1. Master’s Thesis Seminar Session 2: Working on your research proposal
Natalia Vuori

2. Regional headquarters – an intermediate structure in MNC organizations
Topic 1) RHQ that gain more responsibilities
Building on our longitudinal data set of RHQ in Finland
Interviewing RHQ that have gained more responsibilities
Why were they successful?
Topic 2) RHQ in service firms vs. other firms
Building on our longitudinal data set of RHQ in Finland
Collecting secondary information on service firms (e.g. websites) and making phone interviews (~50-70 RHQ)
Are service firms different regarding RHQ evolution?
Get in touch and join our RHQ research team!
Perttu Kähäri,
Prof. Rebecca Piekkari, Iiris Saittakari

3. Professor Rebecca Piekkari offers two interesting topics
1)      An ethnography of a multilingual organisation
2)     Multilingualism and power in international workplaces
Language questions are one of the hot topics in management
IB team has over 20 years of experience and Rebecca Piekkari is one of the leading authorities in the field
If interested, get in touch!
Rebecca Piekkari,

4. Agenda for today Practicalities Working on your research proposals
Break
Available of topics
Continue working on your research proposal

5. Practicalities Can supervisor be from outside of Aalto?No
Is this correct that supervisor’s responsibilities assume max 3 meetings
Yes
When I will get my supervisor?
In about one week
Attendance list
Any other questions?

6. Working on your research proposal
Assignments 2: Write a first draft of your research proposal

7. Structure of Master’s thesis
Introduction
Phenomenon & positioning of the study within the field
Motivation
Research problem/objective
Research questions
Definitions & limitations (if needed)
Literature review -> your theoretical framework
Method
Research context
Data collection
Data analysis
Findings
Discussion and implications (Interpretation of the obtained results and compare them to the related literature)
Conclusion
Intro-
duction
Con-
clusion
Earlier research
Dis-
cussion
Results
Hyvönen & Salo
Department of Mathematics and Systems Analysis

8. Phenomenon and motivation
Introduce a phenomenon (e.g., “Successful integration in mergers and acquisitions often requires active collaboration from the members of the combining firms.” (Vuori, Huy, Vuori)
What do we know about the phenomenon? (e.g., 2-3 sentences about how active collaboration influence firm performance. 3-4 sentence about factors that influence whether members of the combining firms will collaborate or not). However,
Motivation: why the study is needed?
Mixed empirical results (some studies have found X has positive effect on performance, while other studies have found X has negative effect on performance)
Unexplained empirical phenomenon (e.g. a new phenomenon)
Change of empirical conditions (A leads to B in environment 1 but how about environment 2 ?)
Others? Practical motivation, personal interest, societal motivation

9. Working on your phenomenon and motivation (20 minutes)
Split into groups of 3
Spend 2 minutes thinking about your phenomenon and motivation of your study
Each group member presents his or her phenomenon and motivation
Other group members give feedback
Be constructive!
6 min per person

10. Reflection point (~5 minutes)
What can go wrong with the phenomenon introduction part?
What can go wrong with the motivation part?

11. Research objective and research question(s)
Research objective is clear statement about the goal of your research
e.g., In this study, our goals is “to achieve a more complete understanding of the emotion-related factors that influence inter-firm collaboration” (Vuori, Huy, Vuori)
Example of action verbs to formulate research objectives: to identify, to figure out, to determine, to compare, to verify, to establish…
Research questions
How emotions influence inter-firm collaboration?

12. Working on your research objective and research question (20 minutes)
Split into groups of 3
Spend 2 minutes thinking about research objective and research question
Each group member presents his or her research objective and research question
Other group members give feedback
Be constructive!
6 min per person

13. Reflection point (~5 minutes)
What is a good research objective?
Was is a good research question?

14. 14:20-14:30
BREAK

15. Research Interests: Research Projects:
International cross-sector partnerships between business, non-profit and public sectors
Corporate environmental responsibility
Internationalization of non-profit organizations
Research Projects:
Cross-sector partnerships and value creation in the context of world oceans and seas
Internationalization of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Teaching:
Operating in Different Cultural and Institutional Contexts (Period 5)
Tiina Ritvala Assistant Professor International Business
people.aalto.fi/tiina_ritvala

16. Thesis topics related to partnerships and social entrepreneurship
Sustainable use and protection of world oceans and seas
UN Sustainable Development Goals (Goals 14 and 17 on oceans/ seas and global partnerships)
Innovation and shared (business and social) value creation
Some funding available concerning Baltic Sea environmental initiatives
Internationalization of creative industries, art museums in particular

17. Working on your research proposal
Assignments 2: Write a first draft of your research proposal

18. Method Name your method Justify why you use this method
Describe how you will collect data
Describe how you will analyze data

19. Working on your method (20 minutes)
Split into groups of 3
Spend 2 minutes thinking about your method
Each group member presents his or her method and justification
Other group members give feedback
Be constructive!
6 min per person

20. Reflection point (~5 minutes)
Any rules for choosing the method?
What are the most essential things to consider, while planning your methodology

21. What is next? Assignment 2 DL 16.3
The instruction is on Mycourses-Material
Return on Mycourses-Assignment
The attendance list
Your program directors will most likely to contract you about your supervisors