Research in Business Management - Assignment Example

Proposal (M.Sc. Business Management) Please email a copy of the completed proposal to your supervisor and to the module leader. number:Email: Final submission date: Please describe the topic of this research, and why you have chosen this topic. The middle-east and the GCC nations are famous for the oil production and they export oil to all other parts of the world. The countries earn their revenue mainly through the production of oil and the fluctuating oil prices have a great deal of impact on the oil importing countries (Budhwar and Mellahi, 2007). The recent global financial crisis that occurred in 2008 has led to the rise in oil price that in turn reduced the demand for crude oil in the international market (Muralidhar, 2010). The GCC countries along with other oil exporting nations were considered as the net supplier of oil in the international market. The oil export business has also allowed the countries to participate in the international trade and thus the countries are developing in order to compete with the developed nations (Narayan and Smyth, 2007). Since oil producing sector is the most important sector in the middle-east and the GCC nations this is considered for carrying out a detailed study. What is your main research question? You can include subsidiary questions if needed. How is the oil producing companies of middle-east and GCC nations performing in the international market? Please explain why you think readers outside your work organisation could be interested in a research that addresses this question. The aim of the research is to carry out an overall analysis of the performance of the oil producing companies of middle-east by focusing mainly on the GCC nations and the revenue generated them. Since crude oil is on high demand in the international market hence it would prove to be an interesting topic of discussion for most of the researchers. Describe in approximately 500-1000 words threetheoretical perspectives you could draw upon in your literature review. Try to focus on how they provide a provisional answer to your question. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have a number of features in common that is their structural economic features as well as there are significant differences. The common features comprise of high dependency of the other nations on the hydrocarbon as well as the oil production of the middle-east and the GCC nations (Arouri and Rault, 2012). The countries are expected to earn a large portion of their revenue from the oil export business. Oil producing companies face challenges due to the fluctuations in the oil prices where some of the oil importing countries reduce their dependency on the oil and hydrocarbon and set up a separate non-oil sector. There is a possibility of economic diversification that takes place in the international market that would in turn reduce the demand for oil. Study says that, the member nations of GCC are adopting the method of economic diversification with UAE and Bahrain, acting as the most advanced in this field of economic diversification. According to the study, the GDP growth in the non-oil sector has exceeded that of oil producing sectors in the international market, but the non-oil sector are controlled by the government expenditure which is further dependent on the oil revenues (Mina, 2007). However, due to the strong demand for crude oil, there has been an inflationary pressure on the GCC nations and the average inflation rose to 6% in 2007 with a significant difference in the inflationary pressure among the GCC member nations (Mina, 2007). Nonetheless the GCC economies have experienced an increase in revenue due to the rise in oil prices in the economy and the study reflects that half of the revenues of the GCC nations are currently absorbed by conducting of international trade among nations. According to the researcher, the GCC nations comprise of around 40% of the global oil reserves and are expected to serve the other countries with their export of crude oil and petroleum in future (Bahgat, 2006). However, the GCC nations are further investing in the oil production business and also in the development of new oil-fields that would meet the rising demand for crude oil in the international market. As far as there is no technological innovation for the energy production in the international market, crude oil will play a key role in meeting the energy needs of the oil importing countries. Based on your current ideas, outline your current choice of a methodology and of a method. Please explain the rationale. Methodology and Rationale Philosophy The research philosophy that is associated with this research is that of positivism. Positivism considers that the social world exists and the knowledge is based on the reality that can be observed and there are laws that exist in order to prove the reality (Reiche, 2010). According to the positivists, there is a single objective reality that can be measured using the standardised instruments. In this paper, the reality is that the oil producing companies have the control over the crude oil production in middle-east and other GCC nations and this can be measured using various tools and techniques. Sampling A sample is a sub-set of the population that is used to derive a conclusion about the parent population (Reiche, 2010). In this particular research, that sampling technique that is to be used is convenience sampling which implies that the researcher visits the organization and conducts the interview of the managers in order to know the overall performance of the company. The study would help to answer the research question. Data Collection Methods The primary data is collected using the qualitative approach that is to conduct interview of two of the managers of the organizations each from the middle-east and the other GCC nations regarding the performance of the organization in producing and exporting crude oil to the international market. The secondary research can be carried out based on the data collected from the authentic books and journals on the performance of the oil producing nations of the middle-east and the GCC nations. The data collected from the books helps to estimate the annual production and sales of these companies and also to predict the future growth prospect (Reiche, 2010). Where will you be locating your research? (e.g., in an organisation? In which country? Desk-based?) The interview questions that are prepared for the managers would comprise of the questions related to performance of the particular organization and the strategies to be undertaken. Describe the main steps in your research along with the timescale in which they will be completed bearing in mind your final completion date. You can include a workflow diagram. The research is conducted in both Primary as well as Secondary Approach and the researcher visits the company to interview the managers so that the overall analysis can be conducted on the performance of the organization. The questions can be as follows. How did the organization overcome the impact of the global financial crisis? What is the annual profit earned by the organization in the previous year? What are the strategies that the company plans to undertake in the near future? What is the level of annual production and sales of crude oil each year? The responses to these questions would provide relevant data that can be used to estimate the company’s annual crude oil production and sales in the economy and whether the company has successfully met the demand for crude oil in the international market. The strategies that the managers plan to undertake within the organization would help to forecast that whether the organization will perform well in future or it will face a slowdown in its growth rate. The secondary research that is to be conducted based on the websites and journal would provide relevant data that is needed to evaluate the company’s performance over last five years and the factors that act as the driving force to the increase in crude oil production. The company’s participation in the international trade also indicates that the company is expected to grow in the near future. Time Plan and Budget Gantt chart Budget Plan Is there any ethical issue you should make your supervisor aware of? The research needs to consider some of the ethical issues that is, while conducting the primary research the researcher has to fix an appointment with the managers of different organizations (Hammoudeh and Choi, 2006). The researcher must have a convincing attitude and must not force the managers to share the data required for the study. Further, the response of the managers has to be recorded in a tape-recorder and must be secured for future reference. The secondary research carried out based on the books and journals has to be authentic; otherwise, there is a possibility of error occurring in the analysis. How will you insure no harm is done to any participant, and no nuisance is caused to any host organisation? (Reflecting on this will help you fill out the Ethics approval form) Limitation There are limitations to the research that creates a barrier to the smooth running of project. While conducting the primary research, the managers must be reluctant to share valuable information about the company’s profit and annual sales. Further, the data collected if not stored in a secured place can get misplaced. The secondary data if not collected from authentic sources can lead to errors in the overall analysis. Evaluation of Robustness The research must be carried out in such a way that it generates a valuable outcome. The data collected must be efficiently evaluated in order to make it error free. It must be from authentic sources and the researcher must be pre-registered to the journal websites (Mohanty, et al., 2011). In case of primary research, the questions that are set for the managers must cover the purpose of conducting the research so that a conclusion can be derived from the responses of the managers. The research process must be such that it helps to analyse the performance of the company and its future growth prospect (Hvidt, 2011). Provide an initial list of references (using UWE Harvard format) you may use in your literature review. Reference List Arouri, M. E. H. and Rault, C., 2012. Oil prices and stock markets in GCC countries: empirical evidence from panel analysis. International Journal of Finance & Economics, 17(3), pp. 242-253. Bahgat, G., 2006. Europes energy security: challenges and opportunities.International affairs, 82(5), pp. 961-975. Budhwar, P. and Mellahi, K., 2007. Introduction: human resource management in the Middle East. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(1), pp. 2-10. Hammoudeh, S. and Choi, K., 2006. Behavior of GCC stock markets and impacts of US oil and financial markets. Research in International Business and Finance, 20(1), pp. 22-44. Hvidt, M., 2011. Economic and institutional reforms in the Arab Gulf countries.The Middle East Journal, 65(1), pp. 85-102. Mina, W., 2007. The location determinants of FDI in the GCC countries.Journal of Multinational Financial Management, 17(4), pp. 336-348. Mohanty, S. K., Nandha, M., Turkistani, A. Q. and Alaitani, M. Y., 2011. Oil price movements and stock market returns: Evidence from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Global Finance Journal, 22(1), pp. 42-55. Muralidhar, K., 2010. Enterprise risk management in the Middle East oil industry: an empirical investigation across GCC countries. International Journal of Energy Sector Management, 4(1), pp. 59-86. Narayan, P. K. and Smyth, R., 2007. A panel cointegration analysis of the demand for oil in the Middle East. Energy Policy, 35(12), pp. 6258-6265. Reiche, D., 2010. Energy Policies of Gulf Cooperation Council GCC countries—possibilities and limitations of ecological modernization in rentier states. Energy Policy, 38(5), pp. 2395-2403. Read More