General Pro-forma for Completing a Dissertation or Project Proposal - Assignment Example

A general pro-forma for completing a dissertation or project proposal is given below. Check with your about the exact contents of the proposal that you are expected to submit. Complete both sides of this form, signed hardcopy please return to the School office by 13 December 2010. Student Name: ______________________________ Date Submitted: ______ Programme: ______________________________________________________________ Contact Number: __________________________________________________________ Email: ___________________________________________________________________ 1. What is the general area that you are interested in? For several years, charities in the UK have been engaged in the sale of various products such as strategies for building up funds, usually thru catalogues and mail order booklets (Varey 2002). Nonetheless, by the latter part of the 1990s, charities were ever more selling new products, such as thrilling holidays; signature music CDs, and others (Varey 2002). Sargeant (1995 as cited in Rogers 2001) has proposed that two primary forces helped justify these profit inclinations: (1) more aggressive competition for charities in developing countries subsequent to the current formation of quite several charities, and (2) the pattern established by technologically sophisticated charities which had increased their proceeds sizeably over the recent decade. Moreover, the introduction of inexpensive database management systems has inspired small charities to use more and more technologically advanced marketing strategies. Regardless of these technological demands, several anti-marketing forces may emerge within charitable groups in spite of the rapidly changing technological charities environment where in they now inhabit (Applbaum 2004). Hence, for instance, a manager of a charity organisation may think that its activities should express only its moral principles and ideology (instead of being focused on technological advancement); that anything acquired thru hard-line marketing by a charity organisation is essentially mislaid by another; and that state-of-the-art technologies may generate among prospective donors the idea that their donations will be splurged only on further technological advancement and not support any charity in its humanitarian objectives. 2. What is your working dissertation or project title? (This is likely to change as the dissertation or project evolves but you should be able to define a working title for the present). Based on the discussed premises above I prefer the title “The Impact of Technology on Marketing Strategies of Charitable Organisations in the UK”. The specifics of this title will be thoroughly discussed in the succeeding sections. 3. What are the aims and objectives of the Project or Dissertation? This study would like to explore the level to which differences in technology in commercial orientations determined by previous studies apply to individuals who supervise charitable organisations, and whether such technological disparities have repercussions for their marketing strategies. Particularly, the following hypotheses are formulated in relation with charity marketing strategies. 4. What specific research questions or hypotheses do you intend to examine? Hypothesis 1. Managers of charity organisations, who show firm disposition with regard to technology, innovation, and encouraging outlooks towards change, make use of marketing strategies significantly distinct from charity managers having other character attributes. Hypothesis 2. Better technological performance is significantly correlated with (1) flexibility; (2) forward planning; and (3) a high level of commercial tendency. 5. List the names of any organisations from which you will seek collaboration and/or co-operation. To examine these hypotheses, a questionnaire will be drafted after a review of relevant literature and will be sent online to respondents in UK charity organisations. The objective is to sample small charity organisations with comparatively less developed technology. Therefore the sampling frame will be chose from: (1) charity organisations found in the current Charities Digest and (2) a stratified quasi-random sample of charity organisations obtained from the Caritas Data Alphabetical List of UK Charities. 6. Specify the sources of primary and secondary data and how you will gain access to the data and information that you intend to use. (These may be documentary sources such as company reports and/or a particular group of people that you intend to sample) For the purpose of this study and for the realisation of the objectives both primary and secondary date will be used. The secondary data will help form the background information, required by the researcher so as to develop usefully the research and the reader to understand more accurately the outcome of the survey. The researcher will request access to the sample charity organisations’ financial documents and records of accomplishments. Primary data will be gathered in two ways. First, a questionnaire will be sent to selected employees of sample charity organisations. Second, unstructured interviews will be conducted with managers of sample charity organisations. 7 Summarise the research methods that you will use to gather data and information from the sources in 6. This study will evaluate the core hypothesis that individual tendencies towards technological entrepreneurialism influence the behaviour of managers of charity organisations vis-a-vis flexibility, planning, and marketing strategies. The first part of the survey will begin with a question about the number of employees of the selected charity organisation followed by several items regarding marketing strategies, as identified by relevant literature. These metrics will be rooted primarily in Kohli and Jaworski’s (1990) work, who created them as instruments for assessing managerial endeavours at (1) accurately interpreting the forces that affect marketing strategies, particularly technological factors, and (2) structuring activities to meet the demands and needs of customers. 8. Summarise the methods that you will use to analyse data and information. Cronbach’s alpha will be calculated for the questionnaire items pertaining to marketing strategies and technological transfer. The alpha coefficient for questions regarding marketing strategies will be computed in order to determine the relationship between technology and marketing strategies in charity organisations. By determining if there is a significant correlation between the two primary variables (technology and marketing strategy) the study will be able to conclusively express the relationship between the two. 9. Review and summarise the main bodies of theory that underpin your Dissertation or Project. (This review must include citations to research literature - e.g. journal articles, research archives, etc.). Carson and colleagues (1995 as cited in Applbaum 2004) claimed that the technological know-how limitations confronted by the small organisations were quite far-reaching that the application of an entrepreneurial model of marketing would in fact enhance the possibility of its long-term existence. This entrepreneurial model included rapid reactions to technological changes in the behaviour of competitors and market opportunities, informal organisation, forward planning, and the constant introduction of innovative marketing strategies (Upton 2006). Similarly, the review of Chaston (1997 as cited in Varey 2002) of earlier studies on the issue linked entrepreneurial marketing with positive dedication to technological innovation, fast product development, idea formation, and formulation of marketing strategies. The analysis of Gibb and Davies (1990 as cited in Adkins 1999) of the features purportedly related to entrepreneurial business behaviour likewise reported that the primary entrepreneurial features named by existing literature concerned technological innovation, the ability to deal with unpredictable environments, and consolidation of technological resources. Several studies have reported the existence of relationship between technology and marketing strategies. According to available literature on the subject, the relationship between strategic orientation and innovation motivates the purportedly inherent desire for achievement of the entrepreneurial individual, which encourages the individual to want to develop plans to enhance his/her effectiveness and success and thus outdo competitors in the longer term (Adkins 1999). Hence, individual personality attributes are the primary core of strategic models of business management, instead of technological sophistication. 10. Identify any limitations, pre-requisites or risks involved in undertaking this Dissertation or Project. (Is there anything you are depending on that could go wrong and jeopardise the whole thing? Are there any ethical constraints?) Time and resources will be the primary constraints to the study. The validity and reliability of the findings of this study will largely depend on the cooperation and responses of the randomly selected respondents. Since this study will mostly employ qualitative methods of research individual biases and expectations will likely hamper the accuracy of the findings. Moreover, needed secondary data, such as financial records, may be difficult to acquire due to their confidential nature. Ethical problems that may arise include confidentiality and misrepresentation. The researcher should try as much as possible to build and sustain the trust and confidence of the respondents in order to successfully acquire the needed primary data. *** Please attach Gantt charts or any other project management diagrams that are relevant to planning and undertaking your dissertation or project. Source: RFFlow, 1996-2010. Gantt Chart—Project Schedule (http://www.rff.com/gantt1.htm) References Adkins, S., 1999. Cause Related Marketing. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann. Applbaum, K., 2004. The Marketing Era: From Professional Practice to Global Provisioning. New York: Routledge. Lazer, W. & Kelley, E.J., 1973. Social Marketing: Perspectives and Viewpoints. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin. Rogers, S.C., 2001. Marketing Strategies, Tactics, and Techniques: A Handbook for Practitioners. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Varey, R.J., 2002. Marketing Communication: Principles and Practice. London: Routledge. Upton, C., 2006. What ‘gives’ with Cause Marketing? Strengthen your Business, Enhance Your Image and Give Back. Public Relations Quarterly, 51(4), 40+ Wilson, R.M.S. & Gilligan, C., 2004. Strategic Marketing Management: Planning, Implementation and Control. Oxford, England: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More