Dissertation Handbook For Bachelor of Business
Administration (BBA)
Introduction
The School of Business, Woxsen University, requires graduating students to submit a
comprehensive Dissertation study relevant to their specialized business courses.
The following guidelines remain in effect until a new set of guidelines will be
released by the Dissertation Committee. The handbook’s main purpose is to guide
you not only on thesis preparation, writing and completion but also on graduation
requirements and procedures. All information and guidelines written on this
handbook should be strictly followed and implemented.
Your dissertation reflects the quality of learning you have acquired in your
undergraduate years. It is imperative that you consider dissertation writing as one
of the most significant stage in your learning curve and an opportunity for personal
and professional development.
Therefore, as a graduating student, you are expected to have achieved the
competencies required in dissertation writing. These sets of competencies should
equip you in applying theories in practical and professional business settings such
as decision- making skills, managerial and organizational skills, critical thinking, etc.
You are also expected to develop and demonstrate further such competence through
an integrated approach during the research and the writing stages.
The authenticity and comprehensiveness of your paper will reflect the value of what
you have learned in the university.
Goals related to qualification for graduation
Your ability to demonstrate profound ideas with accuracy, originality and coherence
requires a well-developed research and writing skills. As dissertation writing is a
pre-requisite course for graduation, you are expected to achieve the following
learning goals at the end of the semester:
• To independently deal with an issue from professional practice. This involves
your being able to describe, analyze and assess the problem definition and for it
to be researched properly, and in addition being able to provide your client with
thorough, substantiated advice.
• To anchor your advice in theory (your own research).
• To make your own contribution more explicit, making it clear that you are able
to apply the knowledge, insights and skills that you have attained during the
course of the program in a situation in which you are expected to resolve a
specific problem for a company.
• To clearly and logically describe the results, the approach and the substantiation
of your activities.
• To demonstrate the competencies necessary to be able to function as a manager
that has graduated from a university with an initial level of competence.
2
• To include, wherever possible, an element of sustainability.
Dissertation writing and Defense Process
The dissertation shall be writen within the 3-year program, submitted and defended
in the 3rd year of your graduation. What steps you shall take today?
1. Find Supervisor
• Students shall find a faculty supervisor and enquire the availability and
interest directly with them. Please note that there are no guarantees, and you
might not be assigned your preferred supervisor. Whenever possible, the
professional expertise of the supervisor should have a link with the nature of
the student’s thesis.
2. Dissertation Update Meeting
Students shall meet their supervisors and share updates on the thesis every 6
weeks. The supervisor will update the Program Chairs and Dean’s Office on the
progress quarterly.
3. Roles & responsibilities
The progress that you are making with your thesis will be monitored during meetings
between the student and the supervisor. The supervisor will assess whether you are
on the right track in relation to the objectives to be achieved.
3.1. Supervisor
The supervisor acts as the only communicator towards the student regarding
the dissertation process. Any improvements the student is required to make
in the thesis are given to the student by the supervisor alone .
The first meeting between student and supervisor should serve to set goals
and manage expectations. It should be clear to both parties in what way
supervision will take place, how often meetings will be held, in what way
comments will be given and what can be realistically expected of both student
and supervisor. This meeting should also serve to establish at least one business
day on which both supervisor and student must be available for supervision.
The supervisor is responsible for supervising the dissertation writing process.
Students approach their supervisor to receive feedback on their work.
Whenever a student contacts their supervisor, the supervisor must formulate a
response within 5 business days, if only to indicate that the message will be
dealt with.
The supervisor continues providing feedback until he deems the dissertation
ready for defense.
3.2. Student
A dissertation research project is your responsibility; it is the way in which you
demonstrate your ability to work independently on a major piece of research
with minimum supervision.
The aim of the dissertation is to assess your ability to undertake independent
work. This means that you do not produce a ‘PR report’ or a ‘Business Plan’ for
an organization or a company, passing it off as a piece of research.
The standard of English, style and overall presentation of the dissertation report
is your own responsibility. Therefore, it is important that your report is properly
proofread in order to ensure that the grammar and spelling is correct; this is not
the responsibility of the supervisor.
Your responsibility also includes arranging meetings with your supervisor and
providing, before the meeting, relevant information/questions you want to
discuss with him/her. When you submit new and/or revised material to your
supervisor, indicate clearly (using highlights or the ‘track changes’ option in
Word) what is new and/or revised.
4. Proposal Defense
Prior to the actual thesis writing process, students must write and fine-tune their
proposal until it is accepted and defended in front of their supervisor.
5. Final Defense
• Every student will have a specific presentation time when no other students
can be around, in front of a faculty panel. Students are therefore required to
arrive on the spot at the designated time to avoid losing the right to present.
• Every student will have 30 minutes to present the thesis. The presentation
should be around 15 mins and 15 mins for Question & Answer section. Please
make a PPT for the final defense.
6. Originality Check, Submission and Grading
• Turnitin accounts will be setup for students to check plagiarism. Necessary
modifications should be made before final submission. Dissertations with a
plagiarism level of more than 11% will be automatically rejected.
• Keep contact with your Supervisor and submit the final version at least five
working days before the deadline. Only students with Supervisor’s approval
and therefore signature will be considered for grading and reviewing.
• Students who disappeared during semesters and reappear with a finished
dissertation are taking the risk of being rejected by the supervisor (a viva
should ensure the originality).
• Supervisor grades the dissertation and fills final evaluation form (Including
comments and grades). The thesis and the final evaluation forms graded by
the Supervisor will be submitted to the Dean’s Office for review two weeks
before the scheduled defense.
7. Structure and Contents
The thesis should be duly signed by you and your supervisor.
Word Count: Minimum 15,000 words (excluding appendices and abstract)
Layout: All headings and subheadings must be in Bold using Arial or
Times New Roman fonts.
Font size: 12 points for the main body, 14 for the subheadings and 16
for the headings.
Alignment: Left for Heading and subheadings and justified for the body.
8. The Dissertation Content Structure
Core document formatting
• Title page
• Acknowledgements
• Abstract
• Table of contents
• List of figures and tables
• Overview of abbreviations
Chapter 1 Introduction management issues and objective
• Introduction (context)
• Presentation management issue (result/problem)
• Research objectives/hypotheses
• Research questions
• Chapter summary + Short intro next chapter
Chapter 2 Theoretical foundation(Literature Review)
• Chapter introduction
• 15 theoretical concepts from books/journals are discussed: theories are
described, compared, criticized and linked to the research context
(relevance)
• Theories are categorized per research question
• Referencing of all theories (APA)
• Chapter summary
• Introduction next chapter
Chapter 3 Methodology
• Chapter introduction
• Description research type
• Description of data gathering
• Data processing (primary + secondary)
• Sampling design and (Calculation of) sample size (in line with theory)
• Justification of interviews
• Explanation of Research framework
• Research planning and risks
• Reliability and Validity
• Chapter summary
• Introduction next chapter
Chapter 4 Research findings/Results
• Chapter introduction
• Fieldwork described (issues presented)
• Response rate presented
• Present data, including both primary + secondary (Tables, Charts,
Summary of Interviews, observations)
• Chapter summary
• Introduction next chapter
Chapter 5 Discussions and Recommendations
• Chapter introduction
• Link the findings to the literature
• Qualitative data organized according to themes identified according to
the research questions and the literature review
• Quantitative data presented per research question/theoretical concept.
• Research justification (deviations from the original design)
• Conclusion per research question
• Which (sub) objectives are most important?
• Section summary
• Introduction next section
Chapter 6 Conclusions (based on the entire research): Recommendations
and Feasibility
• Recommendations per research theme (based on the research
questions and previous conclusions)
• Section summary with a clear overview of main conclusions/causes
Appendices
• Scripts of interviews, data matrix, observations etc.
• Declaration of Originality
• Authorization to Lend and Reproduce the Dissertation (with the
signature of you and your Supervisor)
9. Detailed Contents for Thesis
Component Weigh Word Learning Allocated
Count Outcomes Marks Details about the Contents
Introduction
Exploratory ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘why’ of your thesis.
Research and Brief Description of the company/organization, its services or/and its products. Explain how the
5%
Problem problems were discovered (the exploratory research methods used) Hypotheses development
discovery Include the research questions, relevance and motivation of the proposed research
1. Research Aims and Proposed Methods:
Development Questions and 5% Include the limitations [if any] of your research, such as time, cost, sample size, methodology, etc.
of research Objectives
questions and 30 % 2500- Literature Review
literature 3000 Create an opening section that outlines the literature that is going to be reviewed This is NOT
. a section for your opinions, but you should lead the reader through the review
Make links to authoritative literature to justify the basis for your approach to the research. NUMBER
THE SECTIONS (index link – this makes it much easier to make the connections later)
Literature
Review
20% All of the literature should focus on the research topic and research questions Recognize that there
is other research out there but that it is outside the scope of your project
Reference fully in accordance with APA guidelines.
Research Methodology
Types of research (exploratory, descriptive, causal or explanatory) Approach
(inductive, deductive)
Sampling
Population
Choice and Sampling method (probability, non-probability, layered …) sample size
Justification of (justification of your size)
Research Type of data (primary, secondary) Research
Methodology: instrument
15%
Research Survey questionnaire, interview questions,
2. instrument; Structured/semi-structured, unstructured
Development Sampling &
30 % 3000- longitudinal/cross-sectional studies
of the research data analysis;
5000 Justify the group of questions asked by linking them to the literature and your research
questions
Validity / Reliability
If the Secondary data is mainly used for the analysis, do an evaluation of the data.
Data collection methods (face to face, phone, online, social network ….) Explanation of any
framework used to analyze the data
Data /Results
Use of analytical tools, tables, Charts as appropriate.
Data Collection
Do not include your best guess as to why people responded in the way they did Do not
and Data/Case 15%
Analysis include your opinions
Do not make excuses for responses that you don’t like
Just tell the reader what the results were
Discussions
Summarize the findings
It is critical that this discussion focuses on the research findings and on your major It is not an
opportunity for you to put in your opinions
Summary and
Discuss the findings in the context of your research questions and the literature This is
Discussion of 20%
Findings where index linking is really useful
As noted in Section XX.X …… (see Section YY)
This is critical for making the link between sections, and between the data Refer to the
research questions specifically
This is not really the place for the introduction of any new topics
Conclusions, Recommendations and feasibility
3.
Discussions
40 %
7000-
Outline data and discussion-linked recommendations Discuss
Conclusions/R company specific implementation issues.
8000
ecommendatio Discuss the feasibility and limitations of the recommendation.
ns and outline
of practical 15%
Implementation of the recommendations.
implications Link the recommendations to your data. Summary
/feasibility of key conclusions.
study Highlight how the organization would benefit from your recommendations. Reflect on
positive and negative aspects and areas to improve in the future. Directions for future
research.
Structure and Appropriate referencing (APA style) Authors listed in alphabetical order
presentation of Appendices:
5%
the overall Data, charts, graphs, interview scripts etc and other tools used in compiling this project.
report. Glossary of terms When technical terms are being used.
Total 100%
