Frontiers of International Management (Research Project)

Course goals

Learning objectives
At the end of the course the students  will be able to:

• Formulate a research question that addresses a relevant knowledge gap in the field of international management;
• Justify their research objectives based on state-of-the-art scientific literature on the topic;
• Develop a clear, logical argument explaining why the core variables or processes are related in the proposed fashion;
• Select an appropriate empirical methodology and research design to answer the research question at hand;
• Write a well-structured research proposal;

Content

The Frontiers of International Management (IM) course is meant to familiarize students with the scientific research process starting from formulating a research question to developing a theoretical framework, choosing a sound research design, and writing a scientific research proposal. The goal of the course is to help students prepare for their Master thesis and to help them in better understanding and evaluating scientific articles.

In the first part of the course, students obtain the necessary knowledge and tools to (1) identify a topic that is relevant and important in theory and in practice, and (2) argue what major, unaddressed puzzle, controversy, or paradox their study will address, and why it needs to be addressed. Students submit the initial conceptual sections of a research proposal as first assignment (Research Proposal Part A) and also receive feedback.

Throughout the first Part, it is essential that students familiarise themselves with academic literature to formulate their own interests, and to write as much as possible to develop their academic writing. This part is organised according to the flipped classroom principle. We provide plenary materials in the form of asynchronous (video) material. The offline classes are used for interaction and experiential learning. Students finalise this first part of the course, by submitting an assignment comprising the various conceptual parts of their research proposal, adhering to the 5-block structure (Research Proposal Part A + B).

The second part is aimed towards familiarising students with the basic considerations of choosing a research methodology and formulating a methodology section that is appropriate for IM studies. At the end of the first part, students choose whether they participate in either the Qualitative or Quantitative research track. Also, the second part is organised according to the flipped classroom principle. Students receive feedback on their draft method section and finalise the course by submitting the final conceptual version of their research proposal as well as their envisioned empirical strategy in the form of a method section (Research Proposal Part A + B + C).

Format
Flipped classroom: digital plenary material combined with interactive lectures and tutorials.

In case online access is required for this course and you are not in the position to buy the access code, you are advised to contact the course coordinator for an alternative solution. Please note that access codes are not re-usable meaning that codes from second hand books do not work, as well as access codes from books with a different ISBN. Separate or spare codes are usually not available.