Hi Rabia

I have some advice for you. Don't go for a huge topic like the ones that you are thinking about investigating. It will be too complex and you will end up producing shallow conclusions. Far better to select a narrow topic that relates to a area in which you want to develop skills. For example, if you are interested in marketing and have access to a company that has continued to trade though the pandemic your dissertation could be something like 'How Covid 19 influenced marketing strategies and priorities : a study of the XYZ company'. If you do this and collect interview data from say 10 managers, then professionally analyse your data with NVivo or similar, then you will have a study of real managerial issues. Enjoy!

I think most Business topics currently are revolving around Covid 19. Choose the sector of your choice you wish to examine and what aspect eg. Productivity, manufacture, logistics, performance, revenue etc... topics are plentiful.

How can businesses leverage the pandemic as an entry opportunity into emerging markets?

Dear Rabia,

The impact of COVID-19 on SMEs in your particular location may be an emerging topic for the research.

Thanks for the recommendation Rabia. Not everyone agrees with me but I believe that a degree in management should help those who take management positions to be more capable of doing a good job than if they had not studied for a management degree. Accordingly, as students rarely become CEOs of large companies until they have something like 20 years of experience it does not make sense for a student project to investigate a topic that is largely relevant only to top corporate teams. Far better to use the opportunity to compete a dissertation about an aspect of the craft of managing at a practical level. If you are interested in this level of investigation you might find my book on managing agile enterprises helpful (hopefully it is in your university library) as this explores the reality of managing in turbulent environments. The book is 'Exploiting Agility for Advantage: A Step-by-Step Process for Acquiring Requisite Organisational Agility' and was published last year by de Gruyter. You could consider using this as a set of orienting concepts for your investigation. Some of my students used my agile-management framework for this purpose while I was writing it and they found it helpful (they gave me lots of good ideas!!). There are lots of other options of course. So, my advice is to select a topic that is relevant to your medium term managerial ambitions, rather than a top team topic. All the best.

Emerging markets, globalization, sustainability - are all interesting topics, and of course, a pandemic influenced on each of them. Think about previous research, to what extend will you analyze the pandemic. Theoretical framework? Maybe to keep it in crisis management field? How to explain what has happened in 2020 from the theoretical perspective?

Dear Rabia:

I read and sometimes i make exercises with my students on scenario planning, a tool developpedfor companies by Shell in the 70´, although older for other purposes. Well, it is usefull to imagine how the world will evolve on the long run, like for instance 10 years from now.

It is very interesting to think of the scenarios that will come after the covid 19 pandemic is gone, something that is beginning to occur. There are several questions we have yet to answer, for instance: will globalization go on?, will China change it´s political system?, will the global organization (WHO, UN, etc.) have a more important role in the world? will climate change be solved somehow?. I find these questions challenging and interesting because it is a way of preparing ourselves to these changes.

So, answering your question. Why don´t you try to imagine the scenarios for the world in 2030?. It´s a very very interesting topic.

Hope it helps, regards

Gustavo Concari

Beautiful Answer Gustavo Concari .... gave me a new research interest

- Is there a global best practise in pandemic preparation in companies? (i.e. South Korea? Difficult might be the differenciation of public measures vs. company only measures)

- Is there a longterm effect on the supply-chains? (Costs of supply vs. safety of supply (i.e. Risk management), possible localization trend?)

- Can business models be grouped into pandemic impact levels (none, little, digital only, severe, closed) and are longterm shifts in those business models possible to create more resilience in the future? (So would it possible to move from little to none or frome closed to digital only?) This somewhat high level but could show patterns and dead ends

David Louis Francis Thank you for your response David. You have provided some valuable insight into how to approach this research. You have made a good point about researching at a relevant and practical level - this is something I didn't think of and I will definitely consider this. I have found your book online and will have a read of this!

Gustavo Concari

Dear Gustavo,

Taking the approach of scenarios is very interesting and will be challenging which is exactly what I need.

Thinking about the future and what is to come after the pandemic will be an excellent area of relevant and new research.

This answer was very insightful and has provided me with a new thinking lens! I greatly appreciate your help.

Thank you

Dear Rabia:

I´m glad the ideas expressed were useful to you.

Best regards

Gustavo Concari

Thanks Rabia. I hope that you find my book helpful. For more than ten years I spent many weeks with top management teams watching them dealing with challenging issues and I blended this learning from the 'coal face' with academic insights. Let me know whether whether book is useful to you. Good luck with your dissertation. It is a rare opportunity to do something deep and meaningful.

You can opt for topics related to Cross Cultural Management and Market Access Issues. These are by and large the most recent and relevant areas where Companies are troubleshooting to place themselves in the global market. Would help you to understand International Business Development, Pricing models, STP Analysis etc.

I like broader approaches. We are in the midst of the pandemic, so we do not yet have a panoramic view of its impact on the business world. I suggest themes related to the strong changes that globalization is suffering because of IT.

You may find many areas to write your dissertation topic. You have to define which area you want to write on, business management system, styles, skills, theory, strategies, or on business management practices.

I will study the effect of stress management of healthcare staff on their organizational commitment.

Fragmentation of economies with focus on microscaled analysis of cross-cultural opportunities in SMEs.

Hello Rabia. Collaborating with the ideas already indicated by colleagues and, looking at uniting theory and methodology, I think it is interesting for you to approach a direct relationship between two variables, for example sustainability and productivity, or corruption and performance and use the reality of COVID-19 as moderation or, depending on the theoretical questions used, as a mediating variable of the first relation.

I wish you success in your research.

this article could help you identify some relevant subjects:

Lee, H. L., & Tang, C. S. (2018). Socially and environmentally responsible value chain innovations: New operations management research opportunities. Management Science, 64(3), 983-996.

"Digitalizing the non-digital business for survival and growth", is one area I can think of. With Small and Medium sector businesses in mind, I can say that there are many firms that have not entered into the digital arena. A framework for them to slowly go digital improves the scope for growth/ sustainability.

Es amplio, es cuestión que temas de administración dominas, pude ser marketing, finanzas, talento humano, emprendimiento, aplicación de la tecnología en los negocios,...

I propose the following dissertation topic on business management: Managing the process of financial, organizational and technological restructuring in an enterprise operating in an industry in an economic crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic.

Regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

You may proceed to focus on "Dynamic Business Behavior Paradigm Shift in Responding the New Normal Era". The main focus is to re-engineering business model and simulate the behavior with dynamics system model.

Very interesting topic Prof. Subramaniam Anbanathan

Impact of social isolation on consumer behavior.