners, managers, and stakeholder’s business acumen in creating and establish a competitive advantage and perpetual profitability for their businesses.
Originality/value – This research report is unique and innovative as little current scholarly papers have been written on sustainable competitive advantage (Edwards, 2014). This research report empirically helps bridge a needed connection between business operations conducted by managers, owners, and stakeholders and their abilities in creating a needed sustainable competitive advantage for the continual sustainability for business profit. Minimal research to date has been explored by scholars establishing the in and outs of what is needed to successfully create and sustain a competitive advantage for a business, while continually profiting from operations.
Illustrate the nature of the study by clearly completing and revising the following template:
A qualitative design study was conducted involving cross-sectional email surveys based on observations and experiences of peers. Businees owners, economists, and well renowned corporate executives have been forward an email survey in which they are to answer a set of highly defined questions and answers. The qualitative design method comprised cross-sectional self-administered survey via email was used as it’s the most efficient way to observe and monitor the agents results and findings.
Create the research questions for your study. Make sure the questions are simple, focus on the appropriate stakeholder groups, emerge from the problem and purpose statements, relate the important variables, and are compatible with the study. You must use the guidance and scripts provided by Creswell! The following example demonstrates proper formatting:
The research question that will guide this study:
Research Question 1: What is the question?
Research Question 2: What is the question?
The research questions that guided this study were:
Research Question 1: What is the relationship between the number and types of university-level composition and English classes taken by the graduate physics students and their publication rates in peer-reviewed journals, nonpeer-reviewed journals, and specialty magazine publications per calendar year?
Research Question 2: What is the perspective of graduate physics students on how their writing classes affected their publications and publication rates?
Interview Questions (Qualitative Only)
Qualitative methods studies require interview questions. You will need to place your interview questions in this section. Interview question should be open ended questions, no open ended (yes or no) questions will be accepted. You will need to have at least 10 interview questions for the participants. The interview questions are designed to help with answering the research question.
The following interview questions will be used in this research:
1: How would you describe…………….
2: What is the relationship between……………..
3: Describe the context of the……………….
Hypotheses (Quantitative/ Mixed Methods Only)
Quantitative and mixed methods studies require hypothesis tests. If you are planning to conduct a study containing a quantitative analysis, then it is time to draft hypotheses. Please ask your Chair for help in the case that you are uncertain about this writing goal. You must use the guidance and scripts provided by Creswell! The following example demonstrates proper formatting for null and alternative hypotheses:
The following hypotheses were tested:
Ha1: A relationship exists between the number of English and composition classes taken by the participant and publication rates.
H01: No relationship exists between the number of English and composition classes taken by the participant and publication rates.
Ha2: A relationship between a linear combination of independent variables and publication rates exist.
H02: No relationship between a linear combination of independent variables and publication rates exist.
The significance of the study identifies the audience for the study, explains how the study adds to the literature, and mentions how stakeholders may benefit from the completion and dissemination of the results. Be sure to tie this segment to the literature by citing sources.
Context of the Business Problem
Explain the context of the business problem using the perspectives presented by the literature. You should expect several cited sources to appear here.
Contribution of the Study of the Literature
Explain how your study contributes to the literature surrounding your problem. You should expect several cited sources to appear here.
Contribution to the Context of the Business Problem
Explain how you expect the study to contribute knowledge and insight into the context supporting the existence of the business problem. Remember, every problem has supporting context— without it, you do not have the people and processes allowing the problem to exist. So, make sure you have a contribution as to help others enhance their understanding of the problem. You should expect several cited sources to appear here.
Gap in the Literature
Explain how your study fills in a missing segment (or gap) in the literature. Your unique perspective will contribute something no one has ever considered—and that is the niche you call home for the study. Describe that niche here and how it helps build upon previous literature.
Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework
The brief overview of your theoretical framework (TF) or conceptual framework (CF) provides your view of the problem and facilitates exploration of the purpose and research questions driving the study. You will use the TF for Quantitative and Mixed Methods and the CF for Qualitative methods. This section is brief as you will present key factors of your framework and how it connects to your research study. You will embark further on this section in your Literature Review (Chapter 2).
Your goal is to review the literature and reflect upon experiences as to identify factors enabling the existence of the problem. Ideally, you will express each factor and then link them into a system facilitating exploration of the purpose and research questions driving the study.
The first step is to identify the factors you want to integrate into the TF or CF. Each factor may be illustrated by:
Framework
Explain how the factors interact and form a system allowing your study to tackle and express the research questions, problem, and purpose of the study within a coherent perspective.
Illustration appears in the correct appendix.
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
Limitations and delimitations represent potential points of constraint within the study. Limitations are constraints upon the study we cannot control. Conversely, delimitations are the constraints we impose upon a study. Review the miniature literature review and the conceptual framework as to uncover the assumptions, limitations, and delimitations appearing within your study. Argue about how their acceptance is required for the study and whether they may influence your study.
Assumptions are facts considered to be true but are not actually verified. Assumptions carry risk and should be treated as such. A mitigation discussion would be appropriate. Assumptions are necessary element in the proposals, as they are required to enable and conduct the study.
Limitations refer to potential weaknesses or challenges of the research study. Identify all limitations associated with the study. Limitations are constraints that are largely beyond your control but could affect the study outcome.
Delimitations refer to the bounds or scope of the study. Describe the boundary and what is in and out of the scope. The delimitations of a study are those characteristics that arise from limitations in the scope of study and by the conscious exclusionary and inclusionary decisions made during the development of the study plan. The description should address how the study will be narrowed in scope.
It is important to inform your reader about the meaning of jargon, special words, and acronyms appearing in the study. Be sure to define terms that:
A definition uses simple terms allowing your reader to understand the word. Further, a definition has the following three parts:
For example, let us say you had to define the term coffee:
Coffee. Coffee is a beverage formed by allowing hot water to diffuse through a basket containing coarsely ground roasted coffee seeds.
Jargon. The meaning goes here.
This chapter included an outline of this study, background of the problem, and research questions. An in-depth review of the literature follows in Chapter 2, which will expound upon the development and significance of the study and its literature. Chapter 3 includes a discussion on the methodology of the data collection. In Chapter 4, the results and analysis of the study will be presented. Finally, Chapter 5 consists of commenting on the study combined with suggestions for future studies stemming from this research effort.
Introduce the literature review. A literature review synthesizes and integrates a large swath of research articles from peer-reviewed journals spanning the last five to seven years. Thus, a literature review should minimize dependencies upon dissertations and theses; as they are rarely peer-reviewed before publication.
A literature review is organized by themes. The writing goals in GRC 642 provide the themes for a DBA dissertation roughly following Ridley’s text. Please follow the writing goals as closely as possible and use them to build a 30-40 page literature review relying upon 60-100 cited peer-reviewed sources. Numerous resources may be found at the Library Research Homepage, Google Scholar, local libraries, university libraries, and community college collections.
As mentioned earlier in the Manual, the writing process is retrospective and iterative in nature— requiring drafted segments be revised upon encountering new information and feedback. Thus, it is important to revise previously written segments as to ensure the literature review remains true to the conceptual framework, problem statement, research questions, and hypotheses appearing in Chapter 1. Please ensure the literature review not only aligns with Chapter 1, but also expounds upon the concepts and themes appearing in the conceptual framework.
Historical Development of the Topic
Introduce the historical development of the topic. This assignment requires you to create a 7-page APA compliant multiple source essay citing peer-reviewed full-text journal articles. You are to produce the Historical Development of the Topic segment in which you illustrate the evolution of your topic.
In academic writing, we usually work on providing a historical background and here is a generic strategy:
You should have a timeline showing the evolution into the current form of the topic you are researching. It is time to turn what you have collected into an outline for the historical background. The most generic form of an outline for the historical background is:
Summary
The introduction to the chapter should hook the reader and prepare them to engage the dissertation. Ideally, an introduction follows Creswell’s deficiency model of an introduction. The summary of the chapter should briefly summarize the chapter and signpost the reader regarding future chapters. Here is a template you may use and revise as you see fit.
Introduce the contemporary perspectives relevant to the study. This assignment requires you to create a 7-page APA compliant multiple source essay citing peer-reviewed full-text journal articles. You are to produce the Contemporary Perspectives segment in which you illustrate the current thought and perspectives regarding the topic.
The introduction to the chapter should hook the reader and prepare them to engage the dissertation. Ideally, an introduction follows Creswell’s deficiency model of an introduction. The summary of the chapter should briefly summarize the chapter and signpost the reader regarding future chapters. Here is a template you may use and revise as you see fit.
Historical Development of the Theoretical or Conceptual Framework
Introduce the historical development of the theory. This assignment requires you to create an 8-page APA compliant research paper citing peer-reviewed full-text journal articles. You are to produce the Historical Development of the Theory segment illustrating the evolution of theories within your topic. Make sure the covered theories are relevant and related to your study. Your goal is to outline the evolution of the theories leading to the theoretical understandings of the study. For example, let us assume you wanted to ascribe to a current theory of class struggle and justice. Call this theory The Theory of Justice in the Twenty-First Century. We know the Theory of Justice did not just appear out of thin air. It must have had predecessors that slowly evolved into the theory as we see it today. How often does understanding just fall out of the sky? Never! Thus, there must be a history of ideas leading to the theory we understand. The Theory of Justice involves class struggle and justice. Thus, one name should appear in our mind— Marx. Marx’s social theory established a modern groundwork for class struggle and materialism—and hence, a need for justice. Such a chain of logic allows us to ground the origin of our theory somewhere at the beginning of Marxist thought. Now we have the beginning and end of the evolution of the theory:
Be sure to use level 2 headings as needed.
Summary
The introduction to the chapter should hook the reader and prepare them to engage the dissertation. Ideally, an introduction follows Creswell’s deficiency model of an introduction. The summary of the chapter should briefly summarize the chapter and signpost the reader regarding future chapters. Here is a template you may use and revise as you see fit.
Importance of the Study and Implication for Practice
This assignment requires you to create a 6-page APA compliant multiple source essay citing peer-reviewed full-text journal articles. You are to produce the Importance of the Study and Contributions to Practice segment in which you justify the relevance, importance, and potential social and professional contributions of your study.
Contribution to the Literature
Text goes here.
Contribution to the Practice
Text goes here.
Directions for Future Research
This assignment requires you to create a total of 4 pages of APA compliant multiple source essay citing peer-reviewed full-text journal articles. You are to produce the Directions for Future Research, Introduction, and Summary segments of the literature review. Make sure the summary and introduction segments match the content of your literature review.
The introduction to the chapter should hook the reader and prepare them to engage the dissertation. Ideally, an introduction follows Creswell’s deficiency model of an introduction. The summary of the chapter should briefly summarize the chapter and signpost the reader regarding future chapters. Here is a template you may use and revise as you see fit.
Provide a one or two paragraph introduction to Chapter 3. This introduction should provide a clear outline of the Project section.
Simply cut and paste the Purpose Statement from Chapter 1.
Provide a two- to three-sentence introduction to the section (optional).
Research Method
Present an extension of the Nature of Study from Chapter 1. The first paragraph of the Nature of the Study required a description and justification of the methodology. In this section your will expand the conversation by providing additional resources and information. Be sure to include justification in the form of references in this section.
Research Design
Clearly depict the research design of your study. It is critical that your research design represents a scientific inquiry into a social problem involving stakeholders and relevant data. Review Creswell’s thoughts regarding your chosen design (mentioned in the purpose statement) and begin articulating your design. You may also wish to think about the following questions while planning the design:
If you wish to adopt a design different than mentioned in Chapter 1, then you will have to revise Chapter 1 as to match the changes
You have research questions, a problem statement, and design. Now it is time to justify your design as fitting your study! Many researchers like to use the process of elimination as to justify their chosen design. The process is as follows:
Strive to remain clear, honest, and direct. Honesty is the best policy while arguing for your research design. The following example demonstrates proper formatting and process of elimination:
Clearly describe how the study will be performed, in detail. You must completely describe the procedures used to establish the data collection environments, collect data, conduct interviews, gather and organize documents for analysis, and all the actions required to carry out the study. The goal is to offer a clear exposition allowing anyone to understand your actions and reproduce your procedure. Do not go into detail about data analysis because you will write about that during a future goal. You should also strive to include the following additional elements into your procedure:
If you did not have participants, then describe how you identified, selected, and stored documents of interest. The following brief example is provided for inspiration:
Simply describe the roles, responsibilities, and actions of the research during the study. Just be honest, simple, and direct—and keep it to one paragraph! However, some studies may need a second paragraph as to describe the roles of research support staff and others involved with data collection.
Restate the research questions from chapter one and provide approximately two paragraphs explaining how the research questions address the problem statement.
Restate the hypotheses, if any, from chapter one and explain how the hypothesis test may help answer the research questions.
Describe the population and sampling strategy. The sampling strategy should provide a tractable sample while offering the chance to collect enough data. (Use a statistical power calculator, if needed!) The sample should accurately reflect the population as to allow valid inferences. You may wish to consider the following while planning your sampling strategy:
If your study utilizes content analysis, you must describe how you intend to sample a broad array of literature, documents, recording, photos, and other records as to collect the required data. Be precise and clear!
Specific names and organizational identities should not appear during this goal. Try to keep your discussion as neutral as possible while providing enough information allowing future researchers to replicate your strategy.
Geographic or Virtual Location
Explain the geographic and/or virtual location of the population and sample. You may have to mention whether the participants were/are influenced from outside the stated location. Be brief, exact, and concise. Make sure you have permission before mentioning names of institutions or businesses. You may wish to include such permissions as an appendix.
Clearly describe the instrument, its creation or adoption, and its ability to obtain the needed data from participants. Often this segment includes the source of the instrument(s) and a sensible description about their composition and use. It is recommended to use established instruments adopted from other studies. If you wish to create your own instrument, then it must be approved by the Chair and a quality reviewer/pilot test. Further, you may wish to demonstrate the instrument as able to collect the needed data in a format suited for your study. You may also wish to explain how the instrument allows you to determine whether you have collected enough data via (a) exhaustion of resources; (b) recurrence of themes no matter how much data you collect—e.g. saturation; or (c) going too far beyond the boundaries of the study—e.g. overextension.
Explain the processes allowing you to collect the data, the required timelines, and software/recording methods involved. You should educate your audience on the role of instrumentation during data collection while ensuring the fidelity and structure of the recorded data. For example, an open-ended interview may have high fidelity but little structure; while an online survey has high fidelity and high structure. Further, you may want to notice field notes and journaling yields low fidelity and low structure data collection efforts. Make sure you comment upon the fidelity and structure of your data collection efforts.
If your study utilizes content analysis, you must utilize self-designed instrument(s) allowing the systematic collection, coding, and cataloging of information derived from literature, documents, recording, photos, and other records.
Instruments must appear in an appendix.
Explain the qualitative coding/analysis and/or quantitative hypothesis testing strategies. If You Have Quantitative Elements to Report
Your goal is to present a short, reasoned, and statistically valid statement of a statistical procedure determining the outcome of each hypothesis test. Each hypothesis test should have the accompanying information:
The result should be a collection of thoroughly explained, clearly reasoned, and comprehensible tests allowing your study to resolve the hypothesis tests. The following example for hypothesis testing may prove useful while drafting this writing goal:
Human Participants and Ethics Precautions
Being a researcher implies you understand the importance and legal implications of ethics in research. Thus, you should explain how you obtained consent and ensured confidentiality.
Describe how you ensured confidentiality, obtained consent, informed participants about important contact information, and other aspects required for ethical research. If you are stuck with this segment, then feel free to use and revise the following template as to get started writing:
Human Participants and Ethics Precautions
All participants received an informed consent form __________ [state how the participant received and informed consent form]. The use of __________ [how did the participant provide consent— signature, email?] removed the need for a separate consent form while ensuring each__________ [survey, interview, etc?] corresponded to an easily completed consent form. All participants obtained the proper e-mail address and a phone number allowing them to ask questions at any time during the__________ [survey, interview, etc?] process and to view the results of the inquiry. The __________ [survey, interview, etc?] data remained anonymous, contained no identifying marks related to the participant, and could not be linked to institutions, participants, or collaborative efforts. __________ [Explain how you made the data anonymous.] No contact information, name, e-mail address, or other identification marks remained in a publicly accessible format. Likewise, no identifying phrases remained in the data as to ensure privacy during the feedback process.
Your study must discuss its validity. Validity is an assessment of the truthfulness of a study’s results and findings—e.g. its trustworthiness. You may wish to review the following sources about validity:
Argue the validity of your study. Be sure to build your argument upon the types and threats to validity discussed in the textbook. If you need additional ideas for your argument, then consider the following points:
Demonstrating yourself as credible is extremely messy and difficult; if not impossible. Nonetheless, you may wish to argue for your credibility as to lend trustworthiness to your research effort.
Contribution to Social, Practice, or Organizational Change
Although we aspire to attain a DBA degree upon the completion of a dissertation, we also have to ensure our work influences or promotes social, practice, or organizational change. Take a few paragraphs to illustrate the value of your study and its method to social, practice, or organizational change.
Create an introduction reminding the reader of the purpose statement while outlining the chapter. The summary is at most two paragraphs. It should summarize the important themes and patterns organized by importance while transitioning the reader from chapter 3.
This is the end of the proposal. Let’s get ready for the URR and IRB.
Provide a one or two paragraph introduction to Chapter 4. This introduction should provide a clear outline of the Project section.
General Description of the Participants
Describe the participants using age, gender, rank, and other measurable qualities relevant to the study and related to the population. If the study contains content analysis, then the documentation is categorized, labeled, and clearly described. Your data should appear as tables coupled to narratives explaining the tables. The following example offers the gist of the write-up within Chapter 4:
Restate the research questions from Chapter 1.
Explain how you drew the sample from the population and whether it correctly represented the population. Explain why your sample was large enough and utilized enough participants as to ensure a desired statistical power. You may find http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/power.php as a valuable resource while writing.
If the study pilot tested an instrument, then describe the results and modifications resulting from the pilot test. Further, if there is any missing data, explain why it occurred and how it was handled during analysis.
Illustrate the data collection process, its effectiveness in collecting the needed data, and the use of secondary/archival sources. The reader should understand how data collection occurred in the field and be able to compare collection efforts with those described in the methodology section.
Unit of Analysis and Measurement
A unit of analysis is the fundamental component of a scientific research project. The unit of analysis represents the “who or what” you are attempting to study and generalize into broader findings. For example, social sciences and business analysts consider workgroups, subgroups, organizations, leaders, individual workers, survey participants, policies, and other agents as units of analysis. You must clearly describe the “who or what” formed the unit of analysis. The unit of measurement is a little trickier because they rarely are people or agents. Explain the unit of measurement and the initial parameters used to partition the unit into types. For example, if you studied organizational change at Nokia, then the unit of measurement may be the documents and meeting notes forming the chronology of organizational change at Nokia. The parameters would be the categories you derived from literature as to analyze the documents—e.g. changes in salaries, the number of project teams, decisions regarding the handling of stock, categories of debt, and other categories deemed useful for understanding the organizational changes at Nokia. Thus, parameters give structure to your unit of measurement and help you make concrete qualitative measurements. The clearer you define the units of analysis and measure, the more credible your study. Make sure you clearly define both.
Interviews, surveys, observations, and documents provide the traditional sources of analysis for a study. You should strive to achieve the following:
Coding and Codebook Generation
Explain the coding process and the generation of your codebook. This segment should allow others to understand and replicate your coding strategy. An entry in the codebooks should contain:
Thus, the codebook must be clearly displayed in an appendix.
Present the results of your study! This segment usually has the following sections: • Presentation of themes and patterns shared by the literature and study. Ranked in order of significance measured by the number (or percentage) of participants involved with a theme or giving closely related responses.
Additionally, sharing outliers (and not hiding them) lends to the credibility of the dissertation. See the template as to format the above sections. All themes and patterns should remain grounded in the unit of analysis and units of measurement. This segment should only present the findings and not contain any interpretation.
Themes Confirming the Literature
Text goes here.
Novel Themes Emerging from the Study
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Indicate the hypothesis test using a level 2 heading, a statement of the alternative hypothesis, discussion of normality, statistical software used for the test, and the conclusion of the test. The following example demonstrates proper formatting:
First Hypothesis Test
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Second Hypothesis Test
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Most datasets have outliers that do not fit the curve or appearing exceptionally different from the rest of the data. Explain how the outliers failed to fit the data using statistical measurements and/or plots.
Demonstrating your study as credible is extremely messy and difficult; if not impossible. Nonetheless, you may wish to argue for your credibility as to lend trustworthiness to your research effort. Please review the following discussions:
After reviewing, discuss four or five threats to validity and reliability for your study. Make sure you argue for your study being valid, reliable, replicable, and valid; hence, credible.
Create an introduction reminding the reader of the purpose statement while outlining the chapter. The summary is at most two paragraphs. It should summarize the important themes and patterns organized by importance while transitioning the reader from chapter 4.
Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations
Provide a one or two paragraph introduction to Chapter 5. This introduction should provide a clear outline of the Project section.
Explain how the study adhered to strict ethical standards, honored confidentiality agreements, and followed IRB recommendations. Ensure the reader understands you treated all participants fairly, all participants received a proper consent form and contact information, and all data remained anonymous. Further, make a statement how you bracketed researcher bias and that the data and findings reflect only the participant’s opinion and responses. The following example should provide some inspiration for the aspiring dissertation student:
Describe limitations you experienced while collecting data. For example, did your survey have an unexpected number of nonresponses? Were there limitations in sampling, measures, treatments, and data analysis? Did participants have difficulties with recall? Did you have to use redundant questions as to verify recall? Also, how did you handle the limitations as they appeared during data collection?
Overview of the Population and Sampling Method
Quickly summarize the population, sampling strategy, and number of participants. If possible, include a power analysis and state whether the study attained the desired power.
Using at most two paragraphs, briefly summarize your data collection efforts and how you went about analyzing the data.
Summarize your themes, patterns, and/or hypothesis tests using the same headings found in chapter 4. Your goal is to remind the reader of the themes, patterns, and outcomes of hypothesis tests.
Explain and evaluate each finding such that you demonstrate their nature and importance using criteria defined by the literature and study. Make sure your explanations do not rely on fallacies and confused arguments—keep it simple, direct, and clear. Consider comparing each theme with the literature–beginning with the most significant theme lacking in the literature. Discuss the theme’s importance to the problem, critically analyze divergences and similarities between the literature and theme, and the relevance of the findings to stakeholders. You may wish to organize the hypotheses by their importance to the study and research questions. Ensure each discussed outcome of a hypothesis test is clearly labeled with level 2 or 3 headings, concisely states the outcome of the test, and states their relevance to the research questions. Further, do not forget to answer your research questions!
Research Question 1
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Research Question 2
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Findings of the Hypothesis Tests
Findings of the first hypothesis. Text goes here.
Findings of the second hypothesis. Text goes here.
Open-Ended Questions
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Open-ended Question 1. Text goes here.
Open-ended Question 2. Text goes here.
Potential Errors
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Summary
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Form and discuss your recommendations. Each recommendation should relate to the problem statement, appeal to individuals needing to be aware of your study’s results, and discuss how the dissemination of your study can help leaders implement some sort of change within an organization or social group. Aim to offer at least four recommendations, if possible.
Reflect upon your study and comment upon your biases, assumptions, education, and beliefs prior to the study. Take a few pages to reflect and report on how you have changed because of the study and feel free to share unexpected or surprising changes. If possible, include a discussion of the causal fallacies you held prior to the study and how they changed.
Suggestions for Future Research
Argue about how particular results require future professional, academic, or organizational research efforts. If you are stuck, think about the research projects that may arise from your project. For example, what could you tell a future DBA student about your study as to help them research your problem? Also, do not be afraid to suggest future studies utilizing different designs, populations, and sampling strategies!
Implications for Social, Practice, or Organizational Change
This assignment requires you to create a 6-page APA compliant multiple source essay citing peer-reviewed full-text journal articles. You are to produce the Importance of the Study and Contributions to Practice segment in which you justify the relevance, importance, and potential social and professional contributions of your study.
Open the chapter with a single paragraph reminding the reader of the research questions, why the study was conducted, and a brief outline of the chapter. Conclude the chapter with a summary containing no new data or analysis. The summary should contain at least the following information:
CFI. (n.d.). What is Empirical Evidence?
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/empirical-evidence
CFI, (n.d.). What is Profit?
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/accounting/profit
Davis, K. (2017). An empirical investigation into different stakeholder group’s perceptions of project success. International Journal of Project Management, 35(4), pp.604-617. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263786316301193
Denis, D. (2016). Corporate Governance and the Goal of the Firm: In Defense of Shareholder Wealth Maximization, 54(4), 467–480. https://doi.org/10.1111/fire.12115
El-Adaileh, N.A. and Foster, S. (2019). “Successful business intelligence implementation: a systematic literature review”, Journal of Work-Applied Management, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 121-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWAM-09-2019-0027
Edwards, M. (2014). What does originality in research mean? A student’s perspective. Nurse
Res. 2014 Jul;21(6):8-11. doi: 10.7748/nr.21.6.8.e1254. PMID: 25059081.
Finch, C. (2019, October 3). History of Companies and Industries Listed on the S&P 500. https://www.qad.com/blog/2019/10/sp-500-companies-over-time
Garton, E. (2017, April 6). Employee Burnout Is a Problem with the Company, Not the Person.https://hbr.org/2017/04/employee-burnout-is-a-problem-with-the-company-not-the-person
Hamdar, B.C., Najjar, R., and Karameh, K. (2017). The Lebanese perception of the impact of small & medium enterprises (SMEs) on the national economy. Journal of Economics and Public Finance, 3(3), pp.330-342. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/268085613.pdf
Haseeb, M., Lis, M., Haouas, I., & WW Mihardjo, L. (2019). The Mediating Role of Business Strategies between Management Control Systems Package and Firms Stability: Evidence from SMEs in Malaysia. Sustainability, 11(17), 4705. doi:10.3390/su11174705
Kücher, A., Mayr, S., Mitter, C., Duller, C., & amp; Feldbauer-Durstmüller, B. (2018). Firm age dynamics and causes of corporate bankruptcy: Age-dependent explanations for business
McIntyre, G. (2020, November 20). What Percentage of Small Businesses Fail? (And Other Need-to-Know Stats).https://www.bls.gov/bdm/us_age_naics_00_table7.txt
Oden, C. (n.d.). Understanding Theoretical and Practical Implications in Research Papers.
Porter, M. E. (2019, November 7). What Is Strategy? Harvard Business Review.
https://hbr.org/1996/11/what-is-strategy.
Sigalas, C. (2015). Competitive advantage: The known unknown concept. Management
Decision, 53(9), 2004-2016. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2015-0185
Tableau. (n.d.). What is business intelligence? Your guide to BI and why it matters.
https://www.tableau.com/learn/articles/business-intelligence
Wordvice. (n.d.). How To Present Study Limitations and Alternatives.
https://wordvice.com/how-to-present-study-limitations-and-alternatives/
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