Research Report:

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Instructions

Research Report:

The body section of this report should be a minimum of four pages, not including the introduction, conclusion, or the graphic element. Additionally, this report will include a title page, a table of contents, transmittal letter, executive summary, graphics, and references.

See the list of components provided in Chapter 11 of the text. All sections listed are required.

Do not use direct Web references unless approved by your instructor, as they have the potential for being less than credible. Any direct Web sources are in addition to the published sources that are required.

Remember that Secondary Research is an important part of this assignment, as you will analyze the data you collect to arrive at conclusions and make a recommendation for your audience. Business research databases, such as ABI Inform Complete, which will be covered in the Proprietary Database lecture by Susan Jackson, are highly recommended for your research.

These sources will be annotated on your “References” page. Use APA-style documentation for your in-text report documentation and “References” format.

The introduction section of your report must contain a thesis statement and your research question, narrowed, focused, and clearly stated; a statement of the problem; the purpose and scope of the project (why this project is important and exactly what you are including and excluding); and the methods of research (how you approached the research and what databases, publications, and articles you searched). Do this in such a way that the reader will feel confident that you are systematically and thoroughly covering all the pertinent material and that your information will be complete and credible. Make sure you list within the sources and methods section those sources that supplied the most meaningful support for your report conclusions.

In addition, definitions are needed if you are using any important terms in a way the reader won’t immediately understand. As a transition to the report body, possibly your thesis statement, give the reader a brief preview of the way your report body will be organized. (Assume some knowledge on the part of the reader; otherwise your report may be too long and too elementary). Review Chapter 11 in the textbook for formatting your report.

The report body contains the information you found. Use a system of headings and sub-headings and at least one visual/graphic. Use in-text references, done according to APA style. An example is (Denton, 2002, p. 46); this in-text note would refer a reader to your “Reference” page, which must also be done in APA style. Use www.apastyle.org for online references. You can also use the APA Web sources referenced on the university library Web site, or the section on APA style found at the language usage site, owl@purdue.com.

The conclusion contains a summary and any inferences you can draw based on the summary. Make sure you answer your research question within your conclusion using an overall report-concluding paragraph. Ultimately, this conclusion will offer recommendations based on the conclusions drawn throughout the report.

Allow yourself generous amounts of time as the due date nears. Writing and revising take time. A report of this magnitude cannot be successfully developed at the list minute, so avoid a catastrophe and allow yourself extra time to complete this paper.

Use your most competent business writing style. That means clear, correct, plain, concise businesslike English; nothing fancy, pompous, or wordy. Carefully proofread your report. Watch sentence structure, appearance, formation of the possessive, spelling, and all the other errors that mar the good impression your work can make.

Use Times New Roman, 12-point font, single spaced, left justified text, like this document.

V. Grading Criteria

Written Report Grading Criteria:

Your written report will be graded on mechanics and content. Spelling, grammar, mechanics, word choice, topic sentences, summarizations, introduction, conclusion, research, and the appropriate supporting information are areas that will be evaluated.

Analytical Research Report Topic Ideas

Important: Your report will focus on helping to solve a business problem. The topic area you select will need to be re-worked into the format of a problem statement.

Human Resource Management Topics

1. As a newly hired research assistant in the HR department of a large company, you have been asked to determine the best means of hiring and testing new employees. Consider what other companies similar to yours are doing, research the major hiring practices, assess the positives and negatives of each, and offer recommendations to your department.

2. While it’s not a topic many employees feel comfortable discussing, the issue of drug and alcohol abuse needs to be addressed, according to the manager of your human resources department. She has chosen you to research various approaches and to assess what other companies are doing about employees suffering from drug or alcohol abuse. She wants to know what approaches these companies are taking and what programs they offer. She also wants you to recommend a reasonable policy.

3. In today’s competitive work environment, companies are constantly faced with the challenge of attracting new employees. Because some employee turnover is inevitable and even warranted, it is necessary to be competitive in today’s hiring market. Consequently, your consulting team has been hired by a small, innovative design company to investigate and recommend the most effective approaches for attracting new employees.

4. Because statistics show that the U.S. population is aging (i.e., baby boomers are nearing retirement), you have been asked to review retirement packages in companies similar to yours. Should your company be aware of any trends? Are future retirees going to demand more? Your goal is to determine what general retirement policies your company should adopt.

5. Your business is considering offering child-care and/or elder-care benefits to its employees. Assess the financial pros and cons of either type of benefit, and offer recommendations.

Management Topics

1. Many companies are touting the benefits of various forms of employee participation in management decisions. An example of this is self-managed project teams. You’ve been asked to investigate the most popular methods. What criteria should be established to evaluate these methods? After you’ve evaluated each method, provide your recommendation for the best one.

2. Numerous articles suggest that company wellness plans cut firms’ healthcare costs. You’re intrigued, but not totally sold. Surely these plans must have disadvantages as well. You decide to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of wellness plans. It might help to get a sense of how rank-and-file employees feel about these plans and review the published materials. Do the advantages really outweigh the disadvantages?

3. You are part of a corporate management team that is discussing Bob Heller’s promotion to head the new division. Bob has been a loyal employee, working his way up through the corporate ranks. The team feels strongly about this candidate, but it realizes that he does have potential weaknesses. Because the team wants Bob to succeed, it asks you to investigate firms like the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, NC, and Personnel Decisions International in Minneapolis, which offer training programs for up-and-coming managers. Evaluate the services offered by these – or other – management-skills services to determine which one would best serve Bob’s needs. Offer recommendations.

4. After the eruption of the Volkswagen emissions scandal in September 2015, Timmons Volkswagen of Long Beach has been working diligently to improve its tarnished image, reverse public opinion, and increase its declining sales numbers. In an attempt to improve its reputation, Timmons’ General Sales Manager, April Somers, has contracted your consulting team to investigate various corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. As a result of your team’s investigation, Somers wants a recommendation of the most effective CSR approach to minimize the damage Volkswagen’s ethical lapse has caused the Long Beach dealership.

Accounting Topics

1. You have been asked to analyze the best organizational structure for two young entrepreneurs opening a new restaurant. These two restaurateurs are married female business partners with families. Should these women incorporate, consider a limited liability arrangement, or a partnership? What effect would each have on their income taxes? Advise them on the best choice, given their circumstances.

2. Your magazine publishing company has acquired several small companies—three to eight magazines per company; consequently, while assessing the most cost effective operational structure, your board of directors would like your department to conduct due diligence on the benefits and detriments of leaving the accounting operations with each newly acquired company or absorbing those functions corporately. Ultimately, based on your findings make a recommendation on whether to absorb the accounting functions corporately or leave the accounting operations with each acquired satellite company.

3. Assume you are working for a company that is considering opening a business in another country. Analyze possible accounting problems the company might encounter and offer possible solutions for overcoming these problems.

Marketing Topics

1. Knowing you’ve just graduated from college with a degree in marketing, a family from your hometown asks you to investigate the pros and cons of their investing in a franchised business. The family wants you to recommend a franchise in which they can invest, to explain to them the financial and legal implications, and to choose a location for the business. Of three locations of your choice, which is the best for a new McDonald’s,Dairy Queen, Subway, Blimpie, or franchise of your choice?

2. Trends in customer service are changing. Many corporations are making personalized customer service an important part of their image. As a marketing intern for a well-known national chain, you have been asked to evaluate these trends. What do customers today expect? How are other national chains capitalizing on these trends? In addition to evaluating the trends, offer recommendations to the company.

3. Because of its tremendous growth in recent years, the company for which you work is faced with the following dilemma: should it establish an in-house advertising department or use an agency? This is all new to you, so you begin by investigating what other businesses in similar situations have done. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? What is the better choice for your company?

4. A start-up clothing retailer is looking to maximize its advertising efforts to millenials while dealing with its limited budget constraints. So your little, but mighty, consulting firm has been contracted to evaluate marketing—for example, social media, word of mouth, or print, approaches–and recommend the marketing approach that has the greatest impact on millenials for the lowest costs.

5. An ABC News report states that doctors and other critics are skeptical of the food and beverage industry’s voluntary rules to eliminate junk food advertising on television and company Web sites to kids under 12. They claim that many companies have found other, creative ways to use technology to push their products to kids, such as social networking sites. As an intern at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, you have been asked to complete your own independent study of junk food advertising to children under 12. Your job is to confirm or refute that (a) most of the products that companies advertise to children on TV and company Web sites are now healthy and (b) that companies are not using ways other than television and company Web sites to push their products to kids under 12. Based on your findings, what conclusions can you draw? Do you want to relate your study to the huge increase in childhood obesity in this country and abroad? Make recommendations that are appropriate for a center devoted to public interest issues.

6. What recent advertising campaign on a national level has been a failure? What campaigns have been tremendously successful? Select one or the other, analyze why the campaign failed or succeeded, and offer recommendations to other marketers.

7. You have been asked to conduct a market study of your city (or another, if you choose) to determine the best location for a given business (your choice). The company requesting this study wants basic demographic information (e.g., population, income, age, traffic flow, etc.) to be used as the basis for your recommendation.

Finance Report Topics

1. Does a relationship exist between success in major sports and the amount of alumni donations to a college? Does success in major sports positively affect the quality of applicants to a college? Assume that the athletic department of College X claims that if it receives significant financial support, it will produce successful teams. In turn, those successful athletic teams will pull in larger alumni contributions, which will attract higher-quality students. As a research consultant, you have been asked to study the issue. Do any studies exist that show the effects of successful teams? Based on your findings, make a recommendation to the administration of College X regarding the funding request from its athletic department.

2. Your business is considering offering child-care and/or elder-care benefits to its employees. Assess the financial pros and cons of either type of benefit, and offer recommendations.

3. A frequent topic in business is the issue of CEO compensation. Critics complain that CEO salaries have become exorbitant and should be capped. Is it unethical for executive salaries to far exceed the average wage of employees? Should executive pay be tied to an organization’s profits? Select a large public company for which salary data are available. As a member of a stockholder watchdog team, you have been asked to examine its executive salaries and report to the team, which thinks salaries are excessive. What conclusions would you draw, and what recommendations would you make to stockholders?

4. Having recently completed your MBA, you and a couple of fellow MBA graduates with limited funds are looking for an investor. You have identified that in recent years food carts have become a booming business, so possibly taking a start-up business idea mobile might seem like a lucrative opportunity to a venture capitalist. However, in making this decision, your team of entrepreneurs must weigh the benefits and challenges of four specific mobile businesses then choose one to recommend to your potential investor.

Information Systems Topics

1. Should Company X (your choice) consider offshoring one of its operations, such as call center or tech support? As a consultant, you have been asked to research the pros and cons of outsourcing and offshoring and make recommendations to the company based upon your findings.

2. A popular trend in today’s workplace is “telecommuting.” Your boss has had several employees ask her about the possibility of performing work — at least part time — at home. Your boss isn’t convinced that telecommuting is in her best interest, so she asks you to write a report that analyzes the pros and cons of this form of employment. Consider what jobs are ideal for telecommuting, what the employment statistics reveal, and how telecommuting affects both businesses and employees.

A small team of tech-oriented venture capitalists—five investors—is looking for a start-up company that is utilizing big data analytics effectively. Because this team of investors is short on time, they have hired your small consulting firm to investigate three or four—retail, automotive, health, and xxxxxx—industries currently using big data analytics effectively and report back, recommending which innovative use of analytics to support.

Instruct

ions

Research Report

:

The

body section of this report should be

a minimum of four pages

, not including the

introduction, conclusion, or the graphic element.

Additionally

, this report

will include a title

page,

a table of contents,

transmittal letter, executive summary,

graphics,

and

referenc

e

s

.

See

the list of components provided in Chapter 11

of the text.

All sections

listed

are required.

Do not use direct Web references unless approved by your instructor, a

s they have the potential

for being less than credible. Any direct Web sources are in addition to the published sources that

are required.

Remember that Secondary Research is an important part of this assignment, as you will

analyze the data you collect to arrive at conclusions and make a recommendation for your

audience.

Business research databases, such as ABI Inform Complete, which will be

covered in

the

Proprietary

D

atabase

lecture by Susan Jackson, are highly

recommended for your research.

These sources will be annotated on your “References” page. Use APA

–

style documentation for

your in

–

text report documentation and “References” format.

The

introduction

section of your report must contain a

thesis statement

and your

research

question

, narrowed, focused, and clearly stated; a

statement of the problem;

the

purpose and

scope

of the project (why this project is important and exactly what you

are including and

excluding); and the

methods of research

(how y

ou approached the research and w

hat databases,

publications, and articles you searched). Do this in such a way that the reader will feel confident

that you are systematically and thoroughly c

overing all the pertinent material and that your

information will be complete and credible. Make sure you list within the

sources and methods

section those sources that supplied the most meaningful support for your report conclusions.

In addition, definit

ions are needed if you are using any important terms in a way the reader won’t

immediately understand. As a transition to the report body, possibly your thesis statement, give

the reader a brief preview of the way your report body will be organized. (Assu

me some

knowledge on the part of the reader; otherwise your report may be too long and too elementary).

Review Chapte

r 11 in the textbook

for formatting your report.

The

report body

contains the information you found. Use a system of headings and sub

–

head

ings

and at least one visual/graphic

.

Use in

–

text references, done according to APA style. An example

is (Denton, 2002, p. 46); this in

–

text note would refer a reader to your

“Reference” page

, which

must also be done in APA style.

U

se

www.apastyle.org

for online references. You can also use

the APA

W

eb sources referenced on the university library

W

eb site

,

or the section on APA style

found at the language usage site,

owl@purdue.com

.

Instructions

Research Report:

The body section of this report should be a minimum of four pages, not including the

introduction, conclusion, or the graphic element. Additionally, this report will include a title

page, a table of contents, transmittal letter, executive summary, graphics, and references.

See the list of components provided in Chapter 11 of the text. All sections listed are required.

Do not use direct Web references unless approved by your instructor, as they have the potential

for being less than credible. Any direct Web sources are in addition to the published sources that

are required.

Remember that Secondary Research is an important part of this assignment, as you will

analyze the data you collect to arrive at conclusions and make a recommendation for your

audience. Business research databases, such as ABI Inform Complete, which will be covered in

the Proprietary Database lecture by Susan Jackson, are highly recommended for your research.

These sources will be annotated on your “References” page. Use APA-style documentation for

your in-text report documentation and “References” format.

The introduction section of your report must contain a thesis statement and your research

question, narrowed, focused, and clearly stated; a statement of the problem; the purpose and

scope of the project (why this project is important and exactly what you are including and

excluding); and the methods of research (how you approached the research and what databases,

publications, and articles you searched). Do this in such a way that the reader will feel confident

that you are systematically and thoroughly covering all the pertinent material and that your

information will be complete and credible. Make sure you list within the sources and methods

section those sources that supplied the most meaningful support for your report conclusions.

In addition, definitions are needed if you are using any important terms in a way the reader won’t

immediately understand. As a transition to the report body, possibly your thesis statement, give

the reader a brief preview of the way your report body will be organized. (Assume some

knowledge on the part of the reader; otherwise your report may be too long and too elementary).

Review Chapter 11 in the textbook for formatting your report.

The report body contains the information you found. Use a system of headings and sub-headings

and at least one visual/graphic. Use in-text references, done according to APA style. An example

is (Denton, 2002, p. 46); this in-text note would refer a reader to your “Reference” page, which

must also be done in APA style. Use www.apastyle.org for online references. You can also use

the APA Web sources referenced on the university library Web site, or the section on APA style

found at the language usage site, owl@purdue.com.