PhD Workshop Dr John Walsh, IIS, Ramkhamhaeng University, December 10 th, 2004

Contents Core Skills and Competencies of PhD Graduates Sound Methodology Converting the Proposal to a Research Project Quantitative Techniques Essential Business Concepts

Core Skills and Competencies of PhD Graduates Be able to deploy several different analytical techniques to tackle business problems. Understand the current business environment and predict future trends. Be able to define sound research methodology and identify cases of good and poor research methods

Analytical Techniques Perceptual Mapping Porter’s Five Forces Discounting Methods SWOT Analysis ROA/ROI/Breakeven Analysis

Current Business Environment Move from public sector hierarchies to private sector market institutions Winners and losers Regional integration, multilateralism and bilateralism Environmental concerns and sustainability Demographic dividend Digital divide Technology and manufacturing productivity Excess of supply over demand Globalisation

Future Trends Increased integration between mobile telecommunications and internet, including direct translation Pressure on air travel and energy expenditure New organisational structures Customer-centred business orientation Increasing ability to conduct business remotely

Sound Methodology Is the method clearly explained? Are alternative forms of the method considered? Can the research be easily replicated? Is the sample of a suitable size? Is there any reason to believe the sample is biased in some way? If so, has this been dealt with? Is it clear which statistics have been used to conduct analysis and why they have been chosen?

Are hypotheses properly specified and clear? Is it made clear what will or will not have been demonstrated in the event of positive and negative results? Has the data collection method been described properly? What has been the policy with non-response and partial response? Have all sources been cited properly? Are all the sources from suitable media? Is everything well organised? Are all tables, charts and results discussed? Case Study example

More on Sound Methodology Your thesis will be judged on its methodology because it is difficult to judge on content (but not impossible) You must demonstrate that you have thought about your methodology and made rational decisions about which one to use and which not to use You will look better if you can demonstrate what you have learned from doing the research You should appear to be a competent researcher – in any field

Converting the Research Proposal to a Research Project Isolate individual component parts of the research question This may include single words or phrases Conduct a literature review on each isolated component part Identify and explain the relevant features of each Pay particular attention to what is not known and what has not been researched – you will need to demonstrate that you are adding to the body of knowledge Explain clearly how the different components relate to each other with respect to hypotheses Explain and specify hypotheses. Explain what each will or will not prove, disprove, indicate or suggest

Quantitative Techniques Probabilities Different distributions The null hypothesis The STEP method Correlations Chi squared methods The basis of other techniques

Essential Business Techniques This will be a student-centred session…

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