Title: A contingency framework for global branding: A multilevel interaction model.

HOW TO FORMULATE A PROBLEM STATEMENT

The opening part of the introduction in your proposal, the background to the study, addresses your general research topic with the intent to specify the latter as a research problem.

A research problem is just one facet of the topic (area) that you can manageably deal with in the short amount of time that you are given (the general topics could be studied for a lifetime). So once you have established the topic of your study, and briefly cast it within the larger scholarly literature, noting its significance in the main part of the background section, it is necessary to state your research problem, and this will be a direct reflection of the title of your proposal.

The problem statement is a very clear definition of the research problem. Since the way the problem is stated will affect the organization of both the proposal and the project, you should give special attention to its formulation. There are several choices about the way the problem could be stated.

Hypothesis. Many problem statements include hypotheses which involve two or more variables. Therefore, you can start your problem statement with “There is a positive relationship between...”. Hypotheses are derived from theory. If a hypothesis is stated in a negative form, it is a called null hypothesis (There is no correlation between...).

General purpose/intent/aim of the study - together with a set of corresponding objectives. Many case studies frame the problem statement in this way. The aim and objectives should be summarised in three, four or more bullet points. Some useful words you can use are: to explore, to test, to investigate, to observe, to describe, to analyse, to explain, to compare, to develop, to evaluate.

Research questions. Many correlational or causative-comparative studies frame the problem statement as a general research question followed by either research hypotheses or by a set of more specific questions. (The general question this study will attempt to answer is this one... That general question subsumes several related questions...) Research objectives could also be formulated as questions.

Generally speaking, your main research problem after being clearly formulated should be broken down into subproblems, subhypotheses etc. in order to make it practicable to research.

PRACTICE.

Study the following problem statements and write one of your own based on the previous term paper.

1) Title: The role of international networks and foreign market knowledge in the internationalization of entrepreneurial ventures.

Title: A contingency framework for global branding: A multilevel interaction model.

This study aims to introduce consumer-level and country-level contigencies for global branding. The main premise is that the effect of different global brand associations on the likelihood of global brand ownership will be different for different types of consumers. Furthermore, the assertion that there is a specific segment of consumers that is most prone to global brands will be empirically tested.

Based on the objectives set forth, the following three questions will be investigated:

1. Which dimensions of global brands are more effective for what types of consumers?

2. Can we identify a “global brand-prone” consumer segment? If we can, what are the demographic and psychographic characteristics of these consumers?

3. Is this consumer segment robust across countries?

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1056