Your project cannot exceed 10,000 words (+/- 10%).

Typed or word processed using double-spacing with margins

of 1.5 inches;
Numbered on each page;
Spell-checked (use the spelling check in Word for
convenience!);
The Project should have the following sections:
Header Sheet
Title page
Acknowledgements (optional)
Abstract
Table of contents
List of tables (where relevant)
List of figures (where relevant)
INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS:
Chapter 1 - Introduction, research questions and
hypotheses
Chapter 2 - Literature review
Chapter 3 - Methodology
Chapter 4 - Data presentation, evidence, analysis and
discussion
Chapter 5 - Summary and conclusions
Bibliography
Appendices (where relevant).
(This chapter structure is only indicative and may be
modified according to the specific needs of the research.)
Abstract
It should not exceed 250 words. It serves to highlight the
main ideas, findings and implications of the research. It may
be organised according to the following template:
Purpose
Research design/methodology
Findings
Limitations
Recommendations

Value
Keywords.
See the example attached (it is only indicative and you may
choose a different format according to the specific needs of
your research.)
Individual chapters
In general, it is advisable to ensure that each chapter has a
short and concise introduction and conclusion. The
introduction sets the scene, and the conclusion sums up and
announces what comes next.
Make sure your structure and presentation are up to
standards. Divide each chapter into shorter, numbered
subsections. Remember to also number and label any tables,
equations, and figures. Cite the sources of your work (both
literature and data) as appropriate.
Chapter 1 - Introduction, research questions and
hypotheses
It should be general in nature and present the background to
the Project, the questions you aim to answer, and the plan.
It serves few main purposes:
Contextualises the research within a larger disciplinary
framework and signals how you intend your work to be
considered.
Identifies the main focus or research problem with which you
are concerned about.
Defines your research questions. Remember that research
questions should be structured and framed in a way that
allows a definite, clear and unambiguous answer. They
should be sufficiently narrow and precise to be testable.
Identifying the explanatory variables and dependent
variables of your research.
Chapter 2 - Literature review
As discussed above, the literature review is a description of
what is already known on your topic, what policy or
business implications have been derived out of this, what
gaps in knowledge remain to be addressed, and what
suggestions for future work emerge.

Make sure you give adequate consideration to the classics

in your topic area, the landmarks, and the most recent
developments.
Present the literature in critical perspective, either
chronologically (tracing the development of the field over
time) or comparing similarities and differences between
authors and schools of thought.
Chapter 3 -

Methodology

Be careful: this is NOT a broad overview of research methods

in business and/or the social sciences. You need to describe
and explain YOUR own choice of research methods: tell the
reader exactly what you did, and why; whether you were
successful or not; what difficulties you encountered.
You should think of the methodology section as a set of
instructions you are giving to readers so that they can
replicate your work exactly as you did it. Think of it as a
sort of "recipe which needs to be very precise on the
ingredients, the combination of them and the timing so that
someone else can reproduce the result.

If you used secondary data, you must tell your reader:

What database(s) you selected (for example which one(s) of
the above).
How you accessed them (for example, if freely online or
through ESDS registration, or through the University portal).
What are the main characteristics of the database (you can
refer here to the metadata provided by the authors of the
study, as indicated above).
Whether you extracted parts of the database, and which
ones (for example, financial information on just one
particular company instead of a whole group; or just one
particular year instead of a time trend);
Which variables you used, what they mean, and how they
are measured.
Whether you modified any of the variables and/or added new
variables built from existing ones (for example, if you built
indices or rates of growth based on a succession of quarterly

GDP figures).
Remember to cite the data and the metadata, as indicated
above.
Chapter 4 - Data presentation, evidence , analysis
and discussion
While the form in which you present your findings will
depend on your methodological choices, a generally
accepted good practice for quantitative data is to present
them in tables and figures. Comment them in an effort to
guide the reader through the significant and important
points - you may wish to point out trends in the table, for
example. As you move across categories of the independent
variable, what happens to the dependent variables? You may
wish to highlight the more theoretically or empirically
interesting findings in the table. You must make sure that the
table, as a whole, warrants inclusion in your paper and that
you make reference to it in your text.
Remember to appropriately number and label tables and
figures. If you re-use tables and figures from external
sources, remember to cite them.
Chapter 5 - Summary and conclusions
Give a brief explanation of why things appear as they are,
state whether or not your initial hypotheses are confirmed or
rejected, and provide possible reasons for that. Consider how
aspects of the research process, the design of your
investigation, the sample you constructed and the interview
schedule you used, could be modified in order to generalize
results to a broader variety of settings. Outline the
implications of your research for public policy or company
strategy, if any. Think about limitations of your work and
directions for future improvements.
Bibliography
1
2

Your bibliography (list of references) should be:

in an alphabetical order - according to author(s) surname
books, journal articles and web pages should be integrated
in the same list

Use the Harvard referencing system.