Still here, plodding along...

Missed my self-imposed December 15th deadline, but I'm still here.  To the right is a selfie.

Output of Research

Just a note to show the followers of this blog that I'm truly making progress.  Click on this link to see an interactive map of my research.

Link:  Losses and Risk Exposure

Isn't that cool?!

Breakthrough with the Numbers Today

I've been hunched over the computer for days now, but I finally got my numbers to work.  It's not only been a refresher in statistics,  I've learned an incredible amount about formulas and formats in Excel in the process.

I can see the finish line!

Scooped!

In August 2014, an article was published in Applied Financial Economics, stating that this is the first study to "empirically examine the influences of uncertainty avoidance on corporate valuation."  DAMN!  That's one of the things I'm doing and thought I was the first to do it.  I was just beaten to the punch!

HOWEVER!  It blazes a trail very nicely, and I can certainly build on it.  I sent the article to my thesis adviser who simply said, "Use it, and use it well!"

Amen!

I'm Still Here...and Time is Ticking!

I see that the last post I made was over a month ago!  A lot has been going on, not only with the dissertation, but from a professional and personal standpoint, too. A girl has to celebrate her birthday, after all.

My thesis adviser told me that the methodology is the most important - all else is secondary.  So, I'm completing three of the five chapters - Chapters 3 (methodology), 4 (results), and 5 (conclusions and implications) - before completing Chapter 1 (which is about 90% done already - the proposal helped to make that happen) and the infamous literature review (Chapter 2).

My friend Kathy H. is finishing her last semester in a post-graduate law program.  She has a paper due on November 13th that is worth 70% of her grade this semester and is scheduled to take her final in mid-December and graduating on December 18th.  I've decided to mirror her schedule, so here is the new:

• November 13th - Chapters 3, 4 and 5
• December 18th - Chapters 1 and 2

I actually wrote the Dedication and Acknowledgement sections tonight after work.  During a customer meeting, I had a bit of clarity around those little details.

More this weekend when I get off the road...

First Paragraph

Every "coaching" article I've read says to capture the reader's attention at the very beginning of the dissertation.  So I'm thinking that this should be the very first paragraph of Chapter 1: 

Enterprise Risk Management is like teenage sex, says George Westerman, research scientist studying enterprise risk management (ERM) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  “Everyone wants to be doing it.  Everyone thinks everybody else is doing it.  Not many people are actually doing it, and no one is doing it particularly well.”  [Berinato, S. Risk's Rewards. CIO Magazine (Nov. 1, 2004), 7. ]

 What d'ya think?
 

Self-Imposed Deadline

Today, August 31st, is my self-imposed deadline for getting the revised (and revised again) proposal to Dr. S for his final approval.  I've just done that.  Yay!

This weekend is a long one in North America, so the rest of it is dedicated to a 7-mile run and reading more articles for the literature review - that self-imposed deadline is October 13.  

I'm reminded of a quote I found earlier in the year from Dissertation Research and Success:

You have to throw out all the creative writing strategies you’ve learned since elementary school and become comfortable with the redundancy and specificity necessary in scholarly writing.

It bruises the ego badly.  I can do it, but becoming comfortable with redundancy and specificity is a tough ask!  

Damn the Torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

I turned in my 3rd proposal version yesterday morning, and at 11:30 last night, I heard from Dr. Z that he approved it and to send it along to Dr. S for final approval.  That means that I'm good to go!

I'm traveling this week so I didn't have the wisdom of my proofreader (my hubby) before I sent it, so there were some typos.  Oh well.

I need to do some "deep revisions" of it, but I can send it on to Dr. S when the typos are corrected and when I revise a bit.

Dr. Z is worried that I've come to my conclusions before the research is done.  That's probably true, but I have to tell you:  it's very hard to keep the personal bias out of it.

I was at an academic conference today.  I told a colleague (a doctoral student at the Sorbonne) about my approval and Dr. Z's concern of my bias.  She said:  "Everybody has a conclusion.  It's impossible to be impartial."  She went on to say that most people write their abstracts first before they even get into the study!  Ha!

I just need to figure out how to not have strong language in my literature review and study significance.  But I see the end.  At last!

Milestones

On holiday but still thinking about this dissertation.  I decided to give myself some milestones - which were agreed to by Dr. Z:

My proposed schedule is this:

• Proposal (version 3) submitted to Dr. Z by 20 August
• Proposal approved by Dr. Z and sent to Dr. S for his approval by 31 August
• Chapter 1 (Introduction) completed - 22 September
• Chapter 2 (Lit Review) completed - 13 October
• Chapter 3 (Design and Methods) completed - 3 November
• Chapter 4 (Results) completed - 24 November
• Chapter 5 (Conclusions, Implications, and Recommendations) completed - 15 December

As Dr. Z pointed out, "it mostly hinges on [me] being able to complete it."  True enough.  But I'm certainly going to give it a go.  We planned this holiday around what was supposed to be a celebration of this thing being finished.  I'm so ready for it to be done.

Journal Quality

Dr. Z spent a lot of time yesterday on my article selection and short-version proposal.  He said that version 2 was better, but I wasn't working with the best articles.  So far in my literature search, I've found 317 different pieces of literature - and have felt overwhelmed by that number.

So I asked him what "best articles" meant.  He sent me the "Academic Journal Quality Guide, version 4" by the Association of Business Schools (UK).  It grades all the academic journals from Grade 4 (the best) to Grade 1 (the not-as-good).

Last night and continued this morning, I went through my list of 317 and put the ABS's grades next to each journal in my EndNote library.  Then I saved a copy of my EndNote library and deleted all non-graded articles.  

The result?  I had only 112 graded articles in my library - much more manageable than 317 (duh!).  


Next steps:

1. Start version 3 of the proposal.
2. Review the better articles for this next version.
3. Revisit title and purpose statement - which will probably mean adjusting/tweaking research problems and hypotheses, but probably not too much (at least, I hope so!).
4. Then, do another literature search.

It's moving along.

Justification of the Study...again

Going back almost four months now (my, this is taking a while), I review my March 31 post on Justification of the Study.  Dr. S told me that I really needed to beef this up.  Naturally, I see that the proposal assignment requires a full page of text for this justification (and I didn't take this to heart the first time around why?) - I only wrote about three paragraphs in version 1.  

Dr. S explained that this is the "so what?" of the research proposal.  Leedy and Ormrod, page 57 (2005) ask "Of what use is it? What practical value does the study have?"  From How to Write a Research Proposal (cited in the 31 March post), I get the following:

• Concise and clear outline of the objectives I want to achieve through the dissertation.
• Show why the intended research is important.
• Show why the research justifies the search effort.
• Outline the significance/relevance of the topic.  The justification can be either:

1. empirical in nature, i.e., what I hope to add to an existing body of knowledge, or
2. theoretical in nature, i.e., what I hope to make easier to understand by giving more information on contentious areas in a body of knowledge or provide new conceptual insights into that knowledge.

"All research is part of a larger scholarly enterprise."  I "should be able to argue for the value and positioning of [my] work."  

In The Importance of Research by a group called "Unite for Sight" (a global health delivery organization that supports eye clinics worldwide) - with my adaptations in black:

The purpose of research is to inform action.  Thus, my study should seek to contextualize its findings within the larger body of research.  Research must always be high quality in order to produce knowledge that is applicable outside of the research setting with implications that go beyond the group/sample that I targeted in my research.  Furthermore, the results of my study should have implications for policy and project implementation.  

Light at the End of a Tunnel

When I get/make the time, I continue to work on the second version of the proposal.  This morning, I was able to rewrite my study Limitations/Delimitations section and pared down my Operational Definitions of Key Terms.

This dissertation almost seems doable now.  Let's hope that this light at the end of the tunnel isn't the headlight of an oncoming train! 

Title, Purpose, Research Problems and Hypotheses - Away!

After a lot of work over the 3-day holiday weekend, I finally got the first four sections of my proposal out to Dr. Z for his review:

1. Title
2. Purpose Statement
3. Research Problems
4. Hypotheses

Things are finally seeming to come together, and I'm not so overwhelmed as I once was.  

As I mentioned in a previous post, I mapped out the problems, subproblems, and hypotheses using Inspiration software.  My map looks like this:

I know it looks complicated, but better to have a map in order to get this thing done and convert myself from ABD to PhD!

Needing that Vacation

All of the energy from last week's morning of inspiration was lost due to house guests for the weekend.  Don't get me wrong; balance in life has to happen and I do appreciate my friends!

Just having difficulty finding a way to tap into that vein from last Saturday.  It was priceless.

Two weeks' vacation is coming up.  I'll be taking a holiday not only from my real job but also from this process.  In order to truly "rest" from it all, I need to get my proposal rework to Dr. Z and then blessed by Dr. S.  Tall order in the next three weeks.

On a Roll this Morning...

I awoke at 3:15 this morning (yes, a Saturday morning) and the research problems were right there in my head.  So I got up to take advantage of that moment of "brilliance."  Now I need to write my null hypotheses.  

Thought the lost-socks-due-to-alien-burglary anecdote was cute (see previous post), I need a little more instruction.  Dr. S explained that a null hypothesis is:  "there is no difference between X and Y."  I found this on ehow.com - How to Write a Null Hypothesis.  

"A null hypothesis is defined as a statement of no change.  That is, a null hypothesis describes an outcome in which there is no statistical difference between the groups you are comparing [Dr. S's no difference between X and Y].  More specifically, if a null hypothesis is fulfilled, your original hypothesis is rejected."

Summarized:

1. Write the hypothesis (i.e., what I believe to be true).  Let's say my belief is the old adage:  You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
2. Turn this into a statement that indicates no difference between experimental groups:  Old dogs and younger dogs can (or can't) learn new tricks.

Entering the 21st Century

The article that Dr. Z sent me (mentioned in the previous post - "Writing Tips for PhD Students," Cochrane, U of Chicago) has this statement on the title page:

It's the 21st century - get a web page.

Because setting up this blog on Google was so simple, I looked to see if Google also hosted web pages.  It does.  sites.google.com.  So now I have a web page.

What the web page is for is a way to submit articles, papers, links, etc. to the people you're working with - especially your thesis adviser.  I won't post what that web page is as Google allows you to tighten the access permissions.  As it is just a listing of articles requested by Dr. Z (see my Back to the Research Problems post), it's not very exciting any way.  Think of it as a remote parking lot with just a couple of cars in it.

This weekend, I'll be revising parts 1 through 3 of the proposal:

• Title of Study
• Purpose of Study
• Research Problems/Questions

Work has been a zoo.  And this is supposed to be the "light" season!

Back to the Research Problems

I spoke with Dr. Z this morning.  (And yes, he speaks English quite well!)  I really think I will enjoy working with him. 

He referred me to an article entitled "Writing Tips for PhD Students" by John H. Cochrane (University of Chicago) found at this link.  It's a nice guide - written in plain language (and is somewhat light and comical).

I have two things to do:

1. Send Dr. Z the top three (or two or four) articles - published in top journals - that are the closest that I want to do.
2. Meanwhile, using the Cochrane article, revise the proposal and the main research question/problem.

We are both concluding that it will be quite difficult - if not impossible - to find the primary data around what I'd like to do.  But Dr. Z said, "First things, first."  Let's get the main research problem out there, then we'll both find what data we can find.  Just take it one day at a time.

Like I said, I really think I will enjoy working with him.  

Dr. Z!

No, Heather, that's not you (not yet, anyway).  Dr. Z is the prof that has agreed to work with me on the next version of the proposal.

I have found him on this video.  I assume he speaks English - as I certainly don't speak Portuguese - else, I'm in a heap of trouble!

Research Problems REDUX

In reviewing Practical Research by Leedy and Ormrod (2005, 9th edition), I think (hope!) I see some light regarding the research problems.

1. The main research problem is in the Purpose of the Study statement.
2. The other four research problems are simply subproblems of the main problem.

Leedy and Ormrod say this about subproblems (pages 51 and 52).  Each subproblem:

1. Should be a completely researchable unit (hence, why a subproblem is really a research problem).
2. Must be clearly tied to the interpretation of the data.

Further,

1. The subproblems must add up to the totality of the problem.
2. Subproblems should be small in number (as per the requirements of the proposal, no more than four).

Leedy and Ormrod also suggest the use of "Brainstorming Software" to identify subproblems.  They have an illustration of output on page 72.  There, the software they use is something called Inspiration.  I found it here:  http://www.inspiration.com/Inspiration

It's pretty cool - and inexpensive (US$40).  I downloaded it this morning.  My weekend plans are set, apparently.

Missing Socks and Alien Burglary - Null Hypotheses

In the May 14 conversation with Dr. S, he pointed out that my hypotheses weren't written in a consistent form.  He said that I needed "null" hypotheses.  Oddly (or maybe, fortuitously), I found a website called www.null-hypotheses.co.uk by a group called the Journal of Unlikely Science.  In it, the null hypothesis is explained in comical terms:  What is a Null Hypothesis?  The example is:  the loss of my socks is nothing to do with alien burglary.

So two things to do this long Memorial Day weekend:

1. Rewrite my research problems (tightening up the scope of the ones I've written previously), and
2. Write new hypotheses - ensuring that they are null hypotheses.

The Process is Working...

Got a note from Dr. S this morning.  He found a recently published article from McKinsey & Company on my topic.  So, he really understands what I've proposed.

Better news is that though consultants and professionals are thinking about what I'm thinking about, the academics are remaining silent...that means that my dissertation will appropriately add to the body of knowledge on the topic (what a dissertation is supposed to do).  It also means that the business world is leaning in the direction I think it should.  So, good dissertation topic.  The process is working.

Round 1 - OK

I had my proposal (version 1) review with Dr. S Wednesday.  Few surprises as I had already figured out a lot of what he commented on.

The take-aways:

1. As I've written before in this blog, my research problems really need some attention.  Dr. S says (and I agree!) that as outlined, the research behind the problems would, in his words, "take about 75 years."  OK, well (I suppose), better to have too many rather than too few.  My research problems are more themes of problems rather than individual ones.  I just need to drill down on one or two, then "discover" the problems from those themes.
2. Subsequently, my hypotheses need to be re-worked, based on the new set of research problems, of course.  Besides, Dr. S pointed out that my first round of them are written in inconsistent form.  I didn't see that, so that was new.

Biggest issue:  I don't have primary, but secondary, data for my study.  What that means is that the data I have has been gathered by others (secondary data).  That's a problem.  I need to gather data myself (primary). But we are both scratching our heads a bit on this one. Dr. S is a qualitative guy and can counsel on surveys, interviews, etc.  But any surveying I could do would be of current or potential customers, and that would be a no-no professionally.

So, with that revelation, Dr. S decided to check in with a man who I think will be my thesis adviser.  He earned his PhD at Northwestern but is a professional in finance in Manhattan not an academician.  He thinks that this man - Dr. H - will be able to guide me better than he can.

In the meantime, Dr. S said to not trouble with another proposal draft until I've spoken to Dr. H.  But he agreed that it wouldn't hurt to continue with the literature review.

Traveling for work this week, but that's what I'll do next week.

Thinking Too Much?

This is the week that I'll be talking with Dr. S about version #1 of my proposal.  In the meantime, I continue to work (re-work, and re-work) my research problems.  At this revision stage (and no telling what Dr. S will say about the research problems), I've written and rewritten the research problems...now on my third major revision.  My conclusions, thus far, are these:

1. Research PROBLEMS arise from the literature review; while
2. Research HYPOTHESES are solved by the analysis.

Now, I have absolutely NO idea if this is correct or not, but it essentially means that the literature review (Chapter 2 of five total chapters) has to be complete before the research problems are "fully cooked."  And the analysis done in Chapters 3 and 4 has to be finished in order to prove the hypotheses.  As Chapter 1 is just a write-up of the proposal outline, there's a circular problem:  I have to do all of the analysis and literature review for the dissertation in order to get my proposal outline approved.  So I'm writing a dissertation before I even know that the thing is approved?  This doesn't make any sense.  Or maybe I'm thinking too much.

No Worries!

Just got an email from a friend who reads this blog.  Evidently, my April 28 and 29 posts painted a bad picture about the May 14th call with Dr. S.  That was not my intent.  The May 14th call is all part of the process.  My classmate is on her 4th proposal submission.  As I've mentioned, I anticipate that I'll have to submit the proposal at least one more time before it's approved.


Any angst you infer from these two posts is over the time in between proposal cycles.  I had planned to be finished with the thing by late July - but obviously, that won't happen.  That doesn't mean that my proposal is crap.  It's good, and Dr. S has to come back with something - otherwise, he's not doing his job.

Chapter 1, Perhaps?

With the step back, I've looked over two of the documents that Dr. S gave me as guides for this process:  Chapter 1 of a dissertation (called a proposal) and the entire dissertation done by a previous student - not at ISM but another university.  The latter was approved/accepted, and given that Dr. S forwarded it, presumably a good example of what I'm supposed to do myself.

Observations:

1. Chapter 1 is really the Dissertation Proposal in text form (rather than the outline I submitted last month).
2. Though the Proposal requires five research problems, the accepted dissertation just has one.  The Chapter 1 proposal just has two.

For those PhD students from a traditional doctoral program reading this, you're probably thinking, "well, duh," but understand that I rarely actually meet any of my professors and converse with most only through email.  Mine is a European doctoral program where things are much more of a "do-it-yourself" nature.  That's fairly dangerous for someone like me who "suffers" from something called an "Unrelenting Standards Life Trap."  The propensity to spin one's wheels and waste time is more reality than fantasy.

And one other observation:  I think my the research problems and hypothesis are a bit "off."  So I'm rearranging the proposal into Chapter 1 and addressing that.  Seeing 80% of Chapter 1 come together (less the research problem[s] right now) is encouraging.  The rest of the week will be devoted to working on better articulating the research problems.

Adjusting to Glacial Speed

I must admit that the revelation of "Glacial Speed" in the proposal process threw me for a loop yesterday.  A classmate who is ahead of me in the process told me yesterday that proposal versionS have a three to six week turn-around time.  Yes, that's "versions" with an "s"--plural.  

Therefore, I have to anticipate that the May 14th call will result in submitting version 2 of the proposal.  Say that I turn that around by Memorial Day, we are probably looking at mid-July for feedback on it.  When I expected to be turning in the final draft of entire dissertation, I'll probably be turning in version 3 of the proposal.

Add to that revelation the pollen count, and it proved to be a rather sucky Monday.  But after a good night's rest last night, I'm realizing that balance in life facets cannot be accomplished (without stress) if I work three hours a day (Monday through Friday, that is) on the dissertation...particularly in light of the latest developments.  Accepting that reality, I will continue with the literature review - it clearly is the most work out of everything.  And even if Dr. S poo-poohs some of the sections I've outlined in the proposal, I can always use that research and write-up for future academic papers.  So really, nothing lost here. 

20%

As you know from a previous blog post, Dr. S told me that he'd get back to me the first week of May, so when I saw an email from him this morning, I was thrilled that he contacted me a week early.  His email, however, said that he read through my proposal and that "we should talk"...on May 14th!

At his suggestion and endorsement, I requested another extension.  I just realized that once this is done, I'll have spent 20% of my life on this degree.

Don't Stop: Keeping on Track

I lost three days this week to business travel (again!), but I'm trying to keep on track.  

I took a lot of notes over the holidays--which feels like a hundred years ago--from Dissertation and Research Success (Buckley and Delicath).  I forgot about a completion plan timeline they suggested, so I've begun to create one with daily and weekly goals.

I think I know why I tucked it away in my mind.  The task is rather overwhelming and a completion plan only makes that nasty fact real.

I awoke this morning with the tune "Don't Stop" by Jeffrey Osborne playing in my head "ear worm" style.  Oddly enough, that song was released in 1984 when I was in my final year of my MBA program.  Even though Dr. S won't return my proposal for another two weeks, I'm just plowing through as if we were good-to-go with Jeffrey Osborne's song cheering me on.

Literature Reviews and Elephants

When looking at this stack of articles/works found in my literature search (to date: 297, down from 302 yesterday), I wonder how on earth I can get through it all.  This morning, I am reminded of the old joke/riddle:

Q:  How do you eat an elephant?

A:  One bite at a time.

Proposal Part 10: References

Before now, I didn't write anything on Part 10 (References) of the proposal I submitted last week.  The reason?  It's rather a no-brainer once you have citation software.  

I've been using a program called "Endnote" for many years, ever since a classmate (Laura E.) told me about it in the summer of 2006.  Once you get your references loaded, you can "cite while you write" - putting in end notes, footnotes, or in-text references all according to the style required (e.g., Chicago 16B, APA 6th, etc.) as you write the thought.  Then, the program automatically inserts your bibliography at the end...and alphabetizes it for you.

It works with literature search software which is typically found in a library.  My school gives me access to it as well as to the full-text articles (if the library has them, of course).  Once you select the articles you want to use, you import the citations from the search software to the Endnote program.  And viola! you have your citations already loaded to use while you're writing.

My school also gives me access to Endnote-like software, but didn't start doing that until I was well into the PhD program.  By then, I got used to Endnote, and really like it (Thompson-Reuters gives a student rate, too).  Last night, I upgraded to the latest version - X7 - that is quite the improvement over previous versions.  And with my three-monitor set-up (and 24" monitors), the new reference pane is clearly visible.  I like it.

My proposal cited 57 references.  I've actually got 293 references in my Endnote library so far.  I'm sure about 20-30% of those will be 86'd before I'm done, but being old enough to remember the manual literature searches and stack of index cards, I'm quite thankful to be writing this paper in 2014, not 1985.

Back to it

After putting the process down for a week, I'm going to get back to it soon.

I haven't been home in a week, having left last Monday to work at the home office, then Hubby joined me Friday so we could run the Raleigh (USA) Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon Sunday, April 13.  Just trying to keep some balance...all work (job) and more work (dissertation) tend to keep one's life out of balance.  I didn't break any speed records or have any PRs in yesterday's race, but my Fitbit says I ran/walked 36,000 steps and climbed 69 floors (very hilly course).  I'm rather proud of that.

So this week, I need to get my literature in order and continue with the literature review.  I picked up a couple of books on Predictive Analytics from my company's library to get a little more insight into the mechanics of the analysis I'm performing.  That (believe it or not) excites me a bit - particularly as I need to rest my legs from yesterday's half marathon.  Ow.

And we wait...

Got a note from Dr. S this morning.  His feedback will come the first week of MAY!!!

So as to not lose too much time, I think I'm going to continue with the literature review.  That takes so much time and it may shift some of the research problems and hypotheses in the proposal.

Proposal Complete - Sent to Dr. S

PEI's Tartan

I just hit "send" on the email to Dr. S with my proposal attached.  Thanks to my sweet hubby for proofing it for me.  

He tells me that it's National Tartan Day - so I may celebrate this milestone with him and a small shot of Oban.

Cheers!

Mini-Lit Review

I've put in about six hours today and only halfway through the mini (5-page) literature review.  I'm finding it quite difficult to keep my own personal biases out of it.

The purpose of the review is to simply get up-to-date with all related literature and to compare one scholar's ideas and research with another.  Where I need to write, "Jayara concurs with Mann...," I need to resist writing "both Jayara and Mann are idiots."

Are you smiling yet?

Three Month Thesis - writing it in record time without going insane

I found this lecture by James Hayton on YouTube this morning.  Hayton calls the process a "three-month thesis" - the lecture is entitled, "How to write a PhD thesis in record time and keep your sanity while you do it."  Interesting that the title fits well with the title I gave to this blog.  I see clearly Hayton's guidelines and am encouraged about my own self-inflicted timeline.

I just need to get this mini-lit review done!  Traveling with work all next week, so I really need to get the proposal finished this weekend and sent on to Dr. S.  

A fellow PhD (also just "ABD") student (Dorothy M.) just told me this week that she is "on draft 1 million of the research."  Groan...

Proposal Part 5 (REDUX): Mini-Literature Review

I found a few items on the literature review previously (see blog post from March 31st).  This is the only part of the Proposal I haven't completed yet.  I've struggled with this one for several reasons:

1. I have nearly 300 scholarly works in the literature search I did over the holidays, including those that I have picked up while writing the proposal.  So much material!  Where to find the time to read then synthesize it all?!  
2. The real literature review for the dissertation will be 40 to 50 pages long; the one for the proposal is to be only 5 pages long.  I find myself venturing on the all-or-nothing precipice. Where to begin a mini-review?
3. As you can probably tell from my blog entries, I suffer a bit from "scope creep."  I like to write, so I find myself going down various rabbit trails with particular works - whether they have any merit on the topic at hand or not.

I spoke with a colleague of mine the other day (Susan K.) who earned her PhD some time ago.  She suggested that I organize my review around the research questions.

Well...duh.  That's so obvious!  I didn't see that at all until she mentioned it.  Thank you, Susan!

Proposal Part 9: Operational Definitions of Key Terms

The Proposal assignment is looking for clear and full definitions of each key research variables, not just general definitions of key terms.

I've compiled definitions from previous works--many that now seem a bit out-of-date.  I worked on those this morning, culling out a few and put in a bit more this morning on research variables.  

Now, all of the sections of the proposal are complete except for the mini-literature review in Step 5.  I'm getting a bit excited about moving forward now. ...like this doctorate degree might actually become a reality this year.

Proposal Part 8: Limitations of the Study

Dr. Cheryl Lynch gives a quick (and I mean, quick) lecture on scope and limitations on YouTube.

I also found good descriptions of limitations vs. delimitations at the Baltimore County Public Schools website:

Limitations are shortcomings, conditions or influences that cannot be controlled by the researcher; they place restrictions on methodology and conclusions. They might influence the results found in the study.  Limitations can be found in the analysis, the nature of self-reporting, the instruments utilized, the sample, and time constraints.

Delimitations are choices made by the researcher. They describe the boundaries that the research set for the study. Delimitations define the parameters of the investigation. In educational research the delimitations will frequently deal with such items as population/sample, treatment(s), setting, and instrumentation. 

I also like How to structure the Research Limitations section of your dissertation by Laerd Dissertation.  This might be better for the actual dissertation rather than the proposal, however.

Proposal Part 7: Method and Sample

Having to go to the "Big Gun" - Practical Research: Planning and Design by Paul D. Leedy and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod - for this one.  This book was integral to what I call "Proposal, Take One" (see earlier blog post) as I had little guidance on how to write a dissertation proposal back in 2007. 

Going back to it, I realize that even then, I didn't use it as well as I could have.  So now, with "Take Two," I've got some better insight.


Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Geez, this is a lot of stuff.  I certainly want to go the quantitative route--see my purpose statement.  I'll be using studies already done by others and correlate results.  To my knowledge, it doesn't look like anyone has actually correlated the three studies I have in mind yet.  That's both good news and bad.  Good news is that that's perfect for a dissertation.  Bad news (maybe) is that it can't be done.  

That's nothing to be decided for the proposal, though, so I'll keep moving and cross that bridge when I get to it.

What I'm doing for the proposal:  Each of the research questions contain at least one independent variable and one dependent variable.  I'm naming the studies behind each variable and organizing the proposal write-up around the correlations of each.  For example, I want to compare risk cultures with venture capital investment.  I have a study for cultural dimensions and a five-year longitudinal study on VC.  I can run the data on both to determine what--if any--of the correlations are.

I'll do that for each of the five research questions.  This is probably the part of the proposal I'm most uncomfortable with...I expect some clarification will be needed after my submission.

Academic Bubble

The guide book I found a few months ago -  Dissertation and Research Success (2013) by Robin Buckley (PhD) and Timothy Delicath (PhD) - said to create an "Academic Bubble" in which to keep your notes, research, resources, etc. out all the time.  Here's a photo of mine.

It's a little tricky as my computer and peripherals cease to become part of the Bubble at 9:00 a.m. ET, Monday through Friday when I take my student hat off and put my systems engineer manager hat on.  The rickety desk on the left remains part of the Bubble, but I have to go through it almost daily to keep it from becoming a collector of odds and ends that have absolutely nothing to with my dissertation.

I finally got the three-monitor set-up to work this morning.  Windows 7 makes a two-monitor set-up easy.  I had to get a USB video adapter (from StarTech) to make the third monitor work.  By the way, I found an awesome sale on those three Samsung monitors at Staples a couple of weeks ago.  The monitor stand is pretty cool, too (found it on Amazon)--it's hard to see in the picture, but they all are attached to a stand with a single pedestal.  Underneath the center monitor is a brick wrapped in a towel to give the stand a bit more stability.  These 24" monitors are heavy.

For the dissertation, my main document appears on the center screen.  Endnote (with the file containing my research and resources citations) is on the right.  Research is on the left.

Proposal Part 6 - Justification of Study

My assignment says:  "Theoretical and practical justifications of topic suitability for research (around one page)."  I'm a little foggy today; I need more than that to figure out what to write.  I found this article "How to write a research proposal" that has a good explanation, IMHO.

Scrolling down to the section entitled, "Objective of the research project," I find:

Give a concise and clear outline of the academic (possibly also non-academic, e.g. social and political) objectives that you want to achieve through your project. Your proposal needs to show why the intended research is important and justifies the search effort. Here you outline the significance (theoretical or practical) or relevance of the topic.

Such justification may either be of an empirical nature (you hope to add to, or extend an existing body of knowledge) or of a theoretical nature (you hope to elucidate contentious areas in a body of knowledge or to provide new conceptual insights into such knowledge). All research is part of a larger scholarly enterprise and candidates should be able to argue for the value and positioning of their work.

That explains it nicely.  I'll have to remember this article...it has a lot of other good stuff in it.

Proposal Part 5: Literature Review (and Outline for Lit Review)

The Proposal requires a five-page Literature Review rather than an Outline for a Literature Review.  But an outline may make the task a bit easier.

Found this outline from Western Oregon University.  I also found these videos by David Taylor at the University of Maryland University College for a straight-forward explanation of how to do a literature review:  Part 1 and Part 2.  Taylor also has a Part 3, but it is designed specifically for his students (the dog entering the video provides a little comic relief).  But he does provided a little insight on a literature review outline in this one.

I wrote a few pages of the literature review over the holidays.  I've got over 200 pieces of literature to plow through, however, as the actual dissertation will have 40 to 50 pages devoted solely to the review of the literature.  Dr. S says that this will make me the foremost expert on the topic.  I think that's pretty cool.

I think that I will have all of the sections completed - except for the 5-page literature review - done by April 1st.  The review is going to take a little extra time.  Plus, it's been two months since I tried to tackle that, so I've got to go back to my notes and David Taylor's YouTube videos for a bit of a refresh.

Objectives and Alligators

I'm reminded this morning of the objective of this dissertation:  

To research without bias—NOT to prove and support my position on a topic.

I have also posted this on a pptx slide, and it hangs on my wall.  I have to look at it all the time...this is so different than what I'm used to in writing for my work where my bias is wanted.  But really, this is easier (theoretically).  The dissertation process is hard enough as it is without trying to make it a "Magnum Opus."

I just have to remember that my position, my view, my bias are the alligators that will keep me off-track.

"When you're up to your neck in alligators, it's easy to forget you came to drain the swamp."

Proposal Part 4: Research Objectives/Hypotheses Related to Research Problems

I really love YouTube.  

A simple four-minute video explains how to write research questions and hypotheses from "MsLemmonsClass."  I assume this was written for high school kids (though I never saw anything like this in high school).

I like it.  This really makes the task look a bit less daunting.

So basically, you take each individual research problem and find the independent and dependent variables.

Hypothesis:

The hypothesis is my prediction, my claim.  It is what I think is going to happen based upon my prior information and my prior observations.

Written Format:  IF-THEN-BECAUSE

IF:  If the IV does something (increases, decreases), 

THEN:  then DV is going to (increase, decrease)

BECAUSE:  because ___________.  Why do I think this?  What led me to this claim or hypothesis?

This made writing the hypotheses fairly easy to do.  Got them done in a couple hours.

Proposal Part 3: Research Problems

I've structured my five research problems around the methodology by Associate Professor (Australian Catholic University) Denis McLaughlin's "Identifying the Research Problem" ppt.  Wish Dr. McLaughlin would publish a video on this...it would make it easier to follow.  I'm sure that his actual presentation is worth seeing.

Summarized:

In business, a research problem is a concern to managers that exists in business settings.  To find them, ask yourself:

What was the issue/problem you want to study?

What is the concern being addressed “behind” this study?

Why do you want to undertake this study?

Why is this study important to the scholarly community?

Proposal, Take One

I should point out that this blog describes what is actually my second dissertation proposal.  The original one (what I'm calling "Proposal, Take One") was submitted in March 2007.  It was approved a little later that year.  

Shortly after that, I changed jobs and moved to another state while Hubby stayed behind to remodel the house (that really sucked!--the weekend-only marriage, not the remodel).  That job was virtual hell...worked on average 80 hours a week, gained a lot of weight, had NO time for coursework, much less the dissertation.

After 16 months of hell, I moved to my current company - work is hectic, particularly in Q1 each year - but no where near the insanity of 80 hours a week with no time for anything but comfort eating and fitful sleep.  Six months after that move, not surprisingly, I was diagnosed with Stage II cancer.  For about a year, I was in no state - either mentally or physically - to do much academically.  

Due to the job in hell and the cancer treatment and recovery, I lost about 28 months of my seven-year doctoral program.  Two years ago (program was to conclude on March 31, 2012), ISM graciously granted me a two-year extension.  I completed the four PhD core courses in those two years - three of the four since June 2013 (I obviously got moving last year!) plus getting my teaching requirement done in Paris in the winter of 2013 (it sounds more glamorous than it was) - becoming ABD just two weeks ago on March 18th.

So if you're counting, tomorrow (March 31st) marks the end of my program.  ISM doesn't appear to be enthused by the dissertation going past 3/31, but it's being tolerated for the time being.  There's a note in the PhD handbook about a six-month extension period being given to finish the dissertation.  So I think I'm OK.

So, why am I not going ape-crazy about my original proposal not being valid anymore?  A few reasons:

• Take One proposed a 16-chapter, 100,000-word paper on something that is very boring.   
• The newest requirements mandate only five (big) chapters and 80,000 words.  Plus this topic is much more interesting (to me, anyway).
• For the "new and improved" dissertation process, unless its a germinal work, I can't use any literature older than seven years.  So NONE of the entire literature collection made for the last submission can be used.  I'd have to start over anyway.
• The title plus subtitle of Take One contains 28 words.  I'd owe Dr. S $105!  :-)

Proposal Part 2: Purpose of the Study

The Proposal Prep instructions simply say, "One or Two Sentences," under the Purpose of the Study.  Some lovely folks at www.dissertationrecipes.com have put together "Writing a Purpose Statement" which is a "how to" with some examples for purposes statements.

Currently, my purpose statement has two sentences.  The first starts with "The purpose of this quantitative correlational study will be to determine the relationship...".  The second explains the significance of that relationship.  I actually modeled the statement after Example 3 in the document cited above - I very much liked the conciseness of it.

What I've also done is put the Purpose Statement in a pptx slide, printed it out, and have it posted on the wall just above the main monitor in my office.  As this proposal evolves, and the dissertation paper gets written, that slide will keep me on the right track.  

Proposal Part 1: Title of the Study

The Proposal Prep document from Dr. S says that the title of the study has to be "10-12 words maximum (plain English)."  I think this is much like naming your baby after he's already earned his driver's license. (!)

However, I found more than a few examples from Harvard's recent grads at this link.  Most of those grads managed to be short and sweet with their titles.  Dr. S says that for every word in my title over seven, I owe him $5!

My title currently has nine words in it ($10 to Dr. S).  This is also the ninth iteration of it.  It seems to change as I go through the rest of the parts of the proposal.

Stay tuned...

Ten Parts of the Proposal

Since I put the proposal work away for two and a half months to finish up coursework, I'm finding that I have to go back to review the process I started in December.  Dr. S (the dissertation guide and gatekeeper) will assign an advising prof to me after the proposal is in.  In the meantime, I've got to submit ten items in the proposal.  Here they are:

1. Title of the Study
2. Purpose of the Study
3. Research Problems
4. Research Objectives/Hypotheses Related to Research Problems
5. Overview of Literature
6. Justification of Study
7. Method and Sample
8. Limitations of the Study
9. Operational Definitions of Key Terms
10. References

I've already written about some of these, but I'll probably take them one blog post at a time as I work through them.  As of this writing, I'm through Parts 1 through 4, but they sort of evolve as I get through the literature.

Dissertation + 7 Other Life Facets

Over the holidays, I discovered a great guide to fitting the dissertation process into one's life:  Dissertation and Research Success (2013) by Robin Buckley (PhD) and Timothy Delicath (PhD).  First things first...you focus on the dissertation as just one facet of your life.  It stresses that you need balance.  This is proving to be quite difficult, but I get it.

I put together a bit of a plan...a list of "to do's" for each day, each week, each month.  Following that plan is another story altogether.  But I'm trying.  

One of the facets is health.  Since the first of the year, we've run two half-marathons and are scheduled to do a third on April 13th.  Weather and workload have hindered the training schedule quite a bit.  Oh well, if I have to walk the thing in two weeks, I'll walk it.  I sure hate seeing the sag wagon, but that's small potatoes.

Saturday Morning and Rabbit Trails

Yes, it's early.  And yes, it's a Saturday morning.  I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to add a third monitor to my computer system to keep a lot of work projects at the forefront.  A third monitor should also help with the dissertation (at least, that's what I keep telling myself) as one displays the proposal--and eventually the dissertation paper itself.  Another has my Endnote file for handy reference, and the third has Chrome on it for quick browsing.  OK, the third also has email, Google Play (gotta have my tunes), and any occasional rabbit trail I choose to go down.

Admittedly, the rabbit trails can be distractions, but there are points where thinking and writing about "Using Predictive Risk Analytics for Venture Capital Investment Decisions" turn my brain into oatmeal.  Speaking of distractions, I hear the hubby rumbling around downstairs.  He has a sort-and-go-through-boxes project on our schedules today, so my Saturday certainly won't be devoted solely to the dissertation.  That's probably a good thing.

ABD!

As of last week, I am officially "ABD."  Over the holidays, I started the dissertation process, taking two week's vacation (I work full-time) to start the dissertation proposal process.  As I had one class to go, after putting together a draft proposal, I put the dissertation down to plow through the last class.  Now, it's just a matter of "gittin' 'er done!"

Because blogging was extremely helpful during a tough period in 2009 (cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment--I'm fine now!), it was recommended that I blog through the dissertation process.  I hope that it helps other PhD students.  But even if it helps only me, it will be worth it.  It's been a very long journey, and I'm anxious to complete it.