Business Project Context and Proposal
Question
Answered

This assignment requires you to submit, in week 4, a single page project plan.  This project plan will contain three components:
A]  A ‘field of research’ which pertains to your understanding of your profession.  This short statement will include how this field relates to the work of your profession and an industry.  
B]  A source of secondary data linked to their chosen field of research.  Students will be required to either include a website with a link to a publicly available secondary data set, or a short description of how they will use publicly available sources as secondary data.
C]  A research question or questions that can be answered with the secondary data set they identified, including a clear expression of the variables you will be using, and the relationships you plan to explore.  
D]  The search terms you propose to use in Google Scholar to identify literature in the field of the research question.
E]  You will be asked to pick five articles that arise from the result of your search that you will think be suitable sources to write a literature review in the area of your field of research.  You will be asked to write two sentences that combine at least three of these sources (referenced correctly) and provide the (at least three) sources in a reference list.
step 2, worth 25% of total unit marks.
For this assignment you will be asked to prepare a short literature review that places their project within the context of their profession and industry, and ends with a focused field of study or research aim, and at least one research question.  You will be asked to clearly describe their research plan, including their proposed method of analysis.  This should be properly referenced, with a minimum of 10 scholarly references in it.  Maximum word count, including references, 1750 words.
Assessment 2 – Project Report (60%)
This is an individual, written assessment, to be completed in report format. You are required to write around 3,000 words (excluding title page, preliminaries, tables, figures, reference list and appendices). The report requires in-text referencing and a full reference list in APA style.   A minimum of 20 scholarly references will be required.
The purpose of this assessment is to present the final report of the Professional Project you proposed in Assignment 1. This report should build upon your assessment 1 and it should address the campus tutor/lecturer or unit co-ordinator (for external students) feedback.
In order to successfully complete Assessment 2, you are required to carry out the investigation you have proposed in Assessment 1 and produce a professional research report that shows how you have followed through from finding a research question to answering that question and developing recommendations that out of the answer.   
As Masters students you are required to engage in research as per the Australia Quality Framework (AQF) guidelines. Two specific requirements need to be considered. Students need to demonstrate “a body of knowledge that includes the understanding of recent developments in a discipline and/or area of professional practice, and demonstrate “knowledge of research principles and methods applicable to a field of work and/or learning”.  Also note that this is an advanced level course, and accrediting bodies are also looking for evidence of independent research, so the ability to conduct this project without continually relying on your tutors and lecturers is an important part of the learning process for this unit.  We encourage you to come up with your own ideas and work independently, BUT that doesn’t mean just ignoring the parameters in this course.
Each unit in the MBA has a number of required weekly readings in terms of academic texts, journals and business publications that represent the appropriate body of knowledge and recent developments referred to by the AQF. In order to demonstrate the ability to engage in appropriate research, students should read and utilise these texts and journals and publications, and as Masters students, indicate a willingness to research beyond this minimum standard through additional texts, journals and studies that demonstrate an ability to engage in independent research.
Students should ensure that they understand the specific research that is required for each assessment piece and recognise that if they meet this minimum requirement, you will receive the minimum grade for demonstrated research