Dear all,
I am seeking help in regards to narrowing down my topic for my masters thesis in International Business & Management. My research proposal was recently rejected by my supervisor, with my topic being too broad and that I failed to identify a significant gap. The initial aim of my research question was to investigate the barriers of foreign divestment facing firms in the automotive industry operating in the UK after Brexit. I was aiming to take a qualitative exploratory study. This choice is largely due to the fact I find quantitative quite tricky and was advised to do qualitative.
To give some background I was researching this because A potential withdrawal of investment was raised by automotive firms such as Nissan and Ford, with concerns that sufficient profits could no longer be made. Despite these negative effects, Nissan and Ford, along with other firms in the automotive industry, have not divested from the U.K. My thesis aimed at examine why this is, specifically, the barriers to exit firms may face in their decision to divest from UK. In my literature review then I highlighted the barriers to exit that were outlined by Porter in 1976 which included economic, strategic and managerial barriers. My supervisor explained that because I already explained in the literature review what barriers were there, that no gap existed. They suggested I look at one particular barrier and investigate that. I have looked at economic barriers such as sunk costs and managerial barriers such as agency theory, self identity theory etc but I have still failed to find a gap. I have also looked at escalation of commitment (sunk cost fallacy) but there also seems to be significant literature on it. I was also considering international commitment but not sure how I would approach it.
Can anyone provide me with any guidance how I can narrow down and develop a strong research question?
Thanks,
Rebecca
Interesting question you have!
perhaps some ideas
upgrade your literature review with more recent contributions, perhaps than the research gap will more clear.
why automotive? Does the uk has a relevant automotive sector? Or they just put some components together from foreign automotive industries?
why automotive? May be another sector?
why this topic? Perhaps look to supply chain finance for SMEs in the UK
good luck!
Since your supervisor stated that the topic is too broad, I would like to point out the following:
For any research including theses, you need to find a specific topic and go deep in your study around this specific topic. If the topic is too broad, you will lose control over such broad topic mentioning everything in all the chapters of the thesis; plus the results may be scattered and will find it hard to get such results, explain them, and justify them properly.
In order to get a research gap, select a number of good published papers, about your specific topic, including recent publications (preferably from Google Scholar or Research Gate) and check for what has not been published yet. at the end of these papers, you will find "Limitations and Suggestions for Future Studies".. check them out and select the gap to be covered.
I think you have chosen a great research topic for your thesis. Are you really expected to provide a theoretical contribution for a masters thesis? That is rather ambitious. An empirical and/or methodological contribution should suffice.
The literature points out that mobility barriers may be important for divestment, but few empirical studies actually examine such barriers.
An interesting aspect of mobility barriers regarding foreign divestment is to distinguish between those that (i) are local (host country related) such as a subsidiary's relations to local suppliers and customers, (ii) its ties to other units within its parent corporation's global network, and (iii) the parent corporation's overall strategies and dependence on a particular unit/location (location flexibility).
I have done a bit of research on foreign divestment (that you can easily identify if you do a quick search on for example Google Scholar, or here on Research Gate), which may be useful for developing your own ideas on the topic.
Good luck on the project!
Thank you all for your feedback. I have now decided to look at foreign divestment decisions through the lens of the theory of planned behaviour. I look forward to sharing my insights when the thesis is complete
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