1
BUSN20016: RESEARCH IN BUSINESS
SOME ADVICE FOR CHOOSING OF A PROJECT TOPIC (DRAFT)
• This course has been purposefully designed to incorporate a high degree of flexibility relating
to various topics; therefore the choice of topic for your project is entirely your own choice.
• Topic for the project outline (Assessment 1) and project proposal (Assessment 3) MUST be
same.
• Remember, it is your project and if you select something that holds a deep interest for you, you
will find it easy to commit and you will be highly motivated to complete the work that your
project outline requires (Assessment 1), and subsequently that your project proposal requires
(Assessment 3).
• Make sure that your topic is relevant to your current area of study or what you want to be in
future. There is often temptation to pick a topic that is too broad, and might require a longer
time to do it properly.
• Up to five topic areas are given below under five broader areas of interest (i.e., discipline). We
strongly suggest you to choose a topic from one of the broader areas. However these are not the
exhaustive list and you can choose beyond this list.
o Marketing:
Marketing communications – such as why do some controversial marketing
communications work whilst other fail?
Social marketing: such as why are social networks more persuasive than
traditional word-of-mouth?
Telemarketing – such as selling goods or services to customer via telephone or
surveying customer satisfaction via computer assisted telephone interview
Branding –Impact of branding in sales or organisational development
Factors affecting product marketing: How can countries use national culture to
help them promote major exports?
o Management:
Enterprise management – such as how can an organisation (any industry)
engage with and facilitate the creation and growth of new ventures, including
opportunity identification and evaluation, venture capital, and/or corporate
venturing; and what are the processes for managing and improving the success
of the enterprise?
2
Strategic management – such as investigating high performing and innovative
firms in turbulent environments
Corporate governance such as how can an organisation (any industry) cope
with environmental, social, and ethical influences upon their practices and
processes of doing business; including environmental sustainability, corporate
social responsibility, stakeholder management and influence, and business
ethics?
o Human Resource Management
Leadership– such as leadership impacts on organisational performance
Employee engagement, wages and workforce performance
Decision making under pressure
Avoidance approaches to conflict
Maintaining performance during organisational change
o Accounting
Managerial accounting- how can managers use accounting information to
make better decisions?
Technological development in accounting – such as technological development
relating to information processing and its impact on accounting
Accounting system design- The effect of accounting information and auditing
on the design of organizations
Forensic accounting- such as using forensic accounting as a tool for fraud
detection
o Economics and Finance
Property market dynamics – such as impact of global financial crisis in
Australian property market
Risk and uncertainty in coal and oil markets
Financial characteristics of large and small firms
Economics of production systems
Managing cash flow
