Dissertation

January intake students

Session 1

December 2021
TITRE DE LA PRÉSENTATION JULY 2019 / TITRE DE LA PRÉSENTATION JULY 2019

The sample is composed of professionals and customers

A semi-structured interview guide was chosen in order to let the

interviewees express themselves on the subject while guiding their answers
towards the key points this study aims

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TODAY’S AGENDA

1. Introduction of the session

2. General presentation of Dissertation process

3. Checking using Library database

4. Take-away of session and next steps

5. Discussion about your draft topic ideas for your dissertation (all)
students and inspire them, I have shared with them examples of “very good Seminar Papers” (from previous PGEM2 marketing students).

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 SEMINAR PAPER DOCUMENT: STRUCTURE
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Then
1. Introduction (1-2 pages)
2. Literature review (academic & managerial) – (6-10 pages)
Includes Research hypothesis (if quantitative study)
Can include conceptual model with relations between variables (if quantitative study)

3. Methodology (2-4 pages)

4. Results/findings (10 pages)
5. Discussion-conclusion (2-4 pages)
6. References
7. Appendix

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 SEMINAR PAPER DOCUMENT: STRUCTURE AND GUIDELINES
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Introduction

q Recaps managerial context and academic context

Introduces the topic of the paper, “sells” the research question, in building on logical arguments and
showing the “gap” in the existing literature (gap to which the research will respond)

q Justifies the managerial and academic relevance of your research question (and sub-questions)

§ which gap in the literature do you address?

§ which managerial issue do you address?

q Can briefly present/recap the methodology conducted

q Ends up with a presentation of the structure/agenda of the document 5

IDENTIFYING YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION(S)

• Research question(s) come from the examined academic and managerial context:
• Reading the academic literature: Minimum 10 academic articles (cite minimum 20 for the final doc)
via Library: EBSCO, JSTOR, SCIENCE DIRECT, SAGE Journals online
enter your key words (from your topic and more broadly from all related subjects)

• Searching the managerial press: Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloane Management
Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Forbes, New-York Times, The Times, The Washington Post, Le
Monde, Les Echos, L’Expansion, etc.), marketing press/website…

• The research question is linked to the “angle” you select to deal with your topic, just
like the photographer chooses an angle for a picture:
• Is there an issue somewhere? A “tension”? An unsolved managerial problem?
• Are there prior scholar articles that raise the interest of further research in this area?
• Look in academic articles: in the Conclusion/Avenues for further research

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 IDENTIFYING YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION(S)

• Understand that your research question(s) may/will change…

• A good research question is:

o Relevant: Why should this question be asked? Has it already been asked? Should it been asked again?
o Feasible : Are the data available? Can I collect them thanks to a study?

• Illustration: Moving from dissertation topic to research question

Dissertation topic: Brand content efficiency on social media
Research question: What are the consumer-attractive brand content strategies for perfume brands on Instagram?

Building on literature review, three research sub-questions:

1) Which type of perfume brand content is perceived attractive by consumers (aesthetic content, know-how content, charity cause,
promotional contest) on Instagram, and why ?
2) Which of these content types generates a better consumer engagement ?
3) What influence of consumer profile (age, gender)?

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DEVELOPING YOUR LITERATURE REVIEW
• The « Literature Review » is here to justify the relevance, interest and importance of
your research topic for scholars and managers.

• Justifying the relevance theoretically

• Define the terms and concepts used in the topic and in the research question(s)
• Draw an overview of the knowledge on the different themes/concepts linked to your research
question (by recency, themes and sub-themes, by authors, etc..)
• Start narrowly – then expand :
– Has this topic been addressed ? Is there anything to add?
• What can you leverage from « nearby topics » ?
• The more fields of expertise you can pull from, the stronger your arguments will be
• Keep only the references in relation to your topic. And constitute your References List in parallel…

• Justifying the relevance for managers:

• Explain the context in firms
• Review the managerial knowledge/practices linked to your research question
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 SEMINAR PAPER DOCUMENT: STRUCTURE AND GUIDELINES
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Methodology
1.Methodological design:
• qualitative approach (interviews, observation, netnography..), case-study etc..
• quantitative study (experimental study, etc..). Always justify your methodology choice

2.Sample structure
(table of respondents for quali – can be in Appendix)

3.Data collection / procedure

§ Describe the design of the survey (questionnaire structure, variables evaluated, scales for quanti).

§ Describe the interview guide (full guide in Appendix + content analysis).

§ Detail of the quali method (eg: semi-directive interviews at home and partly over skype, 30 min
length on average..) and the way data were analyzed for quali. 9
Overall: Justify all your choices. Use appendixes
 SEMINAR PAPER DOCUMENT: STRUCTURE AND GUIDELINES
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Results
v Overall, present main results of your study. (Don’t get overloaded with data – go back to your research
question and sub-questions ; and to your Hypothesis for quantitative research)

v Structure :

Quanti: Present results for each Hypothesis. Use tables, graphics, figures. Follow the way scholars’ articles
present results: 1) what statistical analysis I conduct (Anova, correlation..); 2) why use this analysis ?; results
obtained; finally Hyp confirmed or not.

Quali: Follow the structure of your research sub-questions, and/or the main questions of the interview guide
(most important results first; go from general to particular).

q Each finding should build on one minimum respondent’s quotation (observation/netnography quote, etc..).
Use tables if it helps. 10
 SEMINAR PAPER DOCUMENT: STRUCTURE AND GUIDELINES
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Discussion

1.Contributions
What have you shown? What does your work add to the literature? Summary of your main results.

2.Managerial implications
What does your work add to managers? What operational recommendations can you provide to mgrs?

3.Research limitations
What are the limits of your work? Can be theoretical, methodological (ex : data collection in France, small
number of respondents, limited to a specific target, use a particular scale, limits in the interview guide,
etc..)

4. Future research
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Based on your limitations, what potential studies could be conducted?
 SEMINAR PAPER DOCUMENT: STRUCTURE AND GUIDELINES
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References

q All academic references quoted in your text

q List of all academic references at the end of your SP doc. Follow Neoma SP guidelines.

q Managerial references: insert a footnote, with the link or journal source + date. No name of authors.

q And/or you can have a list of all managerial references after the academic references

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1. INTRODUCTION OF THE SESSION

• What have you understood about the dissertation process?

• What documents did you read thus far about dissertation?

• Any research you’ve done to date?

• Biggest concerns / questions

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2. GENERAL PRESENTATION OF DISSERTATION PROCESS

25 Pages + Appendixes to be submitted for SEPTEMBER, 30TH

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FOUR GROUP-SESSIONS TO ACCOMPANY YOU

1. Jan, 5th Dissertation process. Topic and moving to research question

2. Feb, 15th Draft research question and literature review status

3. March, 29nd Finalized research question. Research methodology

4. April, 17th Dissertation-in-progress status. Results analysis

Then individual contacts to help you advance the project (& in-between)

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 DEVELOPING YOUR LITERATURE REVIEW / TIPS
• In academic articles: Look at the Introduction / Theoretical background then at the References list to find
additional resources/articles

• Focus on the development of your Literature review from now on, until our Session 3. The best way to
generate relevant research question(s) and hypothesis in case of a quantitative study.

• It’s the first section of your dissertation that you can write. Try to finalize for Session 4.

• Search with the Library database first (then Google Scholar if need be). Already done?

q Your research question / and the available academic literature will determine the choice of qualitative
or quantitative methodology for your study
o If limited literature on your topic
Ø Exploratory research questions
Ø Qualitative methodology (interviews, observation, netnography..)

o If abundant literature on your topic and existing scales to measure

Ø Research question(s) linking variables, ie influence of X (advertising) on Y (brand image)
Ø Quantitative methodology (questionnaire, statistics) 16
4. CHECKING USING LIBRARY DATABASE
Go to the Library database: http://library.neoma-bs.fr/

Select Multi-source search

Or

Database
Then B /
Then Business Source complete (Ebsco)

Then J / then JSTOR

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 Search terms = key words
- From your topic
- From your research questions
- Related terms

Academic articles only :

click on Peer reviewed

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To narrow your
search when many
articles :
In Select a Field :
- First, enter your
terms in Abstract
- Then in Subject
terms or Keywords
- Then in Title

Searching by author
can also help.
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 SELECTING YOUR DISSERTATION TOPIC

Ask yourself these 4 questions:

• What are your fields of interest in marketing ? Brands? A sector? Specific consumers?...
• What are the current/novel issues raised in these marketing domains?
• What are the companies’ current issues, expectations or projects in these fields ?
• What can you read to enrich your thoughts ?

Select a topic
• Personally relevant
• Why are you considering this topic?
• Are you truly passionate about it?

• Professionally relevant
• Why does this matter?
• How will this research help move the industry forward?

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