1.

Dissertation

A Dissertation is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or

professional qualification by the student. It is a new view point emerging from research usually
a requirement for an advanced academic degree. It will help in developing more in-depth and
broader insights and understanding of business & industry from multiple dimensions.

By doing dissertation student will be able to –

 Develop a research proposal to explore a specific research question/problem.

 Identify and access the resources necessary to undertake the investigation, reviewing and
analyzing relevant literature.
 Choose a research methodology appropriate to the problem and apply the methodology
which can be either qualitative & quantitative or both.
 Report the project particularly its purpose, background, methods, findings, conclusions
and recommendations.
 Identify and critically comment on the wider implications of the work.

Objectives of dissertation-

 To enable student to solve and find answers to the problem

Student can discover new things and ideas along with providing a solution of the
problem.
 To help student enhance his knowledge about subject
For this Student will have to sustain his dissertation work with enough resources. This
will make his work more credit worthy. This will add value to his and existing knowhow
about the area of research.
 To challenge some existing idea
This is possible if student wishes to write a research paper that can compete with some
existing research paper. However he need to be careful while doing this because if he will
not have sufficient basis for his claim, his work will loose authenticity, quality and worth.
You need to answer following questions before attempting dissertation work–

 Does a problem really exist?

 What is this problem (clear understanding of problem)?
 What is the hypotheses of dissertation?
 Who will be the beneficiaries of this work?
 What will be the nature of benefits from research outcome and its impact on socio-
economic environment of country?
 How will this research add value to student’s existing knowledge and skills?
 What will be the implications of this work on future studies?
 2. Chapterization of Dissertation

Chapter .1. Introduction

1. Introduction and problem identification
 It will contain a brief explanation about the area including problem occurrence &
their effect on the system .It will also include a brief description about the
company, Area of study, Industry in which company operates etc.
2. Need and significance of the work along with managerial understanding and
applicability.
 It will elaborate about why the study has been conducted and what is the
significance of this work for the student as well as company/Industry/ Economy.
In this section student will also elaborate on managerial understanding and
applicability of such understanding in solving business problem of varying
complexities. Also he/ she should be able to judge the importance of this study
4. Review of Literature
 This will include brief summary about past studies done on similar topics/ areas
.It will consists of names of the researches, year/place of the research and their
research outcomes in brief.
 The literature review serves several important functions:

 Ensures that you are not "reinventing the wheel".

 Gives credits to those who have laid the groundwork for your research.
 Demonstrates your knowledge of the research problem.
 Demonstrates your understanding of the theoretical and research issues related
to your research question.
 Shows your ability to critically evaluate relevant literature .
 Indicates your ability to integrate and synthesize the existing literature.
 Provides new theoretical insights or develops a new model as the conceptual
framework for your research.

 Convinces your reader that your proposed research will make a significant and
substantial contribution to the literature (i.e., resolving an important theoretical issue
or filling a major gap in the literature).

Most students' literature reviews suffer from the following problems:

 Lacking organization and structure

 Lacking focus, unity and coherence
  Being repetitive and verbose
 Failing to cite influential papers
 Failing to keep up with recent developments
 Failing to critically evaluate cited papers
 Citing irrelevant or trivial references

5. Objectives of Study
 An analysis of studies listed in review of literature will help in formulating
appropriate objectives of dissertation work.
 Here student can attempt to solve a long standing problem. This will
enable student to discover either new ideas or a perception change.
 He can make an attempt to enhance additional information about the
subject and in the process he will collect a lot of information from various
sources.
 In some cases, student can even attempt to challenge with outcomes of
other similar studies. However, student will have to be extremely careful
to present his views supported by sufficient base.
6. Hypotheses
 Based on objectives of the dissertation, student will formulate hypotheses of his
work. Hypotheses will be an assumption strictly developed on the basis of
objective(s).
 The number of hypotheses will be equal to number of objectives.
7. Research methodology
 Research design
 It will elaborate on basic structure and style such as- Descriptive,
Exploratory, Experimental etc.
 Sampling technique
 This will concentrate on technique related to selecting appropriate sample
from population so that maximum information about the population can be
drawn.
 Sample size
 This will include information about the number of elements/ members
selected in the sample.
 Data collection
 It will include description about the process/ source of data collection such
as primary / secondary.
 Steps / Statistical techniques for data analysis
  It will include explanation about various statistical techniques used in the
work.
8. Organisation of the study
 In this section, chapterization of the study will be presented in brief.
9. Limitations
 Here student will elaborate on resource constraints faced by him during the
work.

Chapter. 2. Conceptual framework of the study

 Here student will give a detailed explanation (theory) about the theme / subject
area of the study.

Chapter .3. Data analysis and interpretation

 This will include data analysis and interpretation after making thorough use and
application of appropriate statistical techniques as mentioned in chapter one.

Chapter. 4. Finding and conclusion

 In the findings section student will give all his inferences and inter- linkages
ultimately resulting into overall picture of his findings.
 In conclusions student is expected to elaborate overall benefits from his work to
various parties such as Company, Industry and Economy (National / Global) etc.

Chapter .5. Suggestion and recommendation along with future implication of

work

 Here caution must be exercised that no generic suggestion is given like organisation
needs to improve interpersonal communication. It is more scientific to present our views
in such a manner that questions, when, where, what etc can also be addressed. Suggestion
must be innovative and in tune with research outcome. Student must properly present his/
her recommendations to Company/ Industry/ Economy depending on nature of work and
suggestions.
Appendices
  Appendices are provided to give supplementary information, which is included in the
main text may serve as a distraction and cloud the central theme.
 Appendices should be numbered using Arabic numerals, e.g. Appendix 1, Appendix 2,
etc.
 Appendices shall carry the title of the work reported and the same title shall be made in
the contents page also.
Bibliography/list of references

 The reference material should be listed in the alphabetical order of the first author. The
name of the author/authors should be immediately followed by the year and other details.
Kothari C.R, Research methodology, New Delhi, New Age International (P) Ltd. Publishers, 2007
3. Dissertation Report Structure
Title page I
Student’s declaration II
Supervisor’s certificate III
Acknowledgement IV
Index V
List of figures, tables etc VI
Page .No.
Chapter .1. Introduction
 Introduction and problem identification
 Need and significance of the work along with managerial understanding and applicability
 Review of literature
 Objectives
 Hypothesis(if any)
 Research Methodology
 Research Design
 Selection of unites
 Sampling Technique
 Sample size
 Data Collection
 Steps/ Statistical technique for Data analysis
 Organisation of the study
 Limitations

Chapter.2. Conceptual framework of the work

Chapter.3. Data analysis and Interpretation

Chapter.4. Finding and conclusion

Chapter.5. Suggestion and recommendation along with future implication of work
Appendices

Bibliography

4. PAGE DIMENSION AND BINDING SPECIFICATIONS:

→ Size/dimension: International standard paper size A4 (297x210mm) should be used.
→ Binding: The project report should be hard bound with Golden Embossing.
→ Margin: Top 1.0”, Bottom 1.0” Left 1.5” Right 1.0”
→ Line spacing: 1.5
→ Font: Times new roman, size 12 for text, larger fonts may be used for
headings & Subheadings.
→ Page number: Page should be numbered consecutively and clearly. No page number
should be indicated on title page, supervisor’s certificates, declaration and
acknowledgement; however pages are counted from title page. Use Greek numbers
from title page to List of figures, tables’ etc page. Use Indian numerals from main text to
end of thesis. All typing should be on right hand pages only.
→ Folded diagram/charts (If any): These should be arranged so as to open to the top
and right.
→ Landscape chart/ fig: Bottom of chart/ fig should be on right side.
Important note-
1.Each paragraph should start from the next line of heading and subheadings.
2.Do not write General information and history of statistical tools.
3. Write about appropriate tools you have used and reason for using the tools.
4. Constantly fine tune your project report from the synopsis to your final report.

It will be rich experience for you to cherish.