Prepare a Dissertation on Impact of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Behaviour: A case study of Zara

Learning Outcome 1: Identify an area of research relevant to business and systematically plan its investigation;

Learning Outcome 2: Implement the plan through the critical use of primary and/or secondary data and sources;

Learning Outcome 3: Critically evaluate and apply appropriate theoretical frameworks and perspectives;

Learning Outcome 4: Demonstrate initiative and capacity for independent problem solving and research;

Learning Outcome 5: Organise and present research findings through a structure of sustained and critical argument in the form of a well-structured final dissertation.

Guide to content

The following outline is a guide to of many different ways of writing up and presenting your dissertation. You should discuss, with your supervisor, the suitability of the following outline for the purposes of your own dissertation. If you are unsure of how to structure your dissertation you should stick to the guideline provided below. Your dissertation should be between 12,000 and 15,000 words and the word limits below for each chapter are given as a guide, these are not definitive word counts per chapter and again you should discuss appropriate word counts for each chapter with your supervisor keeping in mind the overall word count. If your dissertation is too long, then it may well be unfocused. If it is too short, then you may not have covered all the necessary material.

Chapter 1: Introduction
(Around 700 - 1000 words)

This chapter sets the scene and introduces the reader (i.e. examiner) to your dissertation. You should therefore give a clear account of the research problem that you set out to investigate, including your aim and objectives, introduce your model/framework and make sure that you have covered the relevant theoretical and empirical issues involved. If you have added to, eliminated or substituted research aims and objectives during the course of your work, outline succinctly both the changes and the problem you have finally tackled. Remember that this chapter, like all chapters, will have an introduction, a main body of text and a conclusion.

Chapter 2: Literature Review
(Around. 2500 - 3000 words)

Saunders et. al (2012) advise you to think of your literature review as discussing how far the literature goes in answering your research question(s). This is a useful approach. Your literature review should therefore be selective, but structured in such a way as to demonstrate your familiarity with the general field in which your research question lies. You should justify your choice of model/framework. It is often important to identify and discuss gaps in the current literature. Most literature reviews will contain the following elements. Check that you have included them all (where appropriate), but please note that this list is a checklist, not a format for the structure of the chapter:

An introduction to the literature review;
A discussion of the theoretical perspectives which previous writers have used for investigations in your chosen field;
A summary of the main empirical findings of previous research, together with data from other sources, stressing those ideas and empirical findings which are important to your work and including those which you challenge and reject as well as those that you have used for your own study;
Criticisms of other writers' assumptions and arguments, in a way which helps to bring out the reasons for your choice of theoretical perspective;
A justification of your choice of model/framework;
Your research questions/hypotheses, which should clearly emerge from the literature/conceptual framework;
A conclusion, which summarises the building blocks you have selected as a basis for your own work, and which leads the reader into the following chapters.

Chapter 3: Research Design and Methods
(Around 1500 - 2000 words)

This chapter sets out the research strategy and methods you have used to answer your research questions(s). The examiner will expect you to show the reliability and validity of your choices and to justify your choices. The chapter should include:

An introduction;
A brief outline of the research strategy you have chosen and the reasons for your choice;
A clear indication of the range and type of data to be collected;
A detailed account of the methods used for data collection and analysis in which your methods are justified;
A discussion of any problems or difficulties you encountered or any changes you made during the course of your research;
A conclusion

Your textbook also has a useful additional checklist.

Chapter 4: Results or Findings*
(c. 3000 - 3500 words)

In this chapter you show the reader the information you have discovered in answer to your research question(s). However, at this stage you are normally detailing the information you have discovered, not analysing it. That is for the next chapter.

You should give careful consideration as to how you will present your findings. You will have a range and volume of data, which you need to summarise and present and you may use a variety of methods, including tables, charts, diagrams, verbatim quotes etc. You will also need to contextualise the data and point out any weaknesses/omissions in your material.

Remember that this chapter also needs an introduction and a conclusion.

Chapter 5: Discussion and Analysis and Conclusions
(c. 3500 - 4000 words)

Your analysis and conclusions chapter should be at least as long as your results chapter and is the chapter in which you analyse your findings. Its purpose is to answer your research questions. You should consider what you have been able to establish in your research, giving attention to replications and refutations of previous literature and writers' findings, as well as showing new or innovative data.
Chapter 6: Conclusions and recommendations
(c. 1000 - 1500 words)

Conclusion Includes a synthesis of the dissertation's primary arguments, supporting evidence, themes, and hypotheses. In this section, you can discuss how well your dissertation went, if your findings lined up with your hypotheses, and what kind of follow-up study would be warranted after reading your findings. Your conclusion section can be devoted to the summary and another section for recommendations, suggestions for further study or improvements to the dissertation as a whole. If there are practical implications for your research then you need to decide whether or not you wish to make specific recommendations, or just draw out the general implications of your work. You should be explicit about the types of context/situation for which your conclusions are relevant, and the limits beyond which they do not or may not apply. You should also indicate potential areas of future research. To ensure cohesion with the rest of the essay, save writing the conclusion until near the end of your writing session, when most of the editing and redrafts have been completed.