Writing an MSc Thesis: A Comprehensive Guide, Summaries of Pedagogy

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Advanced Business Research (BMO-31306) 16 April 2020

Writing your MSc Thesis

“Bad research but good writing may still convince readers; good research but bad writing will never convince readers” Unknown author “What most distinguishes research writing from other writing is the high degree of intellectual rigour required” Kumar, 2005, p. 314

Should you schedule the writing of the

thesis in the last week(s)?

Should you plan writing the thesis only

in the last week(s)?

Audiences for the MSc thesis

 (^) Teacher / supervisor

●To comply with course requirements

●To get a good grade

 (^) Commissioner

● To answer his/her questions

 (^) Yourself

●To bring the thesis project to a good end

●To have tangible results

 (^) Rest of the world

● To show your expertise

Research or Consultancy?

 While MSc thesis may contain

recommendations for companies, it is primarily a scientific report.

 The thesis is science-based:

● Using (business) theory

● Building on what is already known

● Using rigorous methods

Preparing the Thesis

 Decide on structure:

● Length (max 80 pages)

● Chapters and sections

● Additional elements

 Decide on style:

● Lay-out

● Language (BE or AE)

● Use of visual objects

Basic structure of the Thesis

1. Introduction
2. Literature Review ( Conceptual Framework)
3. Methods and Material
4. Results / Findings
5. Discussion
6. Conclusion 7. Recommendations

Other elements of Final Report

 (^) Preface / Acknowledgements (optional)  (^) Executive summary  (^) Table of contents  (^) List of Abbreviations (optional, but recommended)  (^) References  (^) Appendices ● Additional tables ● Interview Guide / Questionnaire ● Transcripts of interviews  (^) Please note : these elements are not chapters and do not get a chapter number

Chapter 1. Introduction

 (^) Gives the context and motivation of the research  (^) Starts with a broad perspective on the research topic, than gradually narrowing the focus to the central problem and CRQ.  (^) Elements of the Introduction:

●Historical perspective / Trends / Developments

●Key ideas from literature review (on theory,

empirical findings and methods)

●Problem statement

●Research Questions

●Structure of the Report

Chapter 3. Methods and Material

 Background information on the study population and sample (or on

the case organisation, when doing a case study)

 Research design

 Operationalization: how will you measure your key concepts?

 Data collection methods

● Include questionnaire and interview guide in the Appendix

 Data analysis methods (statistics; comparative analyse; coding)

 Discussion on reliability and validity of the measurement instruments

Reliability and Validity

Validity

High Low

Reliabilit y High Low

Validity

Validity refers to the extent in which a test/instrument measures what we wish to measure (see Blumberg et al., 2014, pages 398-403) Construct validity: The degree to which a research instrument is able to measure or infer the presence of an abstract property Content validity: The degree to which a research instrument provides adequate coverage of the topic under study

Example of reliability and validity of

measurement instrument

 (^) We have three scales and two kilo bags. Evaluate the following conditions in terms of reliability and validity? First bag Second bag Third bag Scale A 2.5 kg 2.5 kg 2.5 kg Scale B 2 kg 2.5 kg 1.5 kg Scale C 2 kg 2 kg 2 kg