Master 2023/2024

Research seminar "Preparation and discussion of a master's thesis"

Type: Compulsory course (Arts and Culture Management)

Area of studies: Management

Delivered by: Department of Management

Where: St.Petersburg School of Economics and Management

When: 2 year, 2-4 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Marina V. Matetskaya, Elena Zelenskaya

Master’s programme: Art and Culture Management

Language: English

ECTS credits: 6

Contact hours: 48

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The research seminar course aims to develop students' skills in research and help them prepare a high-quality master’s thesis. The course explores the essence and main principles of doing academic and applied research. It focuses primarily on the discussion of the methodology, results and implications of research. This course also covers such issues as research ethics and publishing in academic journals. It is assumed that the issues relating to theory building and literature review were majorly covered in the previous research seminar during Year 1.

Learning Objectives

• to make well-grounded decisions on the research design of master's theses
• to understand the standards of academic and applied research
• to understand particular research methods, data collection and analysis techniques
• to be aware of the essence of research ethics

Expected Learning Outcomes

• conduct academic (or applied) research independently
• understand various types of research and the importance of research design
• distinguish between different research methods and strategies and understand the rationale for their application.
• address validity, reliability and generalizability issues
• choose the appropriate journals for their publications and understand the main underlying processes of manuscript submission and publication
• choose appropriate sampling techniques, data collection strategy, and data analysis methods
• understand the essence of research ethics
• choose a suitable journal for publication and understand the publication cycle
• understand different research methods and techniques

Course Contents

• Research approaches and research design
• Research structure and publication cycle
• Data collection, analysis and interpretation in art management
• Designing and conducting focus groups interviews
• Case study research
• Quantitative techniques and procedures
• Results and implications of the research

Assessment Elements

• Homework 1-2
  Two homeworks with subsequent presentation/discussion of the task in class.
• Classwork activity
  Answers and in-class work at particular seminars is evaluated.
• Presentation of the methodology of the thesis
  The theoretical framework is briefly presented, but the focus is on the methodology.
• Pre-defence of the thesis
  The presentation at the pre-defence must include the results section.

Interim Assessment

• 2023/2024 4th module
  0.2 * Classwork activity + 0.25 * Homework 1-2 + 0.35 * Pre-defence of the thesis + 0.2 * Presentation of the methodology of the thesis

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building Theories from Case Study Research. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532–550. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1989.4308385
• Saunders, M. N. K., Thornhill, A., & Lewis, P. (2019). Research Methods for Business Students (Vol. Eighth edition). Harlow, United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5774742

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Ted Gournelos, Joshua R. Hammonds, & Maridath A. Wilson. (2019). Doing Academic Research : A Practical Guide to Research Methods and Analysis. Routledge.