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Research Method Research Method Portfolio Exercise 1 What is Your Research Question? (750 words) Having now been introduced to the dissertation, the aim of this portfolio exercise is to get you to think about your research question. What is your research question? Write this out as a short sentence in the form of a question. Write a synopsis of the central research problem you intend to address in your dissertation. Discuss a) why this problem was chosen; b) why it is a problem suitable for research at Master’s level; and c) what are the academic issues which underpin your research question? Portfolio Exercise 2 Thinking Ahead (400 words) • Thinking about the time you have to complete the dissertation, sketch out a timetable for your research and the writing of the dissertation. identify those stages that you feel will prove hardest to undertake or that will take the most time. Portfolio Exercise 3 Locating Literature (600 words) This portfolio exercise will develop your bibliographic skills – you will need these to locate relevant literature for your literature review. As a registered distance learning student of the university of Leicester you have access to the University Library’s online facilities – these include a number of academic databases which cover a broad range of academic publications such as Sage Online, Science Direct, informaworld, business Source Premier, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Social Sciences Citation index, and Expanded Academic ASAP. These databases allow you to search and download articles to your computer, free of charge. The Library has an audio-visual library tutorial on databases, showing you how to use them to find information - if you have not already looked at this tutorial, you should do so now (https://connect.le.ac.uk/p15399419/). note you may need your university of Leicester iT Account username and password to access articles. note that via the Distance Learning service provided by the university Library you have a full library service available to you giving you borrowing rights, literature searching facilities, telephone and internet/email ordering and many other useful and accessible points of entry to the library’s holdings. The Service also deals with PINs, postal loans, document supply (i.e. photocopying), Sconul Access applications and literature search requests. The latter and subject-specific enquiries are passed on to the information Librarian, Andrew Dunn, or his colleagues in the social sciences team when he is on leave. You can contact Andrew by leaving a message on the ‘Library Issues’ discussion board on blackboard, or via e-mail ([email protected]). Go the university website and access the databases and other e-resources it hosts. use one of the databases listed above (or others you know) to search for and retrieve three current (within the last 5 years) academic articles relevant to your research question. Once you have identified and downloaded your articles write a 150-word review for each article focusing on the main findings of the research, the research methods used and the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s approach. Provide a list of ten additional academic articles or books that you intend to use in your research. Portfolio Exercise 4 The Philosophy of Social Research and Your Approach (1000 words) All researchers need to justify the reasons why certain approaches are chosen and why others are not and the philosophical and practical rationale underpinning their research. This needs to be set within the context of positivist/post-positivist/interpretivist positions and the related quantitative/qualitative/mixed-methodological approaches. • Outline the approach that you will take in your own research, discussing the philosophical and methodological rationale that will underpin your research. You should consider which of the positivist/post-positivist/interpretivist principles will underpin your research and why, and reflect on whether your research question suggests one methodological approach over another, or a combination of approaches. You should consider the strengths and potential weaknesses/limitations of your chosen approach and why this was chosen over the alternatives. Portfolio Exercise 5 Your Samples (400 words) for this exercise you need to consider and respond to the following: • Who will make up your sample? • Explain the size of your sample. • Explain why this choice of sample is appropriate for your research. • Have you agreed access to this sample/how will you access your sample? Portfolio Exercise 6 Ethical Considerations (1000 words) All research raises ethical issues. This is the case throughout the research, not simply in the early stages. • Drawing on what you have learned from this section, outline in what ways your research raises ethical issues and how you plan to address these. it is a requirement of the university of Leicester that you complete the Research Ethical Review (RER) and receive approval before conducting any research. You cannot proceed with the dissertation until ethical clearance has been obtained. To do this, you will need to complete the RER once you have received feedback on your Module 4 assignment. The feedback will identify where to locate the RER and who you need to send it to. Please contact the Centre directly if you have any questions about the ethics form. Please note that if you make any potentially significant changes to your proposed research in the course of working with your supervisor, you may need to submit a new form. if you do plan to change elements such as the research methods, the sample or if your access changes, please contact your supervisor immediately. Portfolio Exercise 7 Techniques (1500-2000 words) Having read about some research techniques available to you we want you to consider the following questions: What research techniques do you intend to use in your dissertation? (remember that you can use more that one). Why have you chosen to use these techniques? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques you have chosen? What literature on research methods has led you to believe that this/these would be the best approach for your dissertation? How do you propose to analyse the data you have collected?
16 October, 2015
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Conch Republic Electronics, Conch Republic Electronics is a midsized electronics manufacturer located in Key West, Florida. The company president is Shelley Couts, who inherited the company. When it was founded over 70 years ago, the company originally repaired radios and other household appliances. Over the years, the company expanded into manufacturing and is now a reputable manufacturer of various electronic items. Jay McCanless, a recent MBA graduate, has been hired by the company's finance department. One of the major revenue-producing items manufactured by Conch Republic is a smart phone. Conch Republic currently has one smart phone model on the market, and sales have been excellent. The smart phone is a unique item in that it comes in a variety of tropical colors and is preprogrammed to play Jimmy Buffett music. However, as with any electronic item, technology changes rapidly, and the current smart phone has limited features in comparison with newer models. Conch Republic spent $750,000 to develop a prototype for a new smart phone that has all the features of the existing smart phone but adds new features such as WiFi tethering. The company has spent a further $200,000 for a marketing study to determine the expected sales figures for the new smart phone. Page 349 Conch Republic can manufacture the new smart phones for $215 each in variable costs. Fixed costs for the operation are estimated to run $6.1 million per year. The estimated sales volume is 155,000, 165,000, 125,000, 95,000, and 75,000 per year for the next five years, respectively. The unit price of the new smart phone will be $520. The necessary equipment can be purchased for $40.5 million and will be depreciated on a seven-year MACRS schedule. It is believed the value of the equipment in five years will be $6.1 million. As previously stated, Conch Republic currently manufactures a smart phone. Production of the existing model is expected to be terminated in two years. If Conch Republic does not introduce the new smart phone, sales will be 95,000 units and 65,000 units for the next two years, respectively. The price of the existing smart phone is $380 per unit, with variable costs of $145 each and fixed costs of $4.3 million per year. If Conch Republic does introduce the new smart phone, sales of the existing smart phone will fall by 30,000 units per year, and the price of the existing units will have to be lowered to $210 each. Net working capital for the smart phones will be 20 percent of sales and will occur with the timing of the cash flows for the year; for example, there is no initial outlay for NWC, but changes in NWC will first occur in Year 1 with the first year's sales. Conch Republic has a 35 percent corporate tax rate and a required return of 12 percent. Shelley has asked Jay to prepare a report that answers the following questions. QUESTIONS What is the payback period of the project? What is the profitability index of the project? What is the IRR of the project? What is the NPV of the project? All the cases are Excel-based HINTS ON MINI CASE 5: CONCH REPUBLIC ELECTRONICS, PART 1 First, the cost of research & development ($750,000) and marketing study ($200,000) are sunk cost, and should not be considered for investment decision. Second, the revenue calculation of the first two years is different from other years. The introduction of new smart phone generates erosion cost (negative side effect) to the existing smart phone. The loss from the total revenue of existing smart phone should be attributed to the new smart phone. The net incremental revenue of new smart phone is equal to the total revenue of new smart phone minus the total revenue loss from the existing smart phone. The revenue loss of existing smart phone comes from two parts. Part one: the sales units will be reduced, and the original price revenue on these sales unites will be gone (the sales units of the existing smart phone will fall by 30,000 units per year, and the price of the existing smart phone is $380 per unit). Part two: the remaining units will be sold at a lower price (the price of the existing units will have to be lowered to $210 each), and the price difference is a source of revenue loss. Take first year for example: Revenue of new smart phone = 155,000 × $520 = $80,600,000 Revenue loss of existing smart phone = revenue loss from part one + revenue loss from part two = 30,000 × $380 + [(95,000 – 30,000) × ($380 – $210)] = 11,400,000 + 11,050,000 = $22,450,000 Net incremental revenue = Revenue of new smart phone - Revenue loss of existing smart phone = $80,600,000 - $22,450,000 = $58,150,000 The calculation of net incremental revenue of the second year is similar to the first year. Starting from the third year, there is no revenue loss of existing smart phone attributed by the new smart phone, because the production of the existing smart phone is terminated. The incremental revenue is just the revenue of new smart phone. Third, the variable cost calculation for the first two years is also different from other years. The introduction of new smart phone reduces the production and sales units of existing smart phone, resulting in a decreased variable cost for existing smart phone. Therefore, the net variable cost should be equal to the variable cost of new smart phone minus the variable cost decrease of existing smart phone. Take first year for example: Variable cost of new smart phone = 155,000 × $215 = $33,325,000 Variable cost decrease of existing smart phone = 30,000 × $145 = $4,350,000 Net variable cost = Variable cost of new smart phone - Variable cost decrease of existing smart phone = $33,325,000 - $4,350,000 = $28,975,000 The calculation of net variable cost of the second year is similar to the first year. Starting from the third year, there is novariable cost decrease of new smart phone. The net variable cost is just the variable cost of new smart phone. Four, the fixed cost is just new smart phone’s fixed cost. The existing smart phone’s fixed cost should not be taken into consideration. Five, please refer to the document of “Chapter 10 Explanation on MMCC example” for the calculation of other variables, such as depreciation, net income, operating cash flow, change in new working capital, net capital spending, etc.
16 October, 2015
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