INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS/MARKETING INVESTIGATIONS PROJECT BRIEFING

This project requires you to develop a proposal for a piece of primary research which examines some aspect of the debate between two schools of thought, Global Convergence and Global Divergence. The project is in two parts and both parts carry equal weighting.
Part 1: Theoretical Foundations
You are required to develop an annotated bibliography of 10 journal articles which you believe have made an important contribution to the debate around Global Convergence and Global Divergence. The annotated bibliography needs to explain:
• Why you believe each article is important;
• The philosophical underpinning and methodological approach taken in each article;
• The main findings and key conclusions of the article;
• The overall character of the bibliography as a whole in terms of philosophical underpinnings, methodologies, findings and how representative it is of the debate between Global Convergence and Global Divergence as a whole.
Part 2: Primary Research Proposal
You are required to write a proposal for a piece of primary research which would contribute to the debate between the Global Convergence and Global Divergence schools of thought. The proposal should be consistent with the typical expectations for primary research placed on an MSc student. The proposal should contain:
• A clearly stated research question which is derived from an element of the literature in the annotated bibliography in Part 1 of the project;
• A discussion of the different ways in which this research question could be answered with a consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach;
• A clear explanation of the proposed methodological approach, its weaknesses and the implications of those weaknesses for any results that may come out of it;
• An explanation of the rationale for this approach and why it was chosen.