MASTER DISSERTATION ACADEMIC YEAR 2023/2024

STEP 1: DEFINING THE RESEARCH QUESTION

The research question is the starting point of the Master Dissertation. To formulate your research question, you should first define the theme you wish to investigate. The theme is related to your Master of Science expertise and your professional or personal interest. Some up-to-date research themes maybe suggested by the TBS Education researchers involved in the MSc courses.

You should refer to your MSc courses on Research methods (Course Unit 8) to select and formulate your research question.  Then, you will submit it to your tutor in order to validate its relevance.

Once you have decided the theme you want to investigate, you must carry out a literature  and  empirical   review  (read  many  academic  articles,   books  and professional  articles…)  on  your  theme  in  order  to  understand  the  current professional issues and academic debate surrounding your theme.

This  part  of  your work will  help  you  to  build  the  introduction  of  your  Master Dissertation and part of your literature review, and also the discussion parts of the dissertation.

It will also lead you to find a relevant research question. Indeed, there is no need to develop a study on an already fully investigated research question. To develop a relevant and personal contribution to your field of expertise, you should select a new or under-investigated research question.

Most  academic  articles  end  with  the  limitations  of  their  study  and  research questions that need to be further investigated. You will find there an interesting source to formulate your research question.

A good research question addresses an important business or managerial issue. The boundaries and scope of the subject must be clearly defined.

Research questions usually start by a: Why? What?, Who?, Where?, How?

Please refer to the UE 8 course material for more in-depth insights on the research question

STEP 2: DESIGNING THE RESEARCH PROJECT

Once you have validated your research question with your tutor, you have to design your research project. It will include:

A clear synthesis and analysis of the academic and professional literature review linked to your research question.

•    To successfully write the “state of the Art” on your research question, you must define and identify academic and professional sources: what books? What academic and professional articles? what documents or conferences? Where to find them?

NB: TBS Education’s library gives you access to a lot of academic resources and databases, with some helpful tutorials for research projects:

https://bibliotheque.tbs-education.fr/Default/tutoriels-video.aspx

•    The literature review synthetizes the current knowledge, issues and debates surrounding the research question. In this academic exercise, the student should demonstrate a discerning, comprehensive and critical engagement with what has been read. He/she analyzes and synthetizes  findings  highlighting  the  knowledge  already  gathered, current issues and investigations that remain to be done.

A relevant and robust research method:  depending  on  your research theme and your research question, the method may be a quantitative research approach with a set of 2/3 hypotheses to be tested (hypothetico-deductive approach), or a qualitative research design, usually more concerned with establishing answers to the whys and hows of the research object.

Since it is impossible to use all the methods available, it is essential to choose the most appropriate method for the  work  in  progress.  Consequently,  the researcher  must  master the  know-how of the  different methods available: creating a proper questionnaire, conducting a useful interview,  statistically validating an inquiry, identifying facts and results (case study or documentary research), etc.  The  researcher  has  also  to  understand  the  underlying epistemologies of the research methods he/she intends to use.

If generative AI is used for some texts in your manuscript or some parts of the literature review or at any stage of the research process, you shall explain in detail in a specific page (see checklist p. 9) how you used it in an ethical and responsible manner.

Discussions  with  the  faculty   members  involved  in  the course unit 8 “Research methods” and your tutor will help you determine the suitable research method/s for your dissertation.

STEP 3: COLLECTING AND ANALYSING DATA

Once your research question and design are validated by your tutor, you can start collecting data. This means that you will lead your research project to test your hypotheses (quantitative approach) or build the contextualized understanding of your research object (qualitative approach). This part of the work can last from one month up to three months. You must ensure that you have done all you need to collect relevant data ready for analysis and conclusion. For students doing an internship, a significant part of the data may be related to your mission and may be completed by external data. You will then have to demonstrate reflexivity to build a convincing analysis. You also must check the company’s confidentiality rules applying  to  the  data  and  information  you  are  planning  to  use  in  your dissertation.

The analysis of your data will lead you to develop a clear demonstration strongly rooted in your collected data. You must be clear, honest and rigorous in what you are able to explain/answer and what remains open issue.

In the MD dissertation, the research method part explains the methods you use to test your hypotheses (if relevant) and why you have chosen these methods rather than another (in all cases). Be clear, precise and rigorous in your argumentation, referring to your MSc research methods course unit. The student must show that he/she has carefully collected sufficient and relevant data.

STEP 4: MAKING MANAGERIAL

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUDING

Why and how your research can help managers to lead more responsibly their business?

Your Master Dissertation is an academic exercise that should lead to developing managerial  or  business  recommendations.  Linking  scientific  knowledge  and practical implications is key to enhance your managerial and decision skills.

You must develop 3 to 5 recommendations in this part of your dissertation.

These recommendations must consider their corporate social and environmental impacts and be aligned with the mission and purpose of TBS Education.

As a conclusion of your master dissertation, you will emphasize the major learning of this work (scientific method, knowledge, critical thinking, surprising result, etc.), highlight the limits of your study and develop a global perspective on your topic related to global corporate social responsibility issues.

STEP 5: WRITING THE MASTER DISSERTATION

The write-up should be about 30 pages of text (not counting the title page, appendixes, table of contents, executive summary, bibliography, etc.,). The format of the text must be as follows: Times New Roman, size 12, single-spaced. Pages must be numbered.

COVER PAGE: The cover page must indicate the title of the Master Dissertation, the name of the author,the name of the academic supervisor (tutor of the student for the MD), the title of the program, and the submission date.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (1 page): The second page must indicate the title of the dissertation and an executive summary. You have to present the key points of the dissertation in a synthetic way, like the abstract of the academic papers cited in your references. The executive summary has thus to be clear, well- structured, and professional. A list of keywords that characterize its content will be provided at the end of this second page.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: A word of thanks to all who helped in one way or another  in  making  your  work  a  success,  especially  the  corporate  staff  is relevant.

TABLE OF CONTENT: The third page must indicate the table of contents with page numbers keyed to the relevant sections of the document. The sections, headings,  and  sub-headings   must  be  clearly   identifiable  (using  the  Word numbering system: 1 then 1.1 then 1.1.1, etc.).

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND APPENDICES: Tables  and  Figures  must be numbered (for example: Figure 5. The main components of a management decision-support system). The title must be placed below the figure, and for tables, it must be placed above. If you have used generative IA tools, the list of such tools and the prompts must be included in the appendices.

INTRODUCTION: The introductory section of the master dissertation explains to the reader the   context, interest,  and   importance  of  the   question  under study. The research question is introduced here and followed by a roadmap for readers.

CONTENT: As explained before, the MD must present:

•    a literature review,

•    a method part,

•    results analysis,

•    and managerial recommendations.

CITATION: All sources must be clearly cited. References to authors must be given in the text, at the end of a sentence or at a logical break  in  the  sentence. References  must  be  cited  in brackets,  giving  the name(s)  of  the  author(s) and  publication  date,  for  example  (XX,  2007)  or (XX and YY, 2019). When there are more than two authors, use the formula "et al." after the name of the first author, for example (XX et al., 2020). When  the name of the author appears in a  sentence,  only  the  date  of  the  relevant   publication  must  be  given,  for example "as ZZZ (2004) points out …" Finally, when reference is made to many articles, authors should be mentioned in alphabetical order andseparated with a semi-colon, for example (XX and YY, 2015; ZZZ et al., 2011).

When an author's sentence or phrase is borrowed directly, in addition to citing the reference, quotation marks must be used. As stated in the evaluation criteria (seep. 11), plagiarism will be dealt with very strictly.

CONCLUSION: the  conclusion  emphasizes  the  major  learning  of  the  MD (scientific  method,  knowledge,  critical  thinking,   surprising  result,  etc.)  and highlights its limits and the potential future perspective or actions that can be undertaken.

SELF - ASSESSMENT (1 page): your  own  personal  reflection  on  this experience, the key learning points and how tackling the managerial issue has shaped your professionalism.

REFERENCES: Bibliographical  references,  videos,  documents,  conferences, etc. must be given in the references at the end of the document. They must be presented as shown in Appendix 1.

IF RELEVANT: USE OF GENERATIVE AI (1 page): If generative AI has been used for some texts in your manuscript, you shall explain in detail in a specific page how you used it in an ethical and responsible manner (in which part of the research process? How? For which purpose? Which IA generative tool/s?)

APPENDICES: Includes all data that are too detailed to be incorporated within the main body of your written document (+ prompts of the generative AI tools if relevant). Inside the write-up, reference should be made to  all appendices.