Executive MBA

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Executive MBA

• Final Project Workshop

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Outline

• Final Project Objectives Process
• Designing a good project
• What makes a good project? Review of past
  projects topics
• Exercise 1 Selecting a topic and identifying
  objectives
• Assessment of final project
• Exercise 2 Self-Assessment
• What is meant by research methodology
• Exercise 3 Selecting a Methodology
• Writing a project proposal
• Prix de la Recherche en Economie et Gestion de
  lEconomiste

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Outline (2)

• Writing a literature review
• Draft Project Proposal Presentations
• Current Issues in Business Research

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Final Project Process Regulations

• Final Project Workshop

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Final Project Objectives

• The objective of the project is to assess the
  capacity of each participant to apply the latest
  business and management theories and practices
  gained through the program to his/her own working
  environment.
• It is a professional research exercise that will
  enable the participant to focus on real business
  and managerial issues

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Final Project Process
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Regulations

• Individual piece of work
• Deadlines are official regulations
• Not respecting a deadline is a regulation
  violation
• Informing the coordinator that you are going to
  miss a deadline is a good practice
• In doubt, keep us informed
• Do not let the contact with your supervisor or
  coordinator die
• Extensions
• Possible, but not recommended.
• Note Informal agreement from supervisor is not
  sufficient to obtain an extension

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Evaluation Process
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Milestones
26/11/06
01/06/2005
Theme Topic
Draft Proposal
Finding a supervisor
Work
Final Submission
Proposal submissions are treated on a rolling
basis
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Designing a Good Project

• Final Project Workshop

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What makes a good draft proposal?

• It is interesting both for you, the supervisor,
  and the business community
• Suitable to an Ex-MBA/Business degree
• Topicality Your proposal will tackle a novel,
  interesting issue which is recognised as an
  important issues in todays business research
  agenda
• Feasible within the time frame and available
  resources in an Ex-MBA project

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Industrial Relevance

• It is important that your project is relevant to
  your sponsor
• But marketing plans/business plans are not what
  we are looking for
• After taking the classes, you should already know
  how to prepare one
• Preparing one is something that your employer
  could ask you to do
• The project is your opportunity to engage in
  reflections about best practices and the
  importance of an academic theory

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Theme and Topic

• Identify a theme/topic
• Theme
• The general discipline or set of disciplines in
  which your dissertation falls in.
• Example Marketing, operations management,
  international human resource management, etc.
• Topic
• The type of question/issue that you are going to
  address, generally speaking.
• Examples
• CRM (Marketing)
• Scheduling (operations management)
• Expatriate compensation design (IHRM)

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Problems Choosing a Topic?

• Sources of ideas
• An idea or a statement in a textbook/paper
  strikes you
• As being important, misunderstood, or overlooked
  in real life.
• As being an over-generalisation, or an overly
  romantic idea.
• Replication research
• Re-do an important survey done 5 or 10 years ago
  are the findings still true? Or target a
  specific industry.
• Test a conceptual model which was never tested in
  the research literature.
• Call for papers
• The best source of information for topical
  subjects!
• Call for consultation
• Issued by government about policies, etc.
• Newspaper article/Company newsletter
• Tackle a controversial issue discussed in a
  newspaper article with a rigorous research
  approach.

Remember You should find the research topic
interesting and exciting.
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Examples of Past Projects Proposals

• Barid Al Maghribs Competitiveness in the Parcels
  Industry
• Organizational and Managerial Changes for
  Implementing a Total Quality Management System
  Case of Barid Al Maghrib
• Evaluating the Cash Management System at Barid Al
  Maghrib

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Examples of Past Projects Proposals

• An Implementation System of Management by
  Objectives A Case Study of Barid Al Maghrib
• The Area Market Contractor- A Case of the
  Coca-Cola Company Morocco
• Future Prospects of Branded Pharmaceutical
  Products in a Generic Oriented Market
• An Analysis of JLECs New Perspective in Meeting
  the Requirements of A Potential Competitive Market

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Examples of Past Projects Proposals

• Contribution to the Assessment of the Role of
  Knowledge in Oil Prospection in Morocco
• Infrastructure Projects Financing Using
  Securitization The case of ADM (Autoroutes du
  Maroc)
• An Implementation of A Costing System A Case
  Study of Barid Al Maghrib
• Strategic Leadership Application to Business

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Examples of Past Projects Proposals

• Building Méditel Customer Relationship Management
  (CRM) Strategy
• Atlas Blue The Moroccan Low Fare Airlines
  Operating Costs
• Strategy to Develop Direct Sales and Marketing
  Within Royal Air Maroc
• Dates in Morocco Market study for The Moroccan
  Dates Farm (MDF) Company

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Examples of Past Projects Proposals

• Strategic Plan for Maghrebail for the Period
  2006/2010
• Strengthening Barid Al-Maghrib brand Image and
  identity - Starting from inside
• Competitor Analysis Preparing for the next
  threat to postal money orders
• Subsidiarization Reasons, Benefits and
  Perspectives. The case of Royal air Maroc Cargo.

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Evaluation of the Proposal

• What should be in the proposal
• Key research questions/objectives/hypothesis
• Why is it important?
• Overview of research method, including data
  collection
• Expected contribution, identify target audience

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Evaluation of the Proposal
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Formulating Objectives

• It is important to differentiate the topic from
  the objectives of the project
• The objectives is what you are setting to achieve
• It is also the formulation of the basis on which
  you want your work to be assessed

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Worst Case Scenarios

• Formulating objectives that you do not address or
  attain
• Resist the temptation of sounding good
• If, in the course of your project, you feel that
  you cannot attain the objectives, change them!
• But make sure that the alternatives objectives
  are worthy!
• Formulating fuzzy objectives
• Evaluation is unconstrained, and likely to be
  very critical

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Example 1

• Theme Operations Management
• Topic Supply chain management
• Title Designing a supply chain for the OCP
• Objectives
• Review best practices about supply chain design
• Discuss to what extent these best practices are
  relevant/suitable to the Moroccan context
• Formulate a framework to filter the elements of
  good practices that are relevant from those that
  are not
• Make practical design recommendations for the OCP

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Example 2

• Theme Management
• Topic Moral Contracts
• Title Which moral contracts for Moroccan textile
  factory workers
• Objectives
• Review the practice of moral vs. legal contracts
• Discuss to what extent moral contracts are a
  solution to tense industrial relations
• Discuss to what extent the Moroccan context is
  compatible with moral contracts
• Formulate practical recommendations to improve
  industrial relations through the use of moral
  contracts

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Exercise 1

• On an A4 piece of paper, prepare a summary
  project proposal containing only (1) theme, (2)
  topic, (3) title, and (4) objective
• Nothing More !!!

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Assessment of final project

• Final Project Workshop

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Evaluation

• By a committee (3 faculty members)
• Of both the written and the oral components
• Remember that apart from your supervisor, this
  will be the first exposure of the rest of the
  committee with your work
• You have to be convincing
• You have to be professional
• You are the expert on the subject matter

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Tips

• Remember that business studies include many
  sub-fields
• Huge difference between the research standards of
  an economist, management expert, and of a
  statistician
• We try to match the committee members to a topic,
  but

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Tips

• Never present something you do not understand or
  that you are not ready to debate
• Interact with your supervisor accept critics
  from him/her
• A friendly critic is the chance to be well
  prepared for your oral defence and avoid getting
  grilled!

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Tips

• Listen to the questions and comments
• Take your time composing an answer
• Try to understand the perspective of the question
• Is there a misunderstanding?
• Has the person asking the question missed
  something?

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Tips

• Stand your ground but
• Based on professional, technical answers
• Never
• Lose your temper
• Be too stubborn
• And remember that
• If you think a question is out of
  line/irrelevant/unfair
• Other committee members will see it
• They might even step in!

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Exercise 2

• Give your exercise 1 to your neighbour. Prepare
  a 5 minutes assessment of your neighbours
  proposal.

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Types of ProjectProject Methodologies

• Final Project Workshop

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Types of Project

• There are many types of works that are acceptable
  for your final project
• Remember that the quality of a project will
  always be assessed with criteria specific to the
  class of projects it belongs to
• Make sure that you do not try to achieve with a
  case study what should be done with a survey, or
  vice versa!

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Types of project

• Multiple case studies
• Survey research
• Quantitative modelling
• Empirical vs. Axiomatic
• Empirical A model is derived/tested from/with
  empirical data.
• Aximoatic A model is designed/tested/improved
  through mathematical analysis or simulation.
• Descriptive vs. Normative
• Descriptive Describes and seeks to explain a
  real-life phenomenon
• Normative Seeks to formulate a policy
• Single case study
• Case Study
• Action research
• Can be a problem solving exercise for a company
• Conceptual research
• Literature review
• Critical
• Comparative
• Systematic Literature review
• Building a conceptual research model, solving a
  paradox or debate in the literature

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Anatomy of a Research Project
Objectives Questions/hypothesis Literature
Review Research model Research Framework
Contribution to Knowledge Analysis,
synthesis, Reflection Conclusions
How can it be tackled?
Research Method/Process
Are used for
Findings
Application
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Research method

• What is not a research method
• I will use a case study approach. Case studies
  present advantages for the in-depth analysis of a
  problem but limitations in terms of
  generalisation.
• This is a research approachor a discussion about
  a research approach.
• What is a research method
• I will use case studies to explore whether or not
  corporate citizenship has a positive impact on
  effectiveness.
• Corporate citizenship is defined as
  effectiveness assessed as follows The
  relationships between the two will be displayed
  in a matrix including several comparative case
  studies.
• A research method is a process through which you
  are going to move the reader from questions, to
  data, to findings, and eventually to conclusion.
• If your process is poor, your findings are
  unconvincing
• If you process is unclear, your research cannot
  be audited/replicated

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Lessons Learned

• Students tended to discuss research methods at an
  abstract level
• They showed more concerns with justifying a
  research approach (e.g. qualitative rather than
  quantitative research) than with designing a
  consistent and competent research process
• Your research method section should
• Clear
• Practical
• A description of a process
• A justification of the quality and relevance of
  the process

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Example

• Objectives To study if a franchised retailer
  should stay in a network or operate independently
  to avoid cash flows problems.
• Constraints
• Informal (non documented) management style
• Data reliability
• Method
• Simulation
• Comparison of franchised and independent business
  model
• Assess credibility and robustness of model

Note The dissertation outline should
clearly follow this process.
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Example of Survey Research

• Klassen, R. and B. Florez. 2001. Forecasting
  practices of Canadian firms survey results and
  comparisons, International Journal of Production
  Economics, Vol. 70, pp. 163-174.
• Research Goal (1) survey forecasting practices
  and (2) comparison with academic view
  (theory/practice gap)?
• Literature review previous forecasting surveys
• Research method
• Sample selection from Kompass according to
  pre-specified criteria
• Call each firm to identify name of forecasting
  individual and secure participation
• Mailing
• Two follow-up mailings
• Target 800 respondents Obtained 118 completed
  surveys
• Basic Descriptive statistics in paper

A significant conclusion for academics is
that practitioners are not using many of the
things that academics teach. There is a need to
identify the reasons why some of the things that
we cherish are not being used as frequently. They
include, among others, the use of sophisticated
quantitative methods, the combination of
forecasts, and the estimation of confidence
intervals.
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Example Case Study Research

• Da Silveira, G. and N. Slack. 2001. Exploring
  the trade-off concept, International Journal of
  Production and Operation Management, Vol. 21, pp.
  949-964.
• Research Goal Discuss whether or not trade-off
  exist in operations strategy
• Literature review trade-off debate
• Research method
• Multiple case studies
• Case studies are used to formulate a model and 14
  propositions

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Action Research An Example

• Coughlan, P. and E. Brady. 1995. Journal of
  Managerial Psychology, 10, 6, pp. 41-47.
• Objectives
• Establish benchmarks of current practices in the
  management of the product development process in
  five manufacturing firms drawn from differing
  industries in Ireland.
• Increase awareness of areas of choice in the
  management of product development among
  manufacturing firms in Ireland with a view to
  improving their management of this development
  process.
• Timetable February 1994 to July 1994 for the
  execution of the action research programme
• Project structure in three phases actions from
  industrial and academics participants
  (proposition formulation and change) in the last
  two phases.

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Example Axiomatic-Normative

• Bayus, B. 1997. Speed to market and New Product
  Performance Trade-off, Journal of Product
  Innovation Management, 14, pp. 485-497.
• Research goal
• To formulate policies regarding trading-off speed
  to market and product performance in a variety of
  scenarios
• Literature review
• Supports the importance of the trade-off
• Modelling variables
• Model Building
• Mathematical based on standard practice
• Simulation of data to observe model behaviour
• Analysis through regression

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Example Axiomatic-Normative
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Example Empirical-Descriptive

• Krause, D. 1999. The antecedents of buying
  firms efforts to improve suppliers, Journal of
  Operations Management, 17, 205-224.
• Objectives Discover the conditions which drive
  firm to invest in supplier development.
• Approach
• Extensive literature review is used to build a
  conceptual model
• And formulate hypotheses
• Questionnaire designed after model
• Survey
• Analysis of Results (structural equation
  modelling)

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Exercise 3

• Select the key objectives from exercise 1.
  Select a suitable methodology.

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Other Issues

• Final Project Workshop

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Writing a Proposal

• Remember how the proposal is going to be
  evaluated
• There is no length guideline
• The purpose of a proposal is to convince
• And to attract a supervisor
• It can be short (3-4 pages) or already a good
  chunk of the final report (10-20 pages)
• Try to work with a supervisor early on

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The Role of the Supervisor

• To read and provide feedback on any draft or
  document that you write.
• To provide guidance in terms of directions,
  readings, approaches, interpretation, etc.
• Different types of supervision
• Close the supervisor has a significant input in
  the final form of your dissertation selection
  of research questions, demonstration of using
  statistical or analytical software, numerous
  meetings, editing of several dissertation drafts.
• Remote the supervisor may read on a draft if and
  when you submit it few meetings points to
  general direction and provides general guidance.
• Normally, the project is your project how you
  want to work with a supervisor is your decision.
• Note different supervisors draw the line
  differently as to where supervision stops
• The supervisor is one of the person assessing you

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Finding a Supervisor

• First scenario
• You have already identified a supervisor
• Ask directly if he or she would like to supervise
  you
• Let me know who has agreed to supervise you
• Notes
• Be ready to take no for an answer
• One person cannot supervise more than 2/3
  projects
• Second scenario
• You submit a draft proposal to the coordinator
• The coordinator will find a supervisor for you
• Problems with identifying a topic
• Contact the coordinator

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Confidentiality

• Managed on a ad-hoc basis
• Make sure that too much confidentiality issues
  are not going to starve your project from content

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Prix de la Recherche

• Yearly price managed by LEconomiste
• As a Masters thesis, your final project report
  can be entered
• Reports in English will be considered by the jury

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Writing a Literature Review

• Final Project Workshop

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Literature Reviews

• A literature review is a summary of a subject
  field that support the identification of specific
  research questions (Wooley and Slack, 2004)
• enabling researchers to both map and assess the
  existing intellectual territory, and to specify a
  research question to develop the existing body of
  knowledge further (Tranfield et al., 2003)

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Conceptions of Literature Reviews (Bruce, 1994)
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Complex features of literature reviews

• Dialogue and Organisational Context
• Increasing trend toward research teams
• Review panel of systematic literature reviews /
  evidence based research
• Complex organisational relationships
• Supervisor/research student
• Inert dialogue
• Literature reviews as expert witnesses (Metcalfe,
  2003)
• Transitional Nature
• Literature review as an ongoing process

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Structuring Literature Reviews

• Rowley and Slack (2004)
• Conceptual maps and mind maps
• Tranfield et al. (2003) in the context of
  systematic literature reviews
• Realist synthesis,
• Meta-synthesis
• Problems
• Unknown, untried methods
• Weak methodologies
• Difficult to justify contribution to knowledge on
  epistemological grounds

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Typical Quality Dimensions for Assessing
Literature Reviews (Bruce, 2001)

• Topicality,
• Comprehensiveness (exhaustiveness),
• Breadth,
• Relevance,
• Currency,
• Exclusion,
• Authority,
• Availability.

Add structure !
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Recommended Assessment Framework

• Competence
• Congruence
• Consistence
• Stability

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Achieving Consistency

• Poole and Van de Ven (1989)
• Using paradoxes to produce theories
• Opposition
• Spatial separation
• Temporal separation
• Synthesis

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Draft Proposal Presentation

• From this morning exercise, develop a more
  complete draft proposal describe which
  literature you will look at and make a summary
  5/10 mn presentation

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Current Issues in Business Research

• Final Project Workshop

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Call for Papers

• Offshoring of service and knowledge work
• Topics
• 1.Strategic and Organizational Issues
• What types of services and knowledge functions
  can be outsourced?
• Should we outsource or create corporate-owned
  offshore operations?
• What are the best locations for offshore
  operations? How will this change over time?
• How can we achieve performance breakthroughs
  through transformational outsourcing?

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Call for papers

• 2.Global Service and Knowledge Supply Chain
  Issues
• Can we really "follow the sun?" How do we best
  manage handoffs?
• How does culture influence the management of
  geographically distributed operations?
• How can we manage operations to minimize total
  cost of ownership from a supply chain
  perspective?
• When using offshore service providers, will we
  encounter tradeoffs between operational
  efficiency and customer intimacy?
• If so, can such tradeoffs be eliminated or
  minimized?
• 3.Tactical Issues
• What are the best practices for coordinating the
  work of global virtual teams that include
  offshore service providers?
• How can we maintain and improve the quality of
  offshore operations, especially when the service
  or knowledge work is outsourced to a third-party
  provider?
• Can we optimize global supply networks that
  include heavy service and knowledge component? If
  so, how can we make optimization approaches
  accessible to practicing managers?

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Call for Papers

• Research on Management of Technology and
  Innovation in a Global Context
• Topics
• How do national/cultural differences affect the
  use of technology to solve problems?
• Are there cultural differences in preferred
  innovation processes? If there are differences,
  what is the impact?
• How do macro-economic differences affect
  country-specific innovation policies and
  practices and/or use of technology?
• Are there specific organizational features that
  facilitate or inhibit the cross-national transfer
  of knowledge and technology?
• How do cultural and language differences affect
  the functioning of cross-national innovation
  teams? Are there best practices for
  cross-national innovation teams?
• Is there a useful contingency model for the
  development of common technology versus country
  or region-specific technology (either products or
  processes)?
• What is the role of organizational learning in
  the management and diffusion of technology in a
  global context?

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Call for Papers - JIBS

• THREE LENSES ON THE MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISE
  POLITICS, CORRUPTION AND CORPORATE SOCIAL
  RESPONSIBILITY
• Research Questions
• How do MNE political strategies vary across
  nations?
• How do MNE political strategies influence firm
  performance and public policy?
• How are MNE political strategies integrated with
  market strategies?
• How does government or private sector corruption
  affect firm strategy and performance?
• What is the relationship between private sector
  corruption and government corruption?
• What determines the experience of corruption for
  firms and how can it be managed?
• What is the best way to benchmark CSR activities
  of firms across countries?
• Is there a tradeoff between CSR and firm
  performance and how does this vary across
  countries?
• What is the relationship between corporate
  leadership and CSR?
• What is the relationship between government
  regulation and CSR in various countries?
• What is the relationship between government
  corruption and MNE political strategies?
• What is the relationship between MNE political
  strategies and their propensity to engage in CSR?
  
• How do institutions affect the corruption, CSR
  and political activities of multinationals?

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Call for Papers - JMS

• Managerial Dimensions of Organizational Health
• Work-life balance What are the effects of the
  present work environment pressures on worklife
• balance for managers and their families? What are
  healthy strategies for managers and their
• families to manage the stress?
• Burn-out What are the early warning signs and
  symptoms of burn-out for managers? What
• are the costs for the organization associated
  with burn-out? What are healthy strategies for
• preventing and managing managerial burn-out?
• Depression Why is depression a well-kept
  secret among executives? What is the predictors
• and prevalence of depression among managers and
  organizational leaders? What are the health and
  performance risks of depression in managerial
  populations?
• Employee Assistance Programs How can employee
  assistance programs be best designed
• for managers and leaders? How do EAPs benefit the
  organization when used well by managers and
• leaders at work?
• Top Management Teams What are the implications
  of health issues for top management
• teams? Do top management teams need a chief
  psychological officer who monitors the health of
• the team?

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Call for Papers

• Researching Global Media Conglomerates
• Call for Papers The media industries are
  dominated by a number of large conglomerates
  whose interests and activities cut across many
  individual market segments such as publishing,
  audiovisual (TV and radio), film, sound
  recordings, and the Internet. Aside from these
  activities, what do we really know about these
  global media conglomerates? This issue of the
  International Journal on Media Management seeks
  original research that provides a basis for
  understanding the activities of global media
  companies. All research methodologies and
  perspectives are welcome, but papers that offer a
  theoretical foundation as well as an analytical
  focus are preferred.
• Topics
• Concentration and consolidation of media markets
  and industries
• Assessing the power of media conglomerates at a
  global level
• Strategies of global media companies
• Managerial issues facing global media companies
• The role of public policy in assessing global
  media conglomerates
• Specific industry or company case studies
  involving global media companies

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Call for Papers Journal of Electronic Commerce

• Adoption and Impact of Business-to-Employee (B2E)
  Portals
• All topics related to the adoption, use and
  impact of B2E portals in organizations will be
  considered. B2E portals generally include Human
  Resources (HR) Services and Employee Self
  Services (ESS). However, in this issue, B2E
  portals refer to any corporate portals that
  involve management of employee relationship
  services. Topics of interest include, but not
  restricted to
• a) Organizational decisions to adopt B2E portals
  
• b) Implementation of B2E portals in
  organizations
• c) Case studies addressing success or failure of
  B2E portals in organizations
• d) Studies on the impact and challenges
  associated with B2E portals
• e) Satisfaction with B2E portals
• f) B2E portals architecture
• g) Web-based tools for building B2E portals
• h) Effectiveness of B2E portals
• i) B2E portals and employee ethical issues
• j) B2E portals and cultural issues

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Questions