Dissertations

Writing Dissertations & Theses
What you should know but no one tells you

Dr. Miguel Moital
This book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/dissertations
This version was published on 2015-06-17
Published by YACOPublishing
2015 Dr. Miguel Moital
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Contents
Full Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
COPYRIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
HELP! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
vi
DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
vii
ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
viii
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ix
1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. THE 6 Cs OF ACADEMIC WRITING EXCELLENCE . . . . . . . . . .

2.1 Confined (to the aim and objectives of the study) . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Corroborated (by evidence) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Critical (Actively engages with, rather than passively accepts, information) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4 Coherent (Logical and consistent) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5 Concise (Written in a brief, but comprehensive way) . . . . . . . . .
2.6 Captivating (Able to capture and hold the attention of the reader) . .
2
3
4
3. THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

3.1 Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4 Contribution to knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5 Implications for your research . . . . . . . . . . . .
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15
CONTENTS
4. GENERIC WRITING SKILLS . . . . .

4.1 Structure of an Argument . . . . .
4.2 Multi-level Arguments . . . . . .
4.3 Short Sentences, Long Paragraphs
4.4 List of Expressions . . . . . . . .
4.5 Your Writing Assumptions . . . .
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18
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5. THE INTRODUCTION
5.1 Purpose . . . . . .
5.2 Writing objectives .
5.3 Writing tips . . . .
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27
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35
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6. LITERATURE REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2 Types of literature review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3 Stages of the literature review . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4 Intellectual depth ladder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.5 Using summary tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.6 Reviewing results or the characteristics of the research?
6.7 Writing tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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42
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7. METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1 Process, Process, Process! . . . . . .
7.2 The research process as a trip . . . .
7.3 Explaining methodological choices .
7.4 Explaining qualitative data analysis
7.5 Characteristics of the sample . . . .
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58
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64
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8. RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.1 What data should be included in the results chapter?
8.2 Quantitative results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.3 Qualitative results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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67
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9. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION . .

9.1 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.2 Where to place the discussion . .
9.3 Structuring the conclusion chapter
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80
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CONTENTS
9.4
9.5
Being fair to the results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Reflect on your learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84
84
ACTIVITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ACTIVITY 4.1: The structure of an argument in practice .
ACTIVITY 4.2: Multi-level arguments in practice . . . . .
ACTIVITY 5.1: Analysing the structure of an introduction
ACTIVITY 5.2: Process and End objectives . . . . . . . .
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ACTIVITIES EXPLAINED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ACTIVITY 4.1: The structure of an argument in practice
ACTIVITY 4.2: Multi-level arguments in practice . . . .
ACTIVITY 5.2: Process and End objectives . . . . . . .
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REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
96
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ii
Full Table of Contents
Full table of contents
iii
iv
COPYRIGHT
All Rights Reserved
All content and images contained in this document are owned by Dr. Miguel Moital.
You may print it for personal purposes only. Academic tutors may use small portions
of the content of this book in their academic activity. All other uses, including use
for commercial purposes, requires the prior written permission of Dr. Miguel Moital.
HELP!
This eBook is work in progress. This is just the first edition of what is intended to be
a live document. Therefore, I encourage those who are using this eBook to share their
thoughts about the tips and tools with me. Is there anything that is not clear? Could
I have provided an additional explanation that could have helped you? Welcome to
the age of co-production.
You can contact me:
by email email
through my blog.
https://mmoital@hotmail.com
http://miguelmoital.blogspot.co.uk/
DEDICATION
To my Mentor, Professor Manuel Caldeira Pais (1930-2015)
To my PhD Supervisors, Professor Roger Vaughan and Dr. Jonathan Edwards
To my students, who have been the main inspiration for this book
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Miguel Moital is a Principal Academic in Events
Management in the Department of Events & Leisure,
Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University, UK.
At undergraduate level, Miguel lectures on the BA
Events Management and at Post-graduate level on the
MSc Events Management and MSc Events Marketing.
Miguel has supervised to completion more than 60
undergraduate and 25 Masters dissertations as well
as 4 PhDs. He has examined Masters and PhDs as
an external examiner and he is a frequent reviewer
Dr. Miguel Moital
of articles for some of the leading tourism journals.
This supervisory and reviewer experience, coupled with his own research training
(including two great PhD supervisors!), has given him an insight into the process
behind academic writing excellence.
He is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and since his completion of the
PGCert in Academic Practice (Bournemouth University, 2007), he has introduced a
number of innovations in his teaching practice. Two of these were the basis for the BU
Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (Client-based assessment
and writing student feedback using bank of comments). More recently he has led
the adoption Ugrade (a peer assessment platform based on WebPA) at Bournemouth
University.
His current areas of research interest include the consumer experience and marketing
applied to events and leisure. He has published in a number of journals and has
presented more than 20 papers in international conferences.
PREFACE
If you ask me what the most enjoyable part of my job is, I will answer with no
hesitation: supervise dissertations (and theses). I love seeing students evolve as
researchers and I am often amazed at their ability to grow their research skills in
such a short period of time. While most of this evolution is down to the students
commitment to do a good dissertation, I, as supervisor, can steer the student in the
right direction (and away from mistakes).
Over the years I also have learned a lot from the students that I supervised, making
me a better researcher and supervisor. During my supervision appointments I often
end up thinking to myself wow, I had never though of that!. Luckily, I have had
many students that challenged my intellect. I remember a particular supervision
where the nature of the work the student was carrying out was so innovative that
I often felt out of my depth. In the end the student managed to do a very good
dissertation, from which we managed to publish a journal article! It was a learning
experience to me as much as to the student. Perhaps it is their ability to make me
think, to enhance my knowledge and to challenge my research practice that makes
supervising dissertations the most enjoyable part of my job.
Final year students doing the two undergraduate courses I teach on (BA (Hons)
Events Management and BA (Hons) Events & Leisure Marketing) and MSc Events
students have to write a dissertation. This is a major piece of work as it counts as
a double unit (Undergraduate) and triple unit (Masters). Therefore, it is no surprise
that students put a lot of effort in to doing their dissertation. As a consequence,
they also request support from their supervisors frequently. With all the pressures
coming from the multiple demands of an academic job, my main challenge is to
provide meaningful support without consuming too much time. This is even more
challenging when one considers that I often have to supervise students from diverse
cultural and educational backgrounds.
Over the past 9 years I supervised over 60 Undegraduate dissertations and 25 Masters
dissertations. In addition, I marked as many dissertations supervised by colleagues
(all dissertations at my School are marked by the supervisor and a second academic).
PREFACE
I have been confronted with countless situations that required not only identifying
the strengths and weaknesses of a dissertation, but also finding an appropriate way
to explain how the student could have done things differently.
Although sometimes students would prefer me to tell them the answer, my focus
is on giving them the skills to be able to find the answer themselves. These generic
skills, once understood and learned, can be applied to much of the work required to
complete a good dissertation (or a research project), but also to other parts of life (e.g.
produce stronger arguments, better communicate ideas). In other words, my focus is
on helping students to learn how to be better at catching fish rather than on giving
them the fish.
Over time, I developed a portfolio of tips and tools that helped many students to
improve, sometimes significantly, their dissertation. When explaining some of the
material covered in this book to my students, I often find myself looking at their faces
and seeing that they just had an Eureka moment. A moment when they change the
way they view, and do, research forever. It does not need to involve a massive change.
It is, as I often tell them, just another piece of the jigsaw puzzle that has been put in
a different, better place.
This book should not be seen as another book competing with the many books on
dissertation research skills. The book aims neither to be exhaustive nor to explain
the whole dissertation research process. Instead it should be seen as complement
and an add-on to such books. While I do include new material, I also adapt existing
knowledge, expand it and/or explain it in a different way so as to make it easier for
the students to understand it.
For example, I did not create the knowledge about the structure of an argument, but
the analogy of the house is my take on how you can explain an argument using a
common sense example. Student feedback suggests that this analogy achieves its
intended purpose to a good extent. Some of the material covers unwritten rules
that I have identified as associated to a good dissertation.
Although most of them will not be aware of it, my students have had a lot of input
into this book. After all, many of the ideas contained in this book came from my
interaction with them. In one form or another, I have shared many of the tips and
tools with them and then saw if they were useful or not (i.e., improved the quality
of their work). Other areas are untested.
PREFACE
xi
Students can use this book as self-help (acting as a virtual supervisor, as I tell
my students), but also as a basis for discussions with their supervisor(s). Although
it is written having students in mind, this book is also expected to be helpful
to supervisors. Supervisors can use this book to enhance their portfolio of tips
and tools, hopefully improving their ability to help students to produce better
dissertations. While the examples given are related to my field of study (events,
leisure, tourism and hospitality), by focusing on generic dissertation skills which are
applicable to virtually any dissertation, I trust that most dissertation students will
find this book useful.
1. INTRODUCTION
The meaning of the word dissertation, monography and thesis varies across the
world. In this ebook, a dissertation is viewed as resulting from a research project that
involves the collection of data. This data is obtained through a rigorous process of
designing, implementing, analysing and reporting. It usually involves primary data
generated through a variation of collection methods that may include interviews,
questionnaires, experiments, observation or document analysis. However, the data
need not to be primary only; much of what is covered in this book is relevant to
research projects based on secondary data.
My supervision style distinguishes two key skills required to produce a high standard
dissertation. The first focuses on the process of research, leading to the collection and
analysis of high quality data. The emphasis during this stage is on elements such as
defining the scope of the study, getting familiar with the literature review, developing
the conceptual framework, designing the data collection instrument, collecting the
data and analysing it using suitable methods.
I emphasise the research process elements a lot and often my students have done
a great job collecting their data, ending up with high quality data. The quality of
the dissertation then is very much dependent on their ability to make the most of
the potential their data is giving them. In other words, they have the basis to tell a
great story; now their challenge is to make sure the report is able to accurately and
confidently tell the story. Therefore, the second stage of my supervision focuses very
much on communication, that is, writing up the report in a way that makes the most
of the data collected. Much of this book is about the latter, however references to the
the process of research will also be made.
The communication stage is concerned with making sure that the story the dissertation will be telling meets six criteria, expressed in the form of 6 Cs: Confined,
Corroborated, Critical, Coherent, Concise and Captivating. The range of tips and
tools presented in this book aim, in one way or the other, to contribute to fulfilling
the 6 Cs. The next chapter explains each of the 6 Cs in detail.
2. THE 6 Cs OF ACADEMIC
WRITING EXCELLENCE
When supervising students I usually emphasise two broad skills required to produce a
high standard dissertation. The first focuses on the process of research that underpins
the dissertationt, leading to the collection and analysis of evidence that answers the
question(s) the dissertation is addressing (i.e. its objective(s)). The emphasis during
this stage is on elements such as defining the scope of the dissertation getting familiar
with the literature (including theories and models), collecting and analysing data
(primary or secondary) and drawing conclusions. The second stage of my tutorship
focuses on communicating your research well. That is, writing up the report in a way
that makes the most of the work done in the previous stage.
The 6 Cs of Academic Writing Excellence
From my experience it is clear that a well communicated dissertation needs to adhere

to certain guidelines. These six criteria, expressed in the form of 6 Cs, are: Confined,
THE 6 Cs OF ACADEMIC WRITING EXCELLENCE
Corroborated, Critical, Coherent, Concise and Captivating. Your grade will reflect
your ability to meet the benchmarks (i.e. reference points) given by the 6 Cs. Please
take some time to read them. Read and re-read it if is needed. These 6 Cs are the
basis with which you should self-evaluate any piece of academic work, that is, you
can use them to evaluate how good your dissertation is.
2.1 Confined (to the aim and objectives of the

study)
Imagine the following situation. You go to a bookstore and see a book entitled 50
Delicious Recipes of Asian Cold Dishes. You like Asian food and decide to buy the
book to try the recipes. You get home and open the book and eventually realise that
half the book is about recipes from Europe and North America. What would you
think? Probably that you have been fooled and that the content does not reflect the
title. This anecdotal example represents well what confined is about.
The aim and objective(s) are a critical element in any assignment. The first challenge
is to make sure that these are appropriate to the dissertation brief, including focus
and length. However, once you have come up with an appropriate aim and objectives,
one important idea that I share with my students is the need to stick to the promise,
i.e., stay within the boundaries defined by the objective(s) of your dissertation.
The objective(s) prepare the reader for what the dissertatiion is about. One implication is that from that point onwards he/she is expecting to read about aspects that
are related to, and within the scope defined by, the objective(s). Including irrelevant
material is likely to bring your mark down.
Objectives are not set in stone from the outset. They are dynamic as students tend
to refine them as their dissertation progresses. However, while doing the work it
is important not to deviate too much from whatever your objective is at the time.
When writing the final document, then it is very important that the content of your
dissertation falls within you final objective(s).
I often have to deal with my students excitement about something they read, or
an idea they came up with. The moment of truth is when I ask them How is that
related to the objective(s) of your dissertation? If they can explain its relevance in
reasonable terms, then they can pursue it, if they cant, it is not part of the story and
should be excluded. It does not mean that it is not interesting and they should not
be excited about it; rather, it just does not fit the story they are attempting to tell in
their dissertation.
2.2 Corroborated (by evidence)

One of the critical elements in writing a good dissertation is the ability to produce
strong arguments. This means that whatever you say needs to be confirmed/supported by appropriate evidence. I often say to my students that I am not interested
in their opinion, rather in their substantiated opinion.
The difference between an opinion and a substantiated opinion is that in the latter,
the particular proposition the student is making (his/her opinion/conclusion) is based
on evidence that was produced following a structured approach. In other words, what
you are saying is based on a solid argument. If this explanation is a bit difficult to
understand at this stage, read the section on the structure of an argument presented
in Section 4.1.
Ill give you one example that illustrates this point in a dissertation context. A few
years ago I supervised a dissertation and one of my challenges as a supervisor was
to instil in the student the need to draw conclusions that were corroborated by
the evidence she had collected through her primary data. I had to emphasise this
because the students mind set was one of drawing conclusions that reflected her
opinion, rather than reflected what the data she collected was affording her to say
(substantiated opinion). In other words, her conclusions were not based on solid
evidence.
In academic work, producing solid arguments often requires two elements to be
present. The first is a clear theoretical underpinning; the second is the collection
of appropriate evidence (i.e. related to the theoretical underpinning). This eBook will
explain both, for example in Chapter 2 when I cover the Research Pillars: Process,
Content and Context.
2.3 Critical (Actively engages with, rather than

passively accepts, information)
One of the main skills required to produce excellent dissertation is critical thinking. Broadly speaking, critical thinking is the process of actively conceptualizing,
applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or
generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication (The
National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, 2014).
The above definition suggests that critical thinking is about your thought process,
grounded on the premise that you will actively engage with rather than passively
absorb information. Therefore, critical thinking is closely related to evaluation, which
is the process of assessing the merits of the information you are dealing with (i.e. the
positives and the negatives; its strengths and weaknesses).
I often tell my students that when doing a literature review they should go beyond
regurgitating what others have said. Instead, they should focus their efforts on
breaking the information down in smaller pieces, compare and contrast those pieces
and then re-group and categorise them. This is because conclusions drawn are then
more likely to be critical. This is covered later in the companion eBook through what
I call the Intellectual depth ladder.
Critical evaluation often requires a focus on the why. I always tell my students
that the most important word in their course is WHY. If you are dealing with
the whys you are scratching under the surface, and exploring the principles (or
reasons) that explain the phenomenon. This is essential if you want to change the
outcome (i.e. result). For example, I have devised a logical way to explain research
process in a dissertation, including the types of reasons you can use to explain any
methodological choice (Section 7.3).
When Doctors want to prescribe a treatment, they do not focus on the symptom;
they focus on what could be causing it. The same principle applies to much of the
work you will be doing as a student. It is important that you address both the what
is happening and the why it is happening.
2.4 Coherent (Logical and consistent)

Coherence is about good organisation. Delivering a well organised assignment
involves considerations about what to include (and exclude), the emphasis given to
both topics and arguments and the order in which information should appear.
One useful exercise when considering what to include and exclude is what I call
zooming: at times one could start with the general and then move on to the particular
(zoom in); at other times, the required strategy is one of moving from the specific to
the general (zoom out).
Achieving high levels of coherence also requires consistency of language and style
(with both appropriate to the area being covered) and purposefulness. Purposefulness
is one skill that I actively try to foster on my students. It involves explicitly demonstrating the many skills the assignment is designed to evaluate. It requires showing
an awareness of what you did, why you did it and why you are communicating it
that way. In summary, it is about demonstrating that you did things purposefully
rather than by chance.
2.5 Concise (Written in a brief, but

comprehensive way)
Being concise is about effectiveness and efficiency in communication. In other words,
it involves providing information as clearly as possible (effectiveness) in as fewer
words as possible (efficiency). It can be achieved by going straight to the point and
removing duplicate or redundant ideas and information. Unless you are a very gifted
writer, concision requires substantial efforts in writing and re-writing. Thats why I
always say to my students first drafts are never good! (that is, they are never good
enough as a final submission). Coherent and Concise are related, but different Cs.
Coherence focuses on what to include and exclude, while Concise focuses on how
clearly and succinctly the information is presented.
2.6 Captivating (Able to capture and hold the

attention of the reader)
A captivating disse rtationwill evoke the interest and attention of the reader/audience. In other words, it is about instilling in the reader the thought I want to
keep reading this. Captivating is a combination of some of the other Cs (e.g. an
assignment that is not Concise and Critical is unlikely to be Captivating), but also
includes those elements that if not there, could affect the ability to create and retain a
high level of interest on the reader/audience. These elements include the presentation
and formatting aspects such as a professional (not lazy) look, font size and type,
margins, quality of the tables and font/background contrast. [In order to meet the
Consistent criterion, these need to be consistently applied throughout].
Getting these formatting elements right can be a difficult one as each reader will
have his/her preferences. For example, should you align the text to the left or adopt
justified alignment (aligned to the left and to the right)? While I have heard some
colleagues saying that they prefer left alignment, it is my perception that justified
alignment is now favoured by the majority of academics (including myself). I even
dare to say that due to computers, most text is now justified aligned (e.g. books,
newspapers).
These six characteristics of a well communicated piece of academic work are not
mutually exclusive (i.e. completely independent). For example, concision is likely to
influence how captivating the assignment is; confinement and coherence are also
associated. Hence the importance of considering the 6 Cs together.
In summary, wherever you look back at your dissertation, these are the broad
questions that you should ask at all times:
Is what I am saying confined to the objective(s) of the assignment?
Is what I am saying corroborated by appropriate evidence?
Is what I am saying written in a critical, coherent, concise and captivating
way?
3. THE RESEARCH PILLARS:

Process, Content, Context
Defining what your research is about is the main challenge you have to tackle. This
is not always easy I am afraid and it often takes time to get to a research topic that is
focused enough and researchable. When I see students for the first time, their ideas
range from I dont know what to research to I want to research the relationship
between A and X, Y and Z (very specific). As a supervisor, my role is to advise
students on whether their specific idea makes sense (in the case of the latter), or
trying to help them to find an appropriate research topic (in the former situations).
A few years ago I had a student who struggled with defining his study to the point
that it took almost 3 months for him to do it. As a supervisor I got quite frustrated and
I started thinking more deeply about possible strategies I could use to help students
grasp what research is about sooner than later. In the end, he did very well (he got a
first), because once the penny dropped (he finally realised what research is about),
he could put all his abilities and hard work in to doing the research. Had he been
able to define his topic earlier, he would have had more time to do an even better
research piece.
Many times the best way is to break down the problem in parts. So I asked the
question what are the main components of a research topic? to myself. I went back
to dissertations I had supervised and papers I had written (doing a kind of content
analysis), and soon after I could identify that any research project has three pillars:
Process, Content and Context.
I have used this framework in Brazil, Portugal and of course the UK, and feedback
is that it does help students. Recently, I had student who came to a first meeting
without a clear understanding of what her dissertation was about and in order to
help her I explained the three pillars. I was (positively) surprised to see that when
she was wrapping up the meeting she was already using it, when she said So, in
summary, my process will be X, my content Z and my context Y.
THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context
3.1 Process
The process element reflects the How
and it is the essence of the research
project. Processes can be divided in to
generic or specific. The generic process refers to the broadest element of
your research. In social sciences, these
can be examining the relationship between variables, how individuals perceive an entity (behaviour or object)
or how individuals behave in a certain
context. So, for example, if you are
The Three Pillars of Research
examining the relationship between
two variables, your research should address the standards expected for research
examining the relationship between variables.
Here are some specific examples, with the element that pertains to the generic process
underlined:
Examples of Generic Processes
10
Specific processes complement the generic process. The table below shows five
examples of specific processes (this is not, by all means, exhaustive). Both the generic
and the specific processes are important anchors for the design of the study. If you say
your research is about congruence, then your study needs to meet accepted standards
for a study on congruence. If the study involves segmenting, then the reader will be
assessing the research based on how well it applies accepted segmentation process
standards.
Examples of Specific Processes
3.2 Content
The content component refers to the
what in a research topic. None of
the above process expressions (e.g.
perception, behaviour, comparison,
segmentation and so on) clarifies
the what: what perceptions or behaviours will be examined, what variables will be compared, and the variables that will be used for segmentation (or even what type of segmentation technique you applied). DependContent levels
ing on your research, content can be
defined at the model, variable or approach level.
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The three levels form a kind of continuum, from the specific to the general. So for
example, a variable can be measured using different models (e.g. needs can be
looked at using Maslows (1943) or Murrays (1938) model) and within an approach
there are many variables that can be researched. Most times you will be working at
the model or variable level (as the approach level is quite generic).
The figure below provides two examples for each type of content. The content, as
represented in the title of the research, is underlined.
Examples of Content Elements
3.2.1 Model level

Many times you are using a specific model and therefore it makes sense to define the
content using the name of the model. One dissertation I supervised was entitled An
evaluation of the prestige motivation model in the context of prestigious sporting
event attendance. Here, the model is clearly identified: the Prestige Motivation
Model that I co-authored with my colleague Antonia Correia from the Algarve
University (Correia and Moital, 2009). It is also possible to identify the variable
(prestige). The same applies to the second example. There are two variables (the
process is about the relationship between two variables), and one of them is defined
12
at the model level (recreation specialisation framework) and the other at the variable
level (constraints).
3.2.2 Variable level

Many times the focus of the study is not on a specific model but on a variable.
The examples in table above clearly define the focus as credibility (which is a
component of brand equity see Keller (2003) if you want to know more about it)
and personality. I know as a matter of fact (because I learned it from my students
we academics also learn from students!) that there are different models to examine
credibility and personality. However, sometimes the student does not select one
specific model and therefore the topic is defined at the variable level. In the early
stages of defining the topic, once the student defines the variable(s) of interest, (s)he
is likely to move towards the model level. This happens as a consequence of doing
the literature review which, among other things, looks at the different models put
forward to research the variable.
3.2.3 Approach level

The approach level is the broadest and it is less commonly used when defining
the topic (especially at undergraduate and masters level). Approaches encompass
a set of principles (or assumptions) that guide the observation of a phenomenon. For
example, the customer-dominant logic of marketing (Heinonen et al., 2010) suggests
that consumer value is embedded in practices (what customers do) and not on what
the marketer does. What the organisations do is to provide the opportunity for
consumers to create value for themselves. Such principles influence what researchers
observe in order to understand customer value: what variables they focus on, and
consequently the models they develop for each of those variables.
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3.3 Context
The context pillar is concerned with explaining the area(s) in which you are going
to apply (or explore) what you defined as your theoretical boundaries (process and
content). The figure below shows the possible types of context (I think it typology is
comprehensive, but if I missed others let me know!).
Types of Context
There is usually more than one context element. For example, a dissertation could
be about a group of people buying a product, or an organisation using a technology.
Some of the examples below show this. It is the same list of topics as for the content,
but in this case the words that refer to context are underlined. If you remove the
context, the sentence still makes sense: to examine perceived prestige, the effects
of endorsement on credibility, to examine congruence and a customer-dominant
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logic approach to the co-creation of value. So do this test yourself If remove the
context, does the title still makes sense?
Examples of Context
3.4 Contribution to knowledge

Thinking along the lines of process, content and context allows you to clearly
establish where your research contributes to knowledge. Contribution to knowledge
is a major concern at the PhD level, and to a lesser extent in undergraduate
or Masters research. While contribution to knowledge is not a requirement for
undergraduate/masters level, you will find that the best grades are obtained by those
students who are able to design a project with some degree of innovation (in contrast
to simply replicating an existing study).
The table below shows the possible combinations with regards to contribution to
knowledge. The highest level of contribution involves researching a new process
through new content in a new context (type 1). When process, content and context are
not new, then there is no research innovation, just a replication of previous research
(Type 7). Between total innovation and no innovation there are possible ways of
making a contribution to knowledge (Types 2 to 7).
15
I have recently started creating a table where I write down my contribution to

knowledge using bulleted points. This has been a great way of keeping track of
the key contributions to knowledge of my research. If you want to establish your
contribution to knowledge, try to replicate this strategy.
Contribution to Knowledge Typology
3.5 Implications for your research

This simple framework (the Pillars) has immense implications for how you approach,
structure, develop and write your dissertation. I will often come back to it throughout
the eBook, however at this stage it is possible to establish three implications:
Whats your dissertation on?
I often ask this question to students as the answer tells me if they are
approaching their research from the right angle. Once I supervised a
student who told me his dissertation was on social media in events.
As this is context (both social media and events are context), the answer
led to bells ringing in my head. There was no research topic yet.
Over time, the student defined what his process and content was.
After doing quite a bit of literature review, he told me his research
16
was on customer engagement. This was as major breakthrough as the

dissertation had a clear (theoretical) focus: how they engaged and why
(with events in a social media context).
Ignore the context!
Well, sort of You should not ignore it (after all is it is one of the three
pillars), but the point I am trying to make is that context is the least
important of the three. I often say to my students that I could not care
less about the context of their research (but I do care a lot about the
process and the content). From a supervisors point of view, the only
concern when looking at the context is suitability and researchability.
Suitability refers to making sure the context you select is suitable for the
process/content of your research; researchability pertains to looking at
whether the context can be researched.
Lets assume that you tell me that you want to focus on CEOs perceptions.
What I would look at is: Are CEOs the right individuals to talk to? Can
you access them? It could be that it would be better to talk to marketing
managers rather than CEOs (i.e. they could be more suitable). Or that
while CEOs would be the right people, they could be very difficult to
reach and therefore this element of the context is not researchable.
A theory of tourism, leisure, hospitality and events?
From the discussion above, it is clear that tourism, leisure, hospitality
and events are not about theory. So there is no theory of tourism, no
theory of hospitality, and no theory of events and no theory of leisure.
Instead, they are objects of study that can be looked at from different
(theoretical) perspectives.
Experiential services like tourism, events, hospitality and leisure, due to
their uniqueness, provide a fertile ground to a) develop theories that have
often been developed in other contexts or b) to develop novel theories that
have not been developed as they do not apply to other areas.
For example, service design models tend to emphasise customer-employee interaction because they have been developed in the context of
banking, insurance or retail, where this is the most critical interaction.
In contrast, in experiential services the interactions between customers
are equally, if not more important (these experiences are consumed in
interaction with other customers) and therefore we can develop service
17
design theory by exploring the design elements related to customer-tocustomer interactions.

In summary, the context is simply the area in which you decided to examine the
theory (process and content). As an academic piece of work, most of the marks you
will gain come from your ability to demonstrate academic research skills. Of course,
the context will also be important in achieving a high grade but only to the extent a)
you managed to undertake your research in a suitable context and b) that the context
has been appropriately reflected in the design of the study (process and content).
4. GENERIC WRITING SKILLS

Generic writing skills come early in this eBook because these generic skills are
relevant to every single part of the dissertation. Later in this eBook I will provide
additional advice about the writing skills specific to each section of the dissertation.
4.1 Structure of an Argument

A good dissertation is underpinned
in the writing of strong arguments
throughout. Strong arguments are important for several of the 6 Cs. Therefore understanding the structure of
an argument is essential for a good
dissertation. An argument is made up
of two main parts (or statements): the
conclusion and the premises. The conclusion is the particular idea you want
the reader to accept as the truth; the
premises are the evidence that underGeneric structure of an argument
pin the conclusion; it is from their
evaluation that the reader will accept or reject the conclusion.
The evaluation of premises is carried out in two main ways: how strong is the quality
of the evidence and how strongly the evidence is connected to the conclusion. The
best analogy is to think of an argument as the structure of a house. The roof is the
conclusion and the pillars the premises. Without pillars the conclusion will not stand.
The more pillars there are supporting the roof, and the more attached to the roof these
pillars are, the more solid the roof will be.
GENERIC WRITING SKILLS
19
ACTIVITY 4.1: The structure of an argument in practice

You can find in the Activities section a paragraph by Arajo and Bramwell
(2002) which is trying to make a point, that is, it is trying to persuade the
reader to accept a certain statement as true. The paragraph is made up
of 6 sentences. Read it carefully and answer the question: Which of the
sentences are conclusion(s) and which are premises?
In summary, developing a strong argument involves:

Adopting a particular position [i.e. the conclusion]
Supporting that position with evidence [i.e. the premises]
Critically examining the logic of your argument [the link between the conclusion and the premises]
Structuring your argument and the supporting evidence [how the argument
develops]. Here, the main consideration is the order: conclusion first or after
the premises? In the example above, the conclusion come at the beginning, but
the opposite order can also be adopted.
Further reading
I recommend reading Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Basic Skills
by Howard Hughes in order to develop your argumentation skills. The
book provides a comprehensive and accessible account of the main issues
involved in producing strong arguments. There are lots of examples and
practice activities throughout the book.
20
4.2 Multi-level Arguments

Examining the structure and logic of your argument is particularly important for a
multiple level argument. In this type of argument, a major argument results from
several minor (secondary) arguments. Using the same analogy of the house (see
previous section), instead of a single floor house, we have a multiple floor house.
The following figure illustrates a multi-level argument at play, in this instance it
resembles a two-floor house. The roof continues to be the conclusion the author is
trying to persuade the reader to accept, with the first floor pillars supporting it. The
ground floor pillars support the pillars in the first floor, and indirectly the conclusion.
This means that if I was to be able to disprove the ground floor premises, the first
floor ones would be invalid and consequently there would be grounds to reject the
conclusion.
Generic structure of a multi-level argument
Activity 4.2: Multi-level arguments in practice

In the Activities section you can find a text which is (an adaptation)
from a dissertation that I supervised a few years ago (Fogarty, 2010). Your
challenge is to identify the components of this multi-level argument. I
suggest that you start by identifying the main stance (final conclusion) the
author is trying to make, a from that point try to identify the architecture
underpinning the conclusion. Once you had a go at identifying the
structure, you can check my interpretation.
21
4.3 Short Sentences, Long Paragraphs

The dissertation document is a series of sentences organised around numerous
paragraphs. Each paragraph should contain one main idea that follows the structure
of an argument. The question is: how long should sentences and paragraphs be? A
very short paragraph is unlikely to contain a strong argument and as a consequence
is less likely to meet several of the Cs. If sentences are too long, the reader will find
it more difficult to follow your reasoning, impacting on his/her ability to assess the
merits of argument. This includes difficulties in assessing the merits of the evidence
(affecting Corroboration), the logic of the argument (impacting on Coherence) and
is likely to reduce the attention and interest of the reader (and how Captivating
dissertation is).
The general rule is, therefore, long paragraphs made up of short sentences. How
long should these be? There is no fixed rule, but as a guideline I advise my students
the following (if computer typed using standard font types and size): paragraphs
should be between 10 and 15 lines and sentences 2 to 3 lines. Araujo and Bramwells
paragraph showed in the previous section follows these guidelines. If we separate
each sentence in the paragraph we have:
Despite their potential advantages, there are often significant difficulties with
partnership approaches to planning (Bramwell and Lane 2000).
One potential difficulty is that involving diverse actors in regular meetings
and decision making is usually complex and time-consuming.
Such collaboration can face difficulties because groups refuse to work with
others as this may reduce their own influence or power, or because they
distrust other parties (Hall and Jenkins 1995).
When stakeholders are involved in joint working, they may not be disposed to
listen respectfully to the views of others or to take them into account.
In some places there may be no tradition of several organizations participating
in decision making.
22
In particular, a participation approach developed in and for developed countries may fail in the socioeconomic, cultural, administrative or political circumstances of a less developed country (Roberts and Simpson 1999; Timothy
1998, 1999a; Tosun and Jenkins 1998).
The above example shows that a clear argument contains several short sentences,
with each of them making a single or a limited number of points. This helps to
organise ideas better and to clarify the structure of the argument.
ACTIVITY 4.3: Examining the writing style of well written journal
article
Identify a couple of journal articles related to your area of research
that you think are particularly well written. Compare your writing style
against that of the two articles, notably in terms of the length and structure
of paragraphs. Once you have compared the two writing styles, attempt
to re-write a section of your dissertation using the best practice suggested
in this section.
4.4 List of Expressions

Academic writing uses specific vocabulary and a particular writing style. One way
of making sure that you write according to accepted writing patterns of the area is by
looking into previous articles on the topic. I developed my own way of dealing with
this, by developing what I call a list of expressions. Whenever I had to learn about
the writing style of a specific area, I selected 3-5 articles that I thought explained well
that specific area. It could be how they applied and explained a particular statistical
test or how they wrote about future research implications. I still use this strategy
whenever I have to tackle a new topic or technique.
After several years doing it, I have developed a long list of expressions spanning
many topics. My current list includes a lot of expressions about data analysis, such
as how to report the results of descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney/Kruskal-Wallis,
23
factor analysis and logistic regression. I have a long list of objectives, from which
I can identify the possible words used (e.g. develop, understand, investigate and
explore, test just to name a few).
With regards to the literature review, through this exercise I have identified several
words that I can use to refer to others work, including argued, noted, identified and
concluded. Many times I have more than 10 different alternatives, which give me
great flexibility in using language. I have also carried out list of expressions for areas
such as conclusion, interpretation of results, limitations and further research. (My
list is 15 pages and counting!)
Whenever you feel you need to expand the range of language, you can use this
technique to improve your writing skills. I have seen students greatly impriving their
writing style but adopting this technique. The great thing that I found is that a while
after developing my list and using it, not only I ended up using it less and less, but I
also started to develop my own style (usually a mix of the words/expressions in my
list). The figure below shows some examples from my list of expressions.
Examples from my list of expressions
24
TIP - Look for articles outside your context

In order to fully focus on the language and not the content, I usually select
papers from a different area than the one I am dealing with. For example,
when trying to make sense of how to report the results of the logistic
regression in a consumer satisfaction context, I used papers from the
health area. In the end, I am purely interesting on the process of reporting
the results of the logistic regression, not on the results themselves.
ACTIVITY 4.4: Developing your own lists of expressions

Select 2 journal articles that you think focus on similar topics as yours.
Read the introduction and the literature review. For each of these areas,
copy expressions that you could use. You should then attempt to write
your objectives and a few paragraphs of your literature review using some
of language you identified to guide you.
4.5 Your Writing Assumptions

When writing a dissertation, it is important that you are aware of the critical
assumptions underpinning your writing. I usually emphasise 4 simple, yet very
important assumptions that students should consider. They can change the way you
write your dissertation dramatically. They are:
How much does the reader know about the topic?
You dont know who is going to read your dissertation, whether to assess
it or for other purposes (e.g. other dissertation students or even your
parents!). In addition, many times your supervisor is not an expert in
the specific area you are researching (his expertise is more related to the
process of doing research). Therefore, I always advice students to assume
that the reader knows less than more about the topic (process, content and
context).
25
I often even tell my students to assume that the reader knows nothing.
This means that you have to explain as much as you can, such as concepts,
the links between ideas and the relevance of what you are doing to the
research. For example, dont assume they know what the concept you
are explaining is about or what certain more technical words mean. The
more you explain, the easier the job of the reader will be, resulting in a
more captivating dissertation.
If you dont understand it, dont write about it
Only write about what you understand because the experienced reader
(e.g. your assessor) will be able to feel whether you know/understand it
or not. The last thing you want is to cause doubt in the readers mind
with regards to whether you know the meaning (whether academic or
practical) of what you are writing about. Once you instil this doubt, the
reader could start asking what else has he wrote about that he does not
understand?. This could negatively affect the attitude with which (s)he
will look at your work, and if the reader is your assessor, your grade could
be affected.
Use simpler rather than complex language
Sometimes students develop a skewed view of what a dissertation is
about. I have come across students who think that they need to talk
at a very high abstraction level. To achieve this, they use very abstract
language, including big words. While it is important that you use the
right language, a good dissertation is often one that uses simpler rather
than complex language.
If the language is abstract or difficult to understand, my advice to
students is to use simple examples, even if anecdotal, to illustrate the
point made. In other words, explain what the language means in practice.
This will greatly help the reader to understand what it means in practice
as well as instil confidence in the reader that you know what these
abstract concepts/ideas mean in practice.
A dissertation is a story
Many times I see dissertations that are relatively well written but could
have improved by providing a more guided story. Like in a good romance
or in a good science fiction book, it is important to keep the reader
updated with regards to what is happening. For example if you are talking
26
about a topic and then move to talk about something else, clearly indicate
this to the reader. Or if the topic you are covering follows from something
that you already covered, or will be picking up further ahead, inform the
reader. The message is: keep the reader informed of the progress of the
story.
5. THE INTRODUCTION
The introduction is, in many ways, one of the most important chapters of a
dissertation. My experience suggests that a well written introduction is usually
associated to a well designed and written dissertation. This is because it tells how
clearly you know what you are doing and why you are doing it. In other words, you
will only be able to write a Confined introduction if you have the very clear idea of
what you did (and what you did not do).
As the first chapter in your dissertation, it is also important that the Introduction
captures the interest of the reader. Hence, the introduction plays an important role
in fulfilling another of the Cs: Captivating. Therefore, it is very important to carefully
think about the elements that should go in the introduction and the order in which
they should appear. Once you have identified the key ideas that should be included
in the chapter, develop a paragraph for each of them [remember that each paragraph
should contain a major argument]. In this chapter, you will find an explanation of
some of the key issues involved in writing a good introductory chapter.
5.1 Purpose
Sometimes I feel that students dont think enough about what they are doing and
why they are doing it. When it comes to the introduction of the dissertation, not
many students ask questions like what is the purpose of an introduction? or what
should the introductory chapter include?. Well, simply speaking, the introduction
performs two main roles. It explains:
The boundaries of the study (what the study is about)
The relevance of the topic (why it is important)
THE INTRODUCTION
28
Following from the above, the introduction then clearly establishes the aim and
objectives of the research. In this chapter, you will learn about the boundaries,
relevance and objectives of the research. The last section provides a number of
writing tips that will contribute to writing a better introduction.
5.1.1 The Boundaries of the research

Before you can fulfil the Confined C (i.e. make sure that the content in your
dissertation falls within its objectives), you must clearly define the boundaries (or
scope) of the study. This requires a clear understanding of both what you are doing
and what you are not doing. Both perspectives are important because they will
help you to clearly settle in your mind what your dissertation is about. Failing to
understand what you are not doing is often associated to adding irrelevant material
to the dissertation (i.e. outside the scope of their study) or failing to remove material
that is not relevant anymore after slight changes in the boundaries of the study (see
Section 5.2.3 for a discussion about the dynamic nature of the objectives).
The boundaries of a study can be divided in two types: theoretical boundaries and
context boundaries. These are process, content and context as explained in chapter
2 (If you have not read this chapter, please do so before you continue reading this
one). If you have applied the three pillars framework well it should be easy for you
to clearly establish the boundaries of the study in the introduction.
Theoretical boundaries pertain to the research from a theoretical point of view.
Theory provides a lens with which to observe the social phenomenon you want to
research. The theoretical boundaries involve two aspects: process and content. The
Process, as mentioned in Chapter 2, reflects the How. The introduction should make
it clear what the process is. It is good practice to define the process in the introduction,
for example by presenting a definition. If your study was about congruence, you
could provide in the introduction the definition of congruence you adopted. If it
focuses in perceptions, you could define what a perception is. The Content refers to
the what in a research topic. As explained in Chapter 2, the content component can
be defined at the model, variable or approach level.
THE INTRODUCTION
29
Below you can find examples of how content boundaries can be explained in the
Introduction for each of the three levels.
EXAMPLE 5.1: Model level boundaries
This example taken from Bain (2013) shows a dissertation underpinned on
the application of a specific model (the Prestige Motivation Model by Correia
and Moital, 2009). The dissertation was entitled An evaluation of the prestige
motivation model in the context of prestigious sporting event attendance. As you
can see the paragraph clearly establishes the theoretical boundary: the application
of a model in a certain context (prestige motivation in events). It then explains
the relevance of doing it (the explanation highlights both academic and practical
benefits).
Indeed, there are also practical benefits of the study; most importantly that it
shows managers what [prestige] values are met by specific [event] attributes.
The results of the study and the enhancements to the PMM [Prestige Motivation
Model] provides managers with a crucial tool in understanding attribute-value
linkages and is vital to designing events that deliver the necessary attributes
to the prestige seeking consumer. Bladen et al. (2012, p.179) suppose that the
current event attendee motivation research aims to help event managers to make
informed decisions about their events. Therefore this study examines and builds
upon the current research available, aiming to aid managers in realising which
event attributes are fundamental in achieving [prestige] consumer values, thus
motivating the individual to attend [the event].
EXAMPLE 5.2: Variable level boundaries

This example is adapted from Comptons (2011) dissertation. He specifically
wanted to look at the information search variable which features in most models
of consumer behaviour. Not only he explains that the focus is on external
information search, but also what external information search refers to (obtaining
information from the environment).
This study will focus on the external information search process driven by
THE INTRODUCTION
purchasing a ticket to Beach Break Live festival. There has been extensive research
conducted into information search which suggests that consumer search is an
integral part of the decision making process (Jepsen, 2007; Gursoy and McCleary,
2004; Srinivasan and Ratchford 1991). Information search helps consumers to
make a better purchase decision and increase the probability of satisfaction.
Search activity has been considered to be a central part of consumer decisionmaking models and these models usually consider two stages of the information
search process: internal and external search. Research suggests that consumers
initially carry out an internal search of stored memories and experiences which
they call on to assist their purchase decision (Baker and Saren 2010). When the
stored information is not sufficient, consumers engage in external information by
seeking to obtain information from the environment. Schmidt and Spreng (1996)
argue that understanding this external search behaviour is vital for marketing
management decisions. Therefore, it is crucial for festival managers to understand
the information search activity of consumers so that they can develop marketing
strategies that will influence decision-making.
EXAMPLE 5.3: Approach level boundaries

This example is taken from Rihovas (2013) doctoral thesis that I supervised.
Her study was underpinned on the adoption of a specific approach - that of
Customer-Dominant logic -, which provides a set of specific assumptions about
how consumer value is formed.
Services are often consumed in socially dense and interaction-rich settings, such
as guided tours, cruise holidays, leisure or adventure tours, golf tournaments or
events and festivals. [Given the] social interactions with, and the influence of,
other customers in such settings, [it can] be said that some form of value is cocreated as customers interact with each other. In recent years the concept of value
co-creation has become the focus of service research (Bendapudi and Leone, 2003;
Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004; Rowley et al., 2007) with researchers increasingly
adopting the Service-Dominant [S-D] logic as a new mind-set in service marketing.
S-D logic () emphasises customers active involvement in value co-creation within
service systems and turns attention toward the resources in the customers value
30
THE INTRODUCTION
31
network (Arnould et al., 2006; Baron and Harris, 2008; Vargo et al., 2008). This
perspective does not, however, address value co-creation in those instances where
the mere co-presence of other customers in the setting creates some value (e.g.,
Belk, 1975; Ehrenreich, 2006; Richards and de Brito, 2013; Tombs and McCollKennedy, 2010). The recently emerged Customer-Dominant [C-D] logic (Heinonen
et al., 2013; Heinonen et al., 2010; Voima et al., 2010) provides a useful lens in such
perspectives as it places customers value creation in customers own practices and
experiences, rather than some goal-oriented collaborative co-creation acts. () In
the context of this thesis C-D logic therefore provides an interesting theoretical
perspective on the study of C2C [customer-to-customer] co-creation.
TIP: Multiple levels

The introduction can focus (and many times does) on more than on one
level. For example, you may decide to explain the theoretical context
at the variable level first (e.g. prestige motivation) and then explain the
specific model of prestige motivation that the study employed (the Prestige
Motivation Model by Correia and Moital, 2009).
Context boundaries are concerned with explaining the area(s) in which you are
going to apply (or explore) what you defined as your theoretical boundaries. The
introduction should explain the different context elements of your study.
EXAMPLE 5.4: Context boundaries
This example comes from a dissertation on customer engagement within an
events social networking pages (Cassey, 2013). The introduction of the paragraph
defines, from the outset, which social networking platforms the study focuses on.
Please note that the boundary is described and explained (the reasons for the
choice are laid out), which is the right approach as it meets the Corroborated
criteria (why).
This study focuses particularly on the use of Facebook and Twitter. Firstly
because they are two of the most popular platforms, both with consumers and
THE INTRODUCTION
32
brands (Kaplan and Haenlein2010; Liao 2012; Solis 2011). By looking at two
popular platforms it is thought a better understanding can be generated of the
consumers behavioural manifestations toward the brand (Van Doorn et al. 2010).
The second reason these platforms have been selected is that Kaplan and Haenlein
(2012) classify them as high in self-presentation and self-disclosure. Kahn believes
engagement involves presenting ones true or preferred self, thus because of their
classification Facebook and Twitter are the most appropriate platforms for the
context of study.
TIP: Assume the reader knows nothing

One of the key writing assumptions mentioned previously (Section 4.5) is
very much applicable at this stage. Many times the reader knows nothing
about the context of your study (what do you know about salsa events?).
Therefore, it is important to give enough detail about the area you are
focusing on so that the reader can understand what it is about.
5.1.2 The Relevance of the topic

While the boundaries of the topic focus on the how (process), the what (content) and
the context of the research, the relevance of the topic focuses on explaining why it
is important to research what you are researching. This usually comes in the form
of the research rationale (rationale means the reasons behind). There are three
rationales you can use to explain the relevance of your research: Academic, practical
and personal.
The Academic rationale establishes why it is important to conduct the research
from an academic point of view. By academic point of view we mean something
related to the process and content pillars. The examples shown above on the
boundaries of the research clarify not only what the research is about, but to a
THE INTRODUCTION
33
certain extent also provide an explanation as to why it is important to research them.

Common academic reasons include:
The aspect of theory you are researching has not been explored in the context
of your research before (e.g. the Prestige Motivation Model has not been
applied to events yet; little is known about how university students search
for information when purchasing a festival ticket; there is no framework to
evaluate Public Relations events)
Little is known about the relationship between the variables you were focusing
on (e.g. the relationship between conspicuous consumption and public selfconsciousness, materialism and self-esteem has not been explored before).
When explaining the academic rationale, you will be picking up some ideas contained
in the literature review. Dont worry if there is a bit of repetition - this is normal. The
points that will be repeated are the key points emerging from the literature that were
essential in providing a direction to, and/or informing the design of, the study. It is
actually good that you remind the reader of what these key points are throughout
the dissertation.
The Practical rationale involves demonstrating the relevance of the study to
individuals or organisations. Therefore, it is very tied to the context pillar. It usually
requires explaining the nature of the problem a certain group of individuals or
organisations faces in real life and then explaining how the research will help them.
Many times this is where your dissertation starts - you notice a problem (or challenge)
in the real world, and your research attempts to shed light on such problem or
challenge. The first paragraph of the multi-level argument shown in Section 4.2.
is one example of a practical rationale. The example of practical rationale shown
below comes from a BA (Hons) Leisure Marketing dissertation that I supervised on
conspicuous consumption in clothing (Lewis, 2014).
EXAMPLE 5.5: Example of Practical rationale
This research analyses conspicuous consumption in the context of clothing and its
related variables of public self-consciousness, materialism and self-esteem. With
competition intensifying among clothing specialists, advertising campaigns have
become crucial to portray the way consumers would like to perceive themselves
THE INTRODUCTION
34
(Mintel 2013b). Advertising represents a large percentage of a manufacturers

overall budget with the top 30 clothing retailers spending 111million in 2012
(Mintel 2013b) so effective marketing is essential. Therefore, marketers should
gather extensive consumer data in order to identify customers needs and their
purchasing habits (Vignali and Vignali 2009). This allows precise targeting, is more
cost effective and will give them an advantage over their competitors. Advertising
campaigns could include gratifying images that portray the self-image profile of
certain consumer groups allowing them to visualise themselves as they would want
others to see them. This research will provide a more informative view of consumer
behaviour and could prove invaluable to those in the clothing industry.
.
When explaining the practical rationale, bring numbers that demonstrate the size
and importance of the area your dissertation is focusing on. By clearly defining from
the outset what the study is about (e.g. changes in charity donation behaviour caused
by being diagnosed with cancer), you can then explain significance by bringing in
numbers (e.g. people who are struck with this condition). You could even extend to
other similar conditions (i.e. serious medical conditions) to explain that the studys
benefits could also be beneficial (have practical benefits) to other related fields.
In a recent dissertation that I supervised on the attributes of a luxurious event, I
suggested to the student to bring in numbers about the size of luxury sector in
general, such as the monetary value of the market for luxury goods (general area
of the research), as well as about the size of the luxury event market. Lewis (2014)
example above also resorts to numbers to explain the relevance of studying the
clothing sector.
Sometimes it is difficult to find such numbers. One alternative is to bring in
anecdotal examples to illustrate relevance. For example, if you are dealing with risk
management in events, you can cite cases where there have been disastrous consequences by not managing risk properly; or cases where having a risk management
strategy in place resulted in a positive resolution to a risk situation. The multi-level
argument example (see Section 4.2) shows this strategy. Unable to find numbers that
could demonstrate the relevance of public relations events, the student resorted to
mentioning their use by several major organisations.
The Personal rationale is less commonly reported. This rationale focuses on the
THE INTRODUCTION
35
personal relevance of the topic area. It could that you have an interest in a marketing
or management area, or in a societal problem, which leads you to focus your
dissertation on it. It could also be related to your future career plans. For example, a
student may want to pursue a career in prestigious/highs status events and therefore
may feel compelled to study them in his/her dissertation. Another student may want
to become a specialist in events online distribution in tourism and therefore decide
to research that topic.
ACTIVITY 5.1: Analysing the structure of an introduction

The introduction shown in the Activities section at the end of this book
comes from a paper that I have co-authored with Rhiannon Santos-Lewis,
a BA (Hons) Events Management student whose dissertation I supervised
(Santos-Lewis and Moital, 2013). The paper title is Constraints to Attend
Events across Specialization Levels. After reading through it, answer
these three questions.
1. What are the theoretical boundaries of the study? Explain.
2. Are theoretical boundaries defined at the approach, model or
variable level? Explain.
3. What context boundaries are defined? Explain.
5.2 Writing objectives

Writing objectives (and I include here dissertation title, aim and objectives) is one
of the most important skills because a poorly defined/written objective will lead to
problems in the research, such as too broad a topic or a too superficial research. In
this section, I explain a number of issues that student should pay attention to when
dealing with objectives.
THE INTRODUCTION
36
5.2.1 Process and End objectives

Students often fail to understand the
difference between process and end
objectives. Process objectives are related to the process of research, that
is, the journey or how you get there.
For example, doing a literature review in a certain area is about the
process. These are fine while you are
doing the research, but they should
not be included in the final document.
Students who include such objectives
struggle to discuss them in the conclusion, as they often simply describe
that they did it (i.e. a literature reTypes of objectives
view), sometimes what they did to review the literature and (rarely) what they found.
End objectives, in turn, are the true objective of your research, the reason why you
first decided doing it. They include those questions that you are trying to find an
answer to and hence they are usually tied to the empirical research.
I suggest students to separate the two types for two reasons. First, there is always
finite number of end objectives, but the number of process objectives is much more
substantial. In theory there could be one process objective for each element of the
research process. For example, doing a literature review, identify the most suitable
research design, design a questionnaire, analyse the data using suitable methods and
so on. Second, understanding the difference between the two types helps students to
be more focused in their study, and consequently in their final report.
Having discussed this issue with colleagues at Bournemouth University, I came
to the conclusion that not everyone agrees with my views on the above. In fact,
Bournemouth Universitys guidance suggests that you could also include process
objectives as objectives of the research. Therefore, it is advisable that you discuss
this with your supervisor and agree on the best course of action: simply focus on
THE INTRODUCTION
37
end objectives or include key process objectives too. In any case, it is very important
that you keep in mind the difference between the two types of objectives so that you
know the ones which really should guide your research (end objectives).
ACTIVITY 5.2 Process and End objectives

In the Activities section there is a list containing a number of objectives
inspired in past dissertations that I either supervised or assessed. Your
task is to try to identify whether they are Process or End objectives. I also
provide a link my opinion about the types of objectives.
5.2.2 Problematic words in the title/aim/objectives

There are a number of words that are often used in the aim and objectives that
immediately ring a bell in my head. Two appear to be particularly problematic:
importance and impact.
When you define an objective in the terms of importance, the underlying question
is how important something is. A question like this implies a yes/no answer. These
types of questions are to be avoided because they lead to a very superficial answer,
something to be avoided in a dissertation. With no exceptions, dissertations who
use importance dont do well because they tend to cover the topic in a superficial
way. My students dont do this because I alert them to the risks of formulating the
objective in such a way, but in the dissertations I assess I do see it from time to time. I
rarely find importance in the title, but often find it in objectives. An example would
be How important is Facebook in engaging customers with an event. A question
formulated this way implies only one answer: it is important or not important.
A better way to formulate it would be How does Facebook facilitate customers
engagement with an event? or What aspects of customer engagement are facilitated
by Facebook? Presumably, if the research finds that Facebook facilitates customer
engagement in many ways, then it is plausible to conclude that it is highly important.
THE INTRODUCTION
38
However, by formulating the question in broader terms, the research will naturally
provide more depth of analysis.
The problem with the word impact is that it implies a cause-effect relationship. One
fairly frequent topic that uses the word impact is along the lines of the impact
of sponsorship on brand perceptions. It is very difficult to examine this because
any effects could have been caused by other stimuli than the sponsorship exercise.
Impact questions required experimental studies, that is, studies that isolate all other
possible causes but the one that the researcher was to examine.
5.2.3 Objectives are dynamic

One major misconception that many students have is that once they define objectives
just before they embark on primary data collection, they cannot change them. I
usually explain to students that objectives can be refined along the way, to better
reflect what the researcher is doing. Experienced researchers are less likely to refine
objectives along the way because their experience allows them to better define the
specific objectives earlier in the research process. However, novice researchers have
no such understanding. Refinement of objectives is very likely to happen when doing
qualitative research, and at times in the context of quantitative research. What the
primary data is telling you, especially in qualitative research, affects the story
you will be telling (hence the boundaries of the study). Here are some examples
of changing objectives.
EXAMPLE 4.6 - Qualitative research
One dissertation that I supervised changed the scope of the study after completing
the draft dissertation. When reading the draft, it became apparent that the
qualitative data the student had collected was giving her the opportunity to further
refine the scope of the study. The student (Jackson, 2014) wanted to examine the
customer-to-customer practices in the context of two exhibitions (outdoors and
wedding planning exhibitions), with the initial objective examining all valueladen practices. The draft clearly pointed out to two types of practices: those
referring to product decision value (e.g. an attendee saying to another attendee
THE INTRODUCTION
that the same tent could be bought cheaper from another supplier present in
the exhibition) and non-product decision value (e.g. smiling or engaging in chitchat). After discussing this with the student, she decided to refine the scope by
focusing only the product-decision interaction practices. This not only made the
dissertation more focused (which is a good thing), but also made her life easier
when it came to finding suitable theory to discuss the results (she assessed which
areas of product decision-making the interaction affected).
In another example, a student (Scully, 2012) wanted to research the interpersonal
influence strategies students use when attending events with friends. The initial objectives were to understand the persuasion (Objective 1) and resistance
(Objective 2) strategies. Once she analysed the data, it became clear that there
were many instances where participants commented on the circumstances when
they succeeded (influenced or resisted influence successfully). As this was a topic
directly related to the aim of the study, a third objective was added.
Bain (2013) also extended the scope of her study after collecting the data. She
wanted to use the Prestige Motivation Model (Correia and Moital, 2009), which
consists of two main components: the prestige values (what makes an event
prestigious) and the consequences of consuming prestige (how people react when
they consume prestigious products). The initial objective was to examine what
makes an event prestigious (its values). She used a technique called laddering
in order to uncover the means-end chains (if you want to know what this is
about, see Gutman (1982)), that is, the motives to attend prestigious events. Upon
analysis, it became clear that the means-end chains she uncovered included both
prestige values and prestige consequences. This was in fact a major lesson learned
from applying the method (laddering) in the context of researching prestige
motivation. Needless to say, facing the opportunity to cover both areas of the
model, the student did not hesitate and a second objective was added (covering
the consequences of prestige).
EXAMPLE 4.7 - Quantitative research
In quantitative research changes/refinement of the objectives comes from the

ability to perform (or not perform) certain statistical analysis. For example, if
39
THE INTRODUCTION
40
the student collects more questionnaires that expected, it could be possible to

perform different statistical tests. The opposite can also happen: collecting fewer
questionnaires can prevent a student from performing an analysis that had been
planned. In one case, a student planned to compare two groups using bivariate
statistics (Mann-Whitney). However, she ended up collecting a large number of
questionnaires, which allowed her to carry out different tests, in her case carry
out cluster analysis (to find groups/segments with similar motivations).
5.3 Writing tips

Here are two writing tips that you should consider when writing your introduction:
TIP - Starting the introduction
One bit of advice I always give to my dissertation students is to start
the introduction with a statement that defines the scope of the study; in
other words, a statement similar to the aim that establishes the broad
boundaries of the study. Bain (2013) started her introduction with the
following statement: This study evaluates prestige as a motivation for
event attendees through an exploration of the five values of prestige as
outlined by the Prestige Motivation Model (PMM). Turton (2014) starts
her dissertation with this statement: This research paper is concerned
with how a trigger of a personal illness can affect changes in charity
donation behaviour and more specifically, understanding the influencing
factors that can lead to a continuous change in donation behaviour. In
this case being diagnosed with cancer, acts as the trigger. Statements like
this set the tone for the rest of the introduction in that the introduction
then explains in detail the key parts of the statement (i.e. boundaries and
relevance).
THE INTRODUCTION
TIP - Avoid sections

At my university, an undergraduate dissertation is around 10.000 words
long and a Masters 15.000. This means that the introduction is likely to
be between 2 and 3 pages (no more than 1000 words). Some university
dissertation handbooks suggest that students should divide the introduction into different sections such as background and rationale. I always
recommend to my students not to use sections in the introduction unless
there is a very good reason for doing so, as this tends to cut the flow of
ideas. If you are changing themes, you can signal these in the text at the
beginning of the paragraph. For example, instead of including a context
of research heading, you can start by saying This study was developed
in the context of salsa dancing (the recreational activity) and attendance
of salsa events (the recreational activity related behavior). This clearly
signs that you have moved on to focus on a different theme (the context
of the research).
41
6. LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review is one of the most challenging tasks for the inexperienced
researcher. And if you are an international student, then you are faced with the added
challenge of not having some of the basic skills required to do it because literature
reviews are not common in many countries. Literature reviews are challenging
because they are hard work and require deep analytical and intellectual skills.
Doing a literature review is an intellectual exercise that requires dealing with often
complex and contradictory information. I recently had to review tourist satisfaction
research which is one of the most researched areas in tourism. The exercise looked at
tourist satisfaction research over 12 years published in the three top tourism journals
(hence I ended up reviewing only a fraction of the research carried out on the topic).
I had to deal with nearly 150 journal articles to write a section that could not be
longer than 750 words (thats roughly two pages in word). Needless to say, it was
a time consuming and challenging task, even though I am reasonably familiar with
the area. Obviously, as an undergraduate or Masters situation, the size of the task is
smaller but you will still have to deal with many dozens of articles. If you are a PhD
student, then you will be reading many more.
Writing a good literature review requires grasping the mechanics of identifying,
reading, interpreting, analysing and evaluating existing material and then writing
the report in an appropriate style. This chapter provides tips and tools that could help
you to address some of the challenges required to write a good literature review.
6.1 Purpose
Inexperienced researchers often fail to understand the purpose of a literature review.
The literature review is about theories and models relevant to the research and
how they have been applied (in general and in your field). In other words, in the
43
LITERATURE REVIEW
literature review you review existing knowledge around the process and the content
of your study (see Chapter 2). One thing the literature review is not about it is
about the practical importance of the topic. That is context and should be either in
the introduction if you are using it to explain why you are researching it, or in the
methodology if what you are going to say about the context is vital for understanding
your particular research process. So, when I see long sections on what is an event,
the history of Facebook (or tourism) in the literature review, I immediately become
suspicious of its suitability as literature review.
6.2 Types of literature review

In order to understand what the purpose of a literature review is, one option is to
look at the three types of review suggested by Cooper (1984): theoretical, integrative
and methodological reviews.
Types of the Literature Review
Theoretical research review

This review presents and compares the different theories for explaining
LITERATURE REVIEW
44
the phenomenon under investigation. Any research should be theoretically underpinned and in this section you should review relevant theories
within your area of research. At this stage you are concerned with the
theory only, therefore, you should read well beyond your context of
interest. For example, if you are interested in exploring previous research
on Murrays list of needs, you should review research on the list of
needs independently of the context in which it was explored/applied.
Remember, the objective of this review is to familiarise yourself with the
theory, that is, what we know about the theory.
Integrative research review
The integrative review summarises past research and draws conclusions
based on different studies related to the topic of research. Here, the
objective is to understand the state of the art in your area of study (i.e.
context). It is not a very broad review this type of review is still bound
by the theoretical review undertaken. As the name says, this section
focuses on how the theoretical area(s) have been integrated in your area
of research. So if attitude is the area of theoretical review, then the focus
of the integrative review is on how attitude theory has been integrated
in your area (context) of study.
Methodological research review
This review examines the different research methods that have been
used to solve the research problem. The different research methods are
discussed in order to identify the most appropriate course of action for
achieving the research aim and objectives. This review tends to be placed
in the methodology chapter as this is where you explain what you have
done and why in your own study. This type of review looks at the
methodology employed by relevant previous studies so that you can
learn from them. The methodological research review has the benefit
of allowing you to identify possible ways of researching your topic.
Moreover, by doing this review you will be better equipped to reject
methods that have proved to be ineffective and adopt others that have
shown to be effective. In other words, it will help you to avoid making
similar mistakes made by previous researchers.
LITERATURE REVIEW
45
ACTIVITY 5.1: Theories/Models

Bearing in mind the Process and Content pillars of your research, write
down the list of theoretical areas and/or theories/models that you could
review, including the main authors that have developed those theories.
6.3 Stages of the literature review

I want to have my literature review finished before collecting my data or I have
finished my literature review (just before they start focusing on their data collection)
are expressions I often hear from my students. This is one of the main misconceptions
about the literature review in essence, the literature review ends only when you
submit your dissertation. And you need to be mentally prepared for this never
ending task. More often than not you will have to change your literature review,
sometimes substantially, after you analyse your data. The three distinct literature
review stages according to the purpose they serve are briefly described in the figure
below.
46
LITERATURE REVIEW
Stages of the Literature Review
1st stage informs the research proposal

The first stage of literature review searches for relevant theories and
concepts associated with the topic of research. You do this with a view to
a) emphasise the relevance and researchability of the study, b) define the
research questions and c) define possible, broad methodological options.
In summary, it demonstrates that the study is both feasible and desirable.
2nd stage informs methodological decisions before data collection
The literature review at this stage performs different roles than those
of stage one. Initially, its purposes are a) to narrow down the topic
by refining the research questions and b) to develop the conceptual
framework (if you need one). Along with these objectives, the literature
review helps you design the research instrument and define the data
collection strategy. Therefore, at this stage you look in detail at the
methodologies in journals that researched the same topic and at research
methods books.
3rd stage informs the final document
This stage starts towards the end of the data analysis and finishes when
you submit your dissertation. Basically, during this stage you continue
LITERATURE REVIEW
47
reviewing the literature to re-assess and update the stage two literature.
The objective is to make sure that you incorporate any recent work and
that the final literature is aligned with, and supportive of, the story you
are telling in the dissertation.
Both the content and the writing style should be reviewed. Change may
be just about fine tuning the content and making sure the writing style
is right in order to enhance Concision and Coherence and to make the
dissertation more Compelling. Often it requires more substantial changes
to both structure and content as well to the writing style. For example,
sections or themes that appeared relevant before collecting data are now
irrelevant (do not fit the story); in contrast, themes that did not appear
relevant beforehand now become essential and must be included. In rare
cases, the literature review may require major re-structuring.
EXAMPLE 6.1: Major re-structuring of the literature review in stage 3

A few years ago I supervised a student who wanted to study events managers
emotion management during a crisis situation. Once she started analysing her data
(she did interviews with event managers), she realised that due to the questions she
asked, the amount of data on this topic was not sufficient to write a dissertation.
In the end, the long coversations she had with event managers helped to collect
lots of good data about the planning and management of crises. The solution
was to re-direct the dissertation to focus on the process of managing crises. As
a consequence of this change in direction, a major re-assessment of the literature
review was required in order to ensure the review was coherent with the story
she was now telling.
.
The nature of deductive (i.e. quantitative) research will require you to do a more
comprehensive and detailed literature review ahead of starting data collection (stages
one and two). This means that you will probably require less effort in stage three
given that much of stage two literature will be used for stage three. In inductive (i.e.
qualitative) research, you dont really know the exact story you will tell until you
collect and analyse your data. In addition, you are likely to have carried out a less
comprehensive and detailed literature review within stages one and two. As a result,
LITERATURE REVIEW
48
you should expect to have to carry out a more substantial literature review within
stage three.
EXAMPLE 6.2: Conducting additional literature review after collecting data
One inductive (qualitative) study I recently supervised focused on the effects of
wellness events on an individuals health and the experiences at the event that
delivered those effects. The student had broadly reviewed both areas (effects and
attributes of the event) ahead of conducting the interviews with event participants
however it was only after the student had finished them that she did a detailed
literature search about possible models with which to analyse the data. She did this
on purpose so that her questioning during the interviews was not contaminated
by her detailed, in-depth knowledge of the literature. She actually ended up using
two models (one to analyse the effects and the to analyse the attributes of the
event) she had not come across during the first two stages of the literature review.
6.4 Intellectual depth ladder

Writing a literature review is a multi-stage process. The inexperienced researcher
has to navigate through what I call the intellectual depth ladder, which includes
three levels: description, analysis and evaluation. Because you have to learn to walk
before you can run, it is very important that you follow the steps of the ladder and do
not take short-cuts. To analyse you need to describe first, and to evaluate you need to
analyse. In my experience, the biggest challenge is actually to move from description
to evaluation. If you do a good analysis, evaluation tends to come naturally if you
adopt a critical mind set. This means that you should focus your efforts on how to
move from description to analysis and do not attempt to jump from description to
evaluation.
Description
A descriptive literature review adopts an author-based approach to write
LITERATURE REVIEW
49
the review. In other words, it lists (often in chronological order) each of

the main works in the area individually. It is like, as I often describe it,
Author A said this, Author B said that, then Author C said this and so
on. This is the most basic level and students are encouraged to avoid
stopping here. Dont conclude that description is not important; in fact,
it is very important as it is the basis for reaching the second level of depth
Analysis.
Analysis
An analytical review moves away from an author structure to adopt a
theme approach. This means that you start looking at each individual
author and focus your efforts on identifying key themes in the literature.
One of the most important skills at this stage is categorisation, which is
used to develop themes. At this stage, it is important to understand both
visible and invisible themes. Visible themes are easier to identify, while
invisible themes are associated to hidden assumptions and therefore more
challenging.
Evaluation
The highest level of depth requires evaluating the literature review.
Evaluation means that you will be drawing conclusions about the merits
and limitations of the reviewed area. At this stage, the focus is on findings
gaps, strengths, limitations or biases.
The figure below summarises the key characteristics of each level of depth.
50
LITERATURE REVIEW
Intellectual Ladder Depth
EXAMPLE 6.3: Descriptive Review

Among the most recent research studying visitors motivations and festivals,
Uysal, Gahan, and Martin (1993) explored visitors motivations in attending
a county festival in South Carolina. Escape, Excitement/Thrills, Event Novelty,
Socialization, and Family Togetherness represented the most common motivational
factors, explaining 63% of the overall variance. () Mohr et al. (1993) identified
similar motivational factors-which explained 56% of the total variance-to those
defined by Uysal, Gahan, and Martin (1993) when they examined first-time
and repeat festival visitors. () In a recent study by Formica and Uysal (1996),
five motivational factors: Excitement/Thrills, Socialization, Entertainment, Event
Novelty, and Family Togetherness - accounted for 55% of the motivational variance.
This study focused on exploring the motivational differences between residents
and nonresidents in the Umbria region of Italy in attending an international jazz
festival. [Adapted from Formica and Uysal (1998), p.17]
Comments: This review focuses on event motivation research and is structured
LITERATURE REVIEW
around what each study focused on and found. Therefore, it matches the characteristics of a descriptive review.
EXAMPLE 6.4: Analytical Review

A recent review by Tkaczynski and Rundle-Thiele (2010) highlighted event segmentation as one of the main topics within event and festival consumer behavior.
The typical event segmentation study is of a quantitative nature and focusses
on segmenting attendees to an event (or small range of events) using a range
of variables. A second stage involves validating the segmentation procedure by
examining differences across segments. A wide range of segmentation bases have
been used in events and festivals research. Motives are among the most frequent
segmentation variables (e.g. Lee et al., 2004; Chang, 2006; Li et al., 2009). Other
variables include past experience (Wooten and Norman, 2008), personal values
(Hede et al., 2004), satisfaction (Smith et al., 2010), activities (Kim et al., 2007; Yan et
al., 2007) and demographic characteristics (e.g. Lee et al., 2004). [in: Santos-Lewis
and Moital, 2013, p. 111]
Comments: In this example, the review is organised around themes, notably the
characteristics of a typical event segmentation study and the range of variables
employed as segmentation basis. As the latter is organised around themes (the
segmentation bases), it is an example of analytical review. One good sign of an
analytical review is the citing of multiple authors that covered each theme. This
is not possible when an author-based review is adopted.
EXAMPLE 6.5: Evaluative Review
When the geographical scope of empirical sponsorship studies is examined, it

is clear that most studies were undertaken in a Western context. For example,
OHogan and Harvey (2000) studied sponsorship of Irish businesses, Webb and
Carter (2001) of Scottish businesses and Farrelly et al. (1997) of North American
51
LITERATURE REVIEW
52
and Australian businesses. There are virtually no studies on event sponsorship

in an Asian context. One of the exceptions is the study by Fan and Pfitzenmaier
(2002), who focused on event sponsorship in China. [in: Moital et al., 2012, p.
292/293]
Comments: This paragraph shows a concern with evaluation. In this instance, the
focus of evaluative judgments is the geographical scope of existing research. A
limitation is implied: that existing research was undertaken in a Western context
and no studies exist in an Asian context.
TIP: Useful beyond the Literature Review

Understanding and applying the three levels of depth is critical for a
high quality literature review. It is worth spending time developing your
skills in this area because the three levels of depth also apply to the other
sections in the dissertation (methodology, results and conclusions)
ACTIVITY 5.2: Review your Literature Review

If you have already written part of your literature review, go back to it and
check your own writing style. Is it descriptive, analytical or evaluative?
How could you move the review to a higher level of depth?
6.5 Using summary tables

Tables are a great way of summarising substantial amounts of information. Therefore, I often suggest to my students that they design a table that contains the key
features of previous studies. These tables can focus on key methodological features
or key results. The table below was carried out to summarise incremental models of
affective satisfaction (Moital, Gouthro and Jackson, 2009). As you can see, the table
53
LITERATURE REVIEW
includes the key aspects of the study design, such as the cognitive measure used, the
dependent variable and product category. It also includes results (initial and final
R2), but that is one out of six areas covered in the table.
Example of summary table
I recently supervised a dissertation on the key dimensions of luxury in events

(Gryntus, 2014). The quantitative study reviewed previous similar studies (on key
dimensions of luxury) and to make it easier to understand the current state of the
art, a table was created (see below). A lot of information can be portrayed in a very
small space. The table also provides the basis to be analytical rather than descriptive.
LITERATURE REVIEW
54
Example of summary table: Dimensions of a concept
Assuming the table is comprehensive, using such a table allows you to draw
quantitative as well as more subjective conclusions. Quantitative conclusions include
a) how many dimensions have been identified, b) most and least frequent dimensions
and c) lowest and highest number of dimensions identified by a single study. It is also
possible to establish d) the earliest and most recent study or e) who is the most prolific
author in the topic (if there is one).
More subjective conclusions include f) possible overlapping dimensions, as it is
common for academics to use different language to refer to the same thing, such as
conspicuousness and financial/price to refer to the wealth aspect of luxury. Finally,
it is also possible g) to make other qualitative appreciations with regards to other
patterns suggested by the data, being it related to the dimensions or to authorship.
LITERATURE REVIEW
55
6.6 Reviewing results or the characteristics of

the research?
The literature review can focus on reviewing the findings of previous research or
on its (design) characteristics. A review of the characteristics of the research focuses
on the aspects related to how previous research was designed. This could be what
and how constructs were measured/explored, types of samples used, how the data
was analysed or the principles/assumptions present in previous research. In principle,
reviewing the characteristics of the research should be prioritised. After all, this type
of review will be more useful in helping you to design your own study.
The example below is from my own PhD (Moital, 2006) and reports the findings
about the different models of attitude that can be found in the literature. Identifying
the various perspectives (or alternative views) on something can be very useful
for methodological design. For example, when deciding which operationalisation I
would adopt in my study, I could go back to the four options, evaluate them and
then decide upon the most suitable one. (An alternative could have been to criticise
existing ones and suggest a different one, but this was not a concern of the research).
Four broad attitude operationalisations can be found in the literature:
the tripartite (or multi-component) model, the expectancy-value model,
the composite model and the two-component model. All these models
distinguish three basic components: belief, affect and conation. However,
they disagree in the relations between these constructs (Bodur et al.,
2000), in the names given to each component, as well as at times in the
meaning of each component.
In contrast, a review of results requires going back to the findings sections and look
at what was found about, for example, about the relationship between two variables.
In certain contexts, reviewing results could be essential, such as when formulating
hypotheses. Here is an example of a review that focuses on results as a means to
explain the reasons for examining the relationship between shopping behaviour and
conspicuous consumption.
Shopping behaviour can be affected by many factors. Highly conspicuous individuals are more likely to get into debt as the permanent income
LITERATURE REVIEW
hypothesis states (Scott and Lewis 2001). High conspicuous individuals rationalise a purchase by making it purposeful without heeding
consequences (OShaughnessy and OShaughnessy 2002) that may lead
to disappointment and regret thus restarting the conspicuous purchase
process (Clarke and Mortimer 2013). Snobbish individuals are unlikely
to purchase conspicuous sale items (Corneo and Jeanne 1997). However,
Amaldoss and Jain (2005) disagree stating that the snobbish will procure
sale items when other individuals are involved. Therefore, from this
literature it is hypothesised that The level of conspicuous consumption is
related to the pattern of shopping behaviour (Hypothesis 5). [in: Lewis
and Moital, 2015]
6.7 Writing tips

Guide the reader
It is very important that you provide a guided explanation of your review
by linking the various areas. For example, use expressions like another
area of research within the [topic] is, another perspective on the [topic]
has been offered by [author(s)], After reviewing [a theme], the [other
theme] is now reviewed. This keeps the text and ideas together helping
the reader to follow you. To help you improve the writing style, you could
perhaps look at a few journal articles and examine their writing style (not
the content, as you are interested in how they tell the story). How do their
link the various themes/sections of the review? I suggest you adopt the
list of expressions approach and write down the expressions you find
(see Section 4.4).
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Write with purpose

Your literature review should be organised and written to aid you making
important statements about the state of the art. This means you should try
to make it explicit what point each paragraph is making (the conclusion
in the argument) and explain the evidence underpinning that main point
(See section 4.1. for an example).
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7. METHODOLOGY
The methodology chapter is perhaps the most important of the chapters. Fair enough,
all chapters are important, but a large proportion of your grade will come from the
quality of the research process and your ability to explain it. This is the chapter where
the reader will find vital information to assess the quality of the research.
7.1 Process, Process, Process!

The first idea to retain about the methodology its purpose is to explain the process of
research. Therefore, it is important to understand what process means. As I always
say to my students, process means stages. This means that the methodology is
about explaining the sequence of decisions you had to make in order to answer the
research questions. In the introduction of the dissertation you define the question(s)
you want to find an answer to, while in the methodology you are expected to explain
what you did to find valid and reliable answers to those questions. In simple words, if
the (research) process is right, the result (answers to research questions) is right. The
results are as good as the process that led to them. Therefore, your efforts should be
on what constitutes a good (research) process for your research questions. You can
learn about the research process in generic method books as well as other studies that
researched similar topics to yours. The information in this chapter will complement
that of found in these books and articles.
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METHODOLOGY
7.2 The research process as a trip

I often describe the research process as a trip. You know where you want to get to
(find an answer to the research questions), but you dont know how to get there.
Therefore, your have to research the best way to get there before you can make
decisions (about how to get there). Along the way you have crossroads/roundabouts,
which give you options (which way to turn). You have to identify the alternative
ways and then make a decision about which way you think is the best option. If you
take the wrong direction, it will affect your arrival: longer time, longer distance, more
costly and ultimately can even prevent you from getting to your destination if you
made a crucial mistake somewhere along the way. This explanation embodies the
generic process behind designing and writing your methodology. The figure below
shows this process: the line depicts the journey towards your destination (answering
research objectives) and each of the dots represent roundabouts, or critical points
in your journey.
The research trip
7.3 Explaining methodological choices

There are two important considerations to have in mind when explaining methodological choices: the generic process and the types of reasons that underpin explanations.
60
METHODOLOGY
7.3.1 Generic Process

In order to understand how to approach the methodology, I have devised a simple
four stage process that should be used throughout the methodology chapter (See
figure below). Once you have identified (and briefly explained the importance of) a
critical point, you have to identify alternatives (the different ways you could do it).
Next, you have to select the best option. Finally, you have to explain your choice.
This is perhaps the most important of them all. The reader will be looking at the
appropriateness of your choice by looking at the reasons behind it. If the reasons are
reasonable, (s)he will accept your choice (and you will be marked up); if there are
issues with your reasoning, the reader will mark you down. This goes back to one of
the Cs: Critical. Its all about the why youve done it that way.
Two examples are given in the figure below. One important element to consider is
the type of study, with two of the alternatives being qualitative or quantitative. Once
you assess each alternative, you select one (or you can actually select two, if you opt
for a mixed-methods study). What remains to be done is to explain your choice. The
same rationale applies to the data collection instrument. You have a range of options,
including survey or document analysis. If you select survey, then you need to explain
your choice. Remember that your choice is as good as the quality of the reasoning
behind it.
Explaining methodological choices: Generic process
I often find that students have an inclination to write very generic methodology
chapters. For some, more than half is so generic that it could be about any research.
METHODOLOGY
61
One important element to bear in mind is that the reader is not keen on reading about
the generalities (for example, the many benefits and limitations of questionnaires)
(s)he already knows about them. Instead, he/she is interested in understanding
why you opted for a certain method or path (e.g., questionnaire, interviews or any
other method for collecting data). You have to make it personal (to your research)
remember that the methodology is about explaining your journey.
Obviously, many of the reasons for your choice are related to the generic characteristics of the option. But you still have to explain why that characteristic (for
example a benefit) was important in your study. For example, one of the benefits of
questionnaires is that they can be used when the sample is geographically dispersed.
If this is an important reason to select questionnaires, you have to explain that your
sample was geographically dispersed, hence the choice for questionnaires.
Another reason not to simply copy the long lists of benefits/limitations of a method
is that many of those benefits/limitations will be irrelevant to your specific study.
And if something is not relevant, it should not be mentioned at all. Being selective,
that is, picking the key features of a method that are relevant to your study, plays
a very important role in fulfilling two of the Cs: Critical (active engagement with
information) and Concise (avoid including irrelevant information).
7.3.2 Types of reasons

As mentioned earlier, the methodology chapter is the place to explain what you have
done and defend it by explaining the reasons to have done it that way. What issues
can you use to explain your choice? Your explanation of the methodological choices
is based on one or more of the elements shown below.
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METHODOLOGY
Explaining methodological choices: Types of reasons
EXAMPLE 7.1: Too generic

The excerpt below from an undergraduate dissertation is a good example of how
an explanation was too generic.
Semi-structured interviews are the most common form of qualitative interviewing, as it provides the researcher with a framework of questions but does not limit
in terms of wording questions or the order in which they are asked and participants
are encouraged to talk openly and freely about their interests, attitudes, activities
and so on; the interview being flexible and evolves according to the personal style
of the interviewer and the responses of the participant (Shiffman et al., 2012; Braun
and Clarke 2013). Semi-structured interviews are designed so that the interviewer
can ask open-ended questions and therefore allowing the respondent to expand on
their answers without restrictions. Though, due to the fact that consumers are not
always aware of the reasons behind their decisions or even willing to reveal the
METHODOLOGY
63
motivations behind their behaviour if they were conscious, in-depth interview are
the most effective method of retreating the findings sought after.
As I tend to say to students who write like this, the paragraph could be for
any qualitative research. However, what the reader is interested is in what in
your study made semi-structured interviews the most appropriate method. The
student should have used some of the features of interviews (such as the ones
described above) to underpin the explanation of why they were the appropriate
data collection method. For example, the student could have explained that
because a) data collection needed to be flexible (and why), b) expansion was
important (and why), and c) the topic covered areas that the participants may
not necessarily be aware of, then semi-structure interviews were appropriate.
EXAMPLE 7.2: Good practice

This example shows good practice in explaining methodological choices. In my
PhD I had to explain the choice of independent variable. This is how I explained
it. The explanation in [ ] relates what I said to one of the 6 areas above.
Several reasons support the choice of the stage in the e-commerce adoption path
as the primary segmentation variable. First, product usage has been regarded
as the most important primary segmentation base when compared to the other
segmentation bases (Veinstein, 1994). [past research] Secondly, as Wedel and
Kamakura (1999) highlighted, the choice of a segmentation base follows directly
from the purpose of the study. Implicit in the aims of this research is an attempt
to understand the extent to which factors influencing the adoption of e-commerce
change along the ladder of adoption. [a mix of general methods knowledge and
the aim of the research] Thirdly, the segmentation fulfils the general criteria
of forming good market segments as suggested by Veinstein (1994: 44). [general
methods knowledge].
.
Independently of the reasons, it is useful to explicitly explain the reasons for a given
choice. Explicitness can be achieved by clearly identifying what you did and then
listing the several reasons underpinning that choice. The style is [option] was chosen
METHODOLOGY
64
for three reasons. First, Second, Finally, . This will make it very clear in your
head why you did what you did and also massively help the reader to understand
it. If you look back at the structure of an argument, what you did is the conclusion
and the reasons you did it for are the premises. A strong argument will have been
produced (assuming the logic is there).
7.4 Explaining qualitative data analysis

One issue that should be covered in the methodology chapter is an explanation of
how the data was analysed. In the case of qualitative research it is very common
that students provide a brief description and explanation of the generic process they
followed. However, this is not enough and it is good practice to explain how that
process was applied to your case. This includes an explanation of how you arrived
at the final themes.
The example below from an undergraduate dissertation demonstrates this issue as
there is not enough information for the reader to evaluate how appropriate and
rigorous that process was. Therefore, the information provided should have been
complemented with information about what themes were generated and how the
researcher arrived at them. Obviously, you dont need to do this for every single
theme. At this stage the give one or two examples strategy should be adopted.
Remember that the reader will assume that if youve done it right for one or two
themes then you will done it right for all the themes.
The researcher used inductive thematic analysis as a method of analysing
the data. Inductive thematic analysis is one of the most common qualitative data analysis methods as the process involves reading through data,
identifying themes, coding the themes then interpreting the meaning
of the themes (Guest et al, 2012). Through the method of coding, each
interview was analysed and themes were selected of which further analyse was required and presented later within the findings and discussion
(See Appendix 2). Codes are frequently used to recover and categorise
data that are similar in meaning so the researcher can quickly find
METHODOLOGY
65
and group the segments that relate to one another (Stuckey, 2015).
Predetermined coding is often carried out prior to the data analysis due
to existing frameworks or theories attached to certain concepts (Stuckey,
2015). However, due to the lack of literature found surrounding [name of
topic], no themes had been pre-decided; therefore each theme was decided
predominantly through the primary research.
7.5 Characteristics of the sample

You are expected to include a profile of your participants/respondents in your
methodology (not in your results chapter see explanation in Section 8.1.). The role
of this information is to understand who answered the questionnaire, participated
in the interview or was observed, so that conclusions about whose views the data
represents can be made. For example, if your sample is largely made up of young
adults, then the results mainly represent the views of this group. If your sample
contains people from all ages, then you can claim that results do not represent the
views of a specific age group.
In a recent dissertation that I supervised (Lewis, 2014), the study focused on young
professionals, defined as 18-35 years with a degree or professional qualifications
working in administrative, managerial or professional areas. Within these fairly
specific boundaries, it was still important to examine whether the participants varied
in a number of sociodemographic characteristics. Therefore, when explaining the
characteristics of the sample in the methodology, the argument was made (as it
was supported by the data) that the sample contained a good spread of respondents
across, for example, age and marital status. This was the text used to explain the
characteristics of the sample:
The analysis of the demographic characteristics of respondents is presented in Table 1. There were slightly more males (54.8%) than females
(45.2%), with a good spread of respondents across age and marital status.
The majority had no dependent children. Four out of 10 made mortgage
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66
payments (41.4%), over a third rented (36.8%), some lived with family
(18.8%), with the smallest sample owning a house outright (3.1%). These
demographics reflect a lifestyle of a young professional being more likely
a first time buyer and just starting a family. The highest personal income
bracket percentage was 20,000-34,999 (42.1%) and household income
50,000+ (39.1%) closely followed by 35,000-49,999 (37.5%) showing that
a proportion of respondents have at least two household incomes.
As you can see, the focus was not simply on describing the characteristics of the
sample, but on what those numbers were telling. In this case it was about a) the good
spread of respondents across certain characteristics, b) the fact that demographics
reflect the lifestyle of a young professional and c) that respondents tended to live in
a certain type of household. The end argument, although it is not explicitly stated,
is that the sample reflects the characteristics of the population (young professionals)
hence it can be claimed that conclusions from the results reflect the views of the
population of study.
8. RESULTS
The results chapter present the data you collected after it has gone through a rigorous
process of analysis. In this sense is where you produce evidence that will allow you
to answer the objectives of your research. In this section you will find some tips and
tools that will hopefully allow you to write a better results chapter.
8.1 What data should be included in the

results chapter?
Dissertation students often ask me this question. The best way to decide what to
include in this chapter is to think about the purpose of the results chapter. In the
methodology chapter, the process leading to the collection and analysis of the data
required to address the research questions was explained. It is very important that
the results chapter keeps this focus on the research questions. In practice this means
that only data that helps to answer the research questions should be included in this
chapter. One common mistake students make is to include the profile of the sample
in the results chapter. Unless your objectives involve examining the (demographic)
profile of the participants/respondents, information about them should be provided
in the methodology (See Section 7.5).
RESULTS
68
8.2 Quantitative results

8.2.1 How to read tables with statistical results
When I was doing my PhD I still remember the first attempt at writing the results
chapter. As I was a complete novice in the area (I had never done quantitative
research before), it wasnt very good I submitted around 70 or 80 pages of tables
accompanied by text. The text I submitted was simply repeating the numbers in the
table. That is, I simply repeated the percentages, mean values and p (significance)
values as they were shown in the table.
The whole of the chapter was like for the statement buying travel over the Internet
is faster, there were no differences between respondents. With regards to the
statement buying over the Internet is cheaper, the p value was 0.012 which means
there was a statistical difference, and so on. Imagine doing this for 100+ statements
(I had quite a long questionnaire). Not only this was utterly boring for the reader (I
can only imagine how bored my supervisors were as they went through entire 7080 pages!), but I got bored of writing it myself. More importantly, you will not be
making sense of the data, which is the purpose of the results chapter.
In a recent discussion with a doctoral student also supervised by my PhD supervisor,
she told me that her (our) supervisor had specifically recommended to her (with a
kind of begging face) to avoid focusing on reporting all the percentages and means.
When I told her the experience above, she could then make sense on why she had
been given this feedback my supervisors trauma from my first analysis draft which
he read more than 10 years ago! So, if you dont want to traumatise your supervisor
too, follow my advice below!
I still very much follow the main feedback I got from my supervisors: it is not about
repeating the results, but about what the data is telling you. The percentages are
in the table and anyone can look at them. I usually have two aspects that I try to
cover: explain the table and the key findings. The first one involves explaining what
the table is showing and how to read it. This is important because you should not
assume that the reader knows the analytical technique you employed. With regards
to the latter, the best way I found to help me focus on what the data is telling is to ask
the question: what are the key 3-5 findings emerging from the data?. Asking this
question helps me to focus on finding patterns in the data rather than be tempted to
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RESULTS
report results for each from individual statement.

TIP
The best way to learn about how to report the results of your research
is to adopt the List of expressions technique I explained in Chapter 3.
Get hold of a small number of journal articles that employed the same
analytical method and look at how they report the results. Remember that
you are not looking at their results, just how they report them. This means
that you can select articles completely outside your topic (context wise).
When I had to learn about logistic regression to use it in a dataset on
tourist satisfaction, the most interesting articles (i.e. those that appeared
to report the results in a more comprehensive and clearer way) were from
the health field.
8.2.2 Reading descriptive statistics

When reporting mean values, one of the observations that can be made is how high
or low the mean values are. Such observation helps to understand how, on average,
respondents support the statement or how long they use or watch something. A
second point that you can make involves looking at patterns within mean values.
For example, if you have a group of statements measuring the perceived advantages
of collaborating with other businesses which measure four categories of benefits, you
could comment on which categories have markedly higher/lower mean values.
EXAMPLE 7.1: Descriptive results
A few years ago I co-authored a paper on cognitive and emotional satisfaction

at festivals (Moital, Jackson and Gouthro, 2009; this paper is freely available to
download, just search for it through a browser). The study included a scale for
both areas of satisfaction and when reporting the results, this is how we reported
the mean values for each of the categories (i.e. factors) in the scales:
RESULTS
70
Tables 2 and 3 also present the mean values for each of the factors. () With regards to the cognitive satisfaction, in descending order of satisfaction, respondents
were mostly satisfied with the interpersonal dimension, followed by entertainment
and safety & security. Respondents were least satisfied with food & drink and
information & organisation. With regards to the emotional satisfaction, the mean
value suggests that on average respondents frequently felt positive emotions (mean
values around two), while they rarely felt negative emotions (mean values around
four).
8.2.3 Reading between-groups comparisons

A lot of those doing quantitative analysis will at some point use tests like t-test,
ANOVA or their nonparametric equivalent (Mann-Whitney and Krustal-Wallis).
These tests are useful when you want to compare answers across groups and the
dependent variable is at least at an ordinal level (non-parametric tests) or continuous
level (parametric tests). For example, you will be using these tests if you want to
compare emotions felt across age groups, or perceptions of benefits across overall
satisfaction.
What these tests do is to give you a probability value (p value) that any differences
between the groups (two in the case of t-test or Mann-Whitney and three or more
for ANOVA and Krustal-Wallis) will have arisen by chance. For example, if the test
gives you the p value of 0.03, it means that there is a 3% chance that the differences
between the groups may not be there if you were to research the entire population
rather than a sample. If your significance threshold value is 0.05 (or 5%), then it means
that a 0.03 value is statistically significant (any values below 0.05 would lead to this
conclusion).
So, how could you report the results? One good way of reporting results when
statistically significant differences are examined is to look at the generic trend.
Are there differences or not? Where are the differences (and where are there no
differences)?
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71
[PS: If you are finding it difficult to follow this explanation, I suggest that you have
a look at a statistics book (SPSS survival manual or Statistics without maths, which
are very accessible) and understand what these tests do and the meaning of the p
value.]
EXAMPLE 7.2: Presenting results of the Mann-Whitney test
The example below is adapted from a dissertation I supervised on the perceptions
of luxury events (Gryntus, 2014). The study compared perceptions of five luxury
factors (i.e. five areas that can make an event to be perceived as luxurious) across
those who said they had attended a luxurious event before (attendees) and those
that said they had not (non-attendees). As you will see, the reporting of the results
focused on which factors have items (i.e. statements about luxury) that showed a
statistical difference and those factors where are there were no differences. When
differences were found, the direction of those differences are also reported (which
group answered lower and higher in the scale). Finally, the meaning of the result
is also reported, that is what a significant difference or a lack of difference means.
This aspect is very important as it gives meaning to the results and it reassurance
the reader that you know what the test does.
As demonstrated in Table Y, 12 of the 22 variables in the scale had significance
values below 0.05, indicating that differences between event attendees and nonattendees [i.e. the two groups in the independent variable] are statistically significant. The remaining variables show p values above 0.05 resulting in no significant
difference between the two groups of respondents. All the statements related
to both the Financial and conspicuousness and Uniqueness factors showed a
statistically significant difference as shown by p values below the significance
threshold. Higher mean ranks were found for non-attendees when compared to
attendees, indicating that non-attendees associated luxury events with Financial
and conspicuousness and Uniqueness aspects more than attendees. [PS: mean
rank is the value that is given by the Mann-Whitney test that allows you to draw
conclusions about which of the two groups has answered lower and higher in the
scale].
Significant differences were also found in two variables of the Quality factor.
These were found in the superior quality of food and drinks served and the
consistency of the high quality delivery throughout the event. In both cases, the
mean ranks were higher for non-attendees, therefore they associated luxury events
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RESULTS
with these two quality attributes more than attendees. The remaining two items
on consistency of high quality delivery and neat and professional presentation of
staff did not show statistical differences, which means that both attendees are nonattendees perceive luxury events similarly. As the p values above 0.05 demonstrate,
there were no significant differences across the two groups in all the items related
to the Hedonic and Aesthetics factors. This means that attendees and nonattendees did not hold different perceptions of a luxurious event in relation to
its hedonic and aesthetics dimensions.
TIP
We tend to get more excited about statistical differences rather than nondifferences (Somehow I do too!). However it is very important that you
give the same attention to both. As my Ph.D. supervisor once told me
A non-significance difference is as important as a significance one. This
applies to when both reporting and discussing the results. So for example,
you should discuss why a difference could be there, but also why there
was no difference.
8.3 Qualitative results

I have to disclose my limited knowledge on qualitative analysis here. Most of the
research I have undertaken so far is quantitative and I have only recently delved into
qualitative analysis. This is a section that I hope will continue to develop as my own
knowledge develops.
There are many different qualitative analysis methods. And each method approaches
data analysis differently and therefore each method requires its own way of reporting. This does not mean that we are talking about completely different ways of
reporting, but there are elements that are different and therefore you should be aware
of these when writing your analysis. Those doing a dissertation at an undergraduate
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or Masters level are likely to use the thematic analysis, and most of this section is in
a certain way related to this method. This does not mean that this section is useless
if you were using other methods, but those using thematic analysis will find it more
applicable to them.
So what can I tell you about qualitative analysis that I had to learn myself in order
to grasp it?
8.3.1 About the process

Qualitative analysis requires time. Certainly, quantitative analysis also requires time
but in a different way what I call mental time. By mental time I mean analysing
the data over a period of time as only time will enable you to uncover deeper levels
of meaning contained in the data. I often use the analogy of different layers, which
means that over time you will be able to move from the most superficial layer to
deeper layers. This happens because our brain (especially the untrained one) will
look at the explicit meaning first (meaning that is easily observable, available towards
the surface) and only after to implicit meaning (meaning that is understood, but not
clearly stated and is found at deeper levels).
Hopefully, as you move towards deeper levels of analysis and interpretation, you will
be able to establish principles. A principle is a generalisation, a kind of generic rule
that you can suggest based on the data. In the context of qualitative analysis, these
principles tend to be speculative (based on limited evidence) however that is exactly
the role of qualitative research. In the example shown at the end of the section, we
were able to suggest the principle that In the case of prestigious sporting events,
FoMO can even be the main motivation when the individual is not particularly
involved with the sporting event. If you are able to identify some principles as a
result of your analysis, this will gain you a lot of points because it means that you
are showing high level cognitive skills. In other words, you are being Critical and
therefore fulfilling one of the 6 Cs.
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8.3.2 Thematic analysis

A lot of you will end up selecting the thematic analysis as your qualitative data
analysis strategy. One very important consideration when employing this strategy
is the decision about what constitutes a theme. There are two considerations that
inform decisions about themes:
1. Defining whether some meaning is a relevant theme. This is informed by the
boundaries of your research, that is, you need to identify themes that are within
the aim and objectives of your study.
2. The cut-off point, that is, the number of citations required for it to be
considered a valid theme. For example you could define that you only
consider themes that are re-occurring in the data, or alternatively as long as
the theme shows up once it is considered a theme.
EXAMPLE 7.3: Thematic analysis

I am currently co-authoring a paper with one of my dissertation students (Scully,
2012), who did a dissertation that aimed to identify the strategies used by university students when persuading their friends in the context of event attendance.
This involves two type of strategies: influencing strategies (influence them to go)
and resistance strategies (resist their influence when you dont want to go but are
being persuaded to). Therefore, the data analysis focused on anything that was
related to influence and resistance. This is how the methodology explains the use
of thematic analysis:
Thematic analysis was employed as the analytic method. The essence of the
method is the identification of themes that capture something important about the
data in relation to the research question (Braun and Clarke 2006, p. 82). Following
from the research objectives, all instances across the data that pertained to peer
influence and event attendance, persuasion strategies, resistance strategies and the
factors influencing the success of a strategy were identified. Next, for each of the
main themes, sub-themes were developed that reflected unique strategies or factors
influencing success. The analysis was undertaken primarily at the semantic level
(Boyatzis 1998), which means that the themes were identified within the explicit
of surface meanings of the data (Braun and Clarke 2006, p. 84). At times, the
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RESULTS
analysis looked at the latent ideas within the data to reflect less explicit accounts
of the strategies employed and their effectiveness. As the analysis was driven by
an interest in identifying strategies and strategy effectiveness, prevalence was
counted if the data indicated a reference to these themes (Braun and Clarke 2006).
All instances within each sub-theme (i.e. all influencing and resistance) were
labelled. If a strategy has been documented in the literature, the existing label
was employed, if not a label was created.
As you can see, a detailed account of the process that led to the decision about
what constituted a theme is provided, and towards the end it is also made clear
that as long as there was one evidence it was considered a relevant theme (cut-off
point).
.
Further Reading
The article by Braun & Clarke entitled Using thematic analysis in psychology (Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77101) provides a very good
(and quite simple) overview of the issues to consider when using thematic
analysis.
EXAMPLE 7.3: Analysing and reporting qualitative data

This example taken from a journal article I am co-authoring on the emotional
reactions to attending prestigious events (Moital and Bain, 2015). We hope the
analysis we did demonstrates that we have gone beyond identifying what the
issue is, also identifying deeper meaning contained in the answers participants
gave.
For example, in relation to the fear of missing out emotional reaction, the
definition immediately led us to ask the question what do they miss out?
Fortunately the data contains that information (positive emotions and discussions
before the event). We also pick up the fact that the participants did not like the
sport but they decided to attend motivated by the fear of missing out.
With regards to regret, we also used the literature to help us make sense of our
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RESULTS
data. In this case, we identified that there are two types of regret (regret of action
and regret of inaction). So we naturally looked that our data to identify with
what type of regret is involved when attending prestigious events (it is regret
of inaction). We were also able to identify what leads to regret, with the data
suggesting that it is the singularity of experiences. Finally, we could also link regret
to attribution, as the last paragraph explains. There are probably other messages
that come across from reading the data, but we felt these were the key ones that
merited reporting. So in summary, once we identified a theme we went back to
the literature and reviewed it and that was the major source of inspiration for us
to make sense of our data.
Avoidance emotions refer to emotions that consumers seek to go avoid by attending prestigious events. Attending prestigious events was related to wanting to avoid
negative emotions. The fear of missing out was expressed by several participants.
The following two quotes illustrate how the fear of missing out is generated in the
context of attending prestigious events:
I dont tend to suggest we go, but go if Im invited. And I think if
they think its that good I want to go with them to experience it and
enjoy myself too. () If I dont go I may miss something, and miss
out on the enjoyment of the day. Its important to me not to miss
out if my friends go. [Mike, 59, Works in Engineering, Talking about
Royal the Heineken Cup Final at Twickenham]
I went with a couple of people from work and some friends. We
had such a good time together () I didnt particularly support
either team, in this instance I went because my friends are Reading
supporters and were really excited to go. So I didnt want to miss
out, and wanted to join in with the excitement before the event.
() I wanted to be involved. People had been talking about it and
I wanted to join in. And I like sport so just wanted to go with
them really. [Anna, 23, Buyer in Procurement, talking about the Fast
Championships Netball)]
Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is a pervasive apprehension that others might be

having rewarding experiences from which one is absent (Przybylski et al, 2003,
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RESULTS
p. 1841). The above quotations suggest that the FoMO is related missing out on
positive emotions that prestigious events can bring about (notably excitement and
enjoyment) before and during the event. Both statements indicate that FoMO was
the key driver of attendance: Mike would not attend if it was not for his friends
attending, while Anna did not support either team at the match. This suggests that
in the case of prestigious sporting events, FoMO can even be the main motivation
when the individual is not particularly involved with the sporting event. It appears
that high levels of prestige motivate people to attend the event so that they dont
feel diminished by having failed to experience the positive emotions surrounding
the event and by being unable to participate in discussions as an insider (and
having to take instead on an outsider role).
The fear of missing out appears to be associated to feelings of regret as the
following statement indicates:
We just really wanted to attend any Olympic event I think. Its just
something you have to try and do when its here, and I would have
regretted it hadnt I at least tried to go. () I think I would have
missed out. Like I said, its a once in a lifetime thing so it needs to be
done I guess! [Paula, 54, works in corporate banking, talking about
the London Olympics]
Anticipating regret has been found to be a powerful motivation behind consumption decisions (Chen et al, 2015; Rosenzweig and Gilovich, 2012). In the context of
prestigious events regret could be felt not as a consequence of purchasing (Chen et
al, 2015), but as a consequence of not attending. Events are experiential in nature
and therefore this finding provides further evidence that experiential purchase
decisions are more likely to lead to regrets of inaction (missed opportunities) than
regrets of action (Rosenzweig and Gilovich, 2012).
In contrast to Chen et al.s (2015) assertion that regret is anticipated when the
outcome of a consumers purchase decision is unknown, in the context of prestige
consumption regret appears to emerge from a certainty about the outcome. The
unique combination of a prestigious event (the Olympics) and location (United
Kingdom) implies a must attend attitude which requires action in order to avoid
feelings of regret. Paulas description of the Olympics as a once in a lifetime
opportunity further suggests regrets of inaction result from the singularity of
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RESULTS
prestigious event experiences. This provides additional evidence of the link between
patterns of regret and the singularity of purchases (Rosenzweig and Gilovich,
2012).
Given that Paulas actual attendance was beyond her control (tickets were allocated
by ballot), she sought to reduce regret by attempting to secure tickets. This suggests
that regret is linked to attribution, notably the locus-of-causality dimension
(Oliver, 1987), which suggests that different attributional sources will lead to
different emotional reactions. Not attending by failing to attempt to secure tickets
would be perceived by Paula as her fault leading to high levels of regret, but because
failing to secure tickets bid for was beyond her control, she could not be blamed
resulting in greatly diminished levels of regret.
8.3.3 Writing tips

Here are a few additional tips about qualitative analysis:
TIP: Focus on the nuances
Qualitative analysis is all about the nuances. At this stage you are probably asking what do you mean?, which is a fair question. Focusing on the
nuances in the data means that you are looking for subtle differences that
the data is conveying. As examples, this could be the different attributes
(e.g. that make an event prestigious) or the different types of reactions (e.g.
four types of behaviours attendees engage in when they attend prestigious
events). Hence, looking at nuances means that you are looking at the
different responses within a given theme.
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RESULTS
TIP: Be selective with participant quotes

You dont need to show participants quotes for all the points you make
about your data. Students tend to think that they need to show quotations
for every single point they make however this is not the case. Participant/informant quotes should be included when they are strictly required to
demonstrate a point. Thats why the quotes that should be shown are the
ones which tend to involve deep or multiple meanings. This means that
you should avoid adding very short quotes unless there is a very good
reason to do so. In the example above, quotes have at least four lines and
they are very rich in meaning, to the point a 600 word discussion was
developed around three quotes. In case of doubt include a quote, but if it
is supporting a minor point, soncider not including it.
TIP: The literature is your best friend

Use the literature to help you understand your own results. When trying
to make sense of the data you collected, the literature is your best friend.
The literature provides you with a basis to know what you should look for
in the data, as well as previous results that you can compare your results
against. In the example above we use definitions and existing knowledge
about principles and patterns to help us make sense of our data.
TIP: Names not numbers

When I showed the trust of my first qualitative paper to one of my
colleagues (Dr. Lorraine Brown, who has co-authored a very good book
on qualitative data analysis that I thoroughly recommend), one of the
suggestions she gave me was to treat participants using (fake) names
rather than numbers (e.g. participant 1). The reason is that it makes the
analysis more personal, which is close to the spirit of qualitative analysis:
looking at people and the meaning they hold. Thats why it is more
appropriate to refer to the individuals you interviewed to participants
or informants rather than to respondents which is used in quantitative
research.
9. DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSION
Many times I see dissertations who have done a good work in terms of the data
analysis but then the discussion and conclusion is a let down. This can happen for
a number of reasons such as students losing steam, running out of time or failing
to understand what they are about. I cant do much about the first two, but I can
help with the latter. In this chapter I will explain the purpose of the discussion and
conclusion and also a variety of valuable information that will help you to better
write and organise your discussion and conclusion.
9.1 Purpose
Discussion and conclusion are different, but interrelated tasks. The purpose of
discussion is to put the findings in to perspective, for example by contrasting
with previous findings, with theoretical expectations or propositions, or even with
industry practice. The function of the conclusion is to answer the research objectives.
In the introduction you set out the objectives of the study, in the conclusion you
provide an answer based on what you found in your study.
I say they are interrelated tasks because when you are discussing you are drawing
conclusions. The discussion can take place at two levels: micro and macro. At micro
level, discussing involves looking each individual result (or a small set of individual
results). The macro level is about looking at the big picture by moving away from
the results (i.e. the specific findings) and trying to draw generic/abstract conclusions
based on those findings.
The best analogy here is to consider each of your individual results as individual
trees, and all the individual results together as a forest. So at micro level you will be
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
81
making sense of each tree individually, and at macro level you will be looking at the
forest. The discussion at tree/micro level is more straightforward (this doesnt mean
easy!), but if you can move beyond the individual results and focus on the generic
patterns that emerge from your data (Macro/forest level) you will gain a lot of points
as it shows high levels of intellectual ability.
9.2 Where to place the discussion

The answer to the question depends on the type of research you do and also how
you see the dissertation best structured.
9.2.1 Quantitative research

In quantitative research you can either place the discussion of results along with
their presentation (results chapter), or you simply present the results and leave the
discussion to a later stage. Personally I prefer the latter because you can discuss after
you have presented all the results. Hence you will be in a position to discuss both
specific findings and general patterns in the data collected (which are only possible
when you have the whole picture, i.e., all the results).
If you do not discuss your results concurrently with the presentation of the findings,
you have the option of adding a separate section (or even chapter), or you discuss
when you answer the objectives (i.e. in the conclusion). There is really no right or
wrong answer, you have to see what structure better suits your dissertation.
TIP
If you discuss after presenting all the results, you can adopt the 3-5 key
findings method. This involves looking look back at the whole data and
identify the 3-5 main findings and discuss them.
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9.2.2 Qualitative research

In qualitative research, it is common to discuss the findings as you present them
(micro perspective), and then in the conclusion you discuss the findings in the context
of each objective but try to do it from a macro perspective.
9.3 Structuring the conclusion chapter

As I mentioned earlier, the main purpose of the conclusion is to provide an answer
to the question(s) asked in the introduction. However, the conclusion should stand
on itself; that is, if I have a look at the conclusions only I should also have a good
understanding what questions you asked, why they were asked what you did to
answer the questions and the answer to those questions. Therefore, I always suggest
to my students to start the conclusion with a (long) paragraph that provides an
overview of the rationale for the study, including the aim (it will involve re-stating
some points made in the introduction), a summary of the rationale for the research
(why it was important to carry out the research) and a brief description of what you
did (e.g. models used, type and quantity of data collected, particular data analysis
techniques).
This paragraph will require good summarising skills and you will have to write it in
a way that it conveys a lot of information clearly and logically. There is an additional
benefit of this exercise you can use this paragraph as a basis to write your abstract.
This is the first paragraph of the conclusion section of a paper that I co-authored
where we applied these principles (Moital, Dias and Machado, 2012):
The golf tourism market is highly competitive, with several Southern
European and Mediterranean countries striving to attract this lucrative
market. In this competitive environment, the objective of any tourist
destination should be to make sure as many tourists as possible find
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their experience highly satisfying. However, even the most competitive

destinations are unlikely to highly satisfy all tourists. In this case
understanding the reasons behind differential levels of satisfaction can
provide destination managers with a basis for taking action aiming at
improving those areas that are found to be critical. This paper attempted
to address this issue in the context of golf tourism. Using the Lisbon
Tourism Board tourist survey, the paper used logistic regression to
examine the determinants of golf tourists satisfaction. Ten attributes of
Lisbon as a golfing destination, related to both quality and value, were
examined as potential determinants of satisfaction.
As you can see, we started the conclusion by explaining the rationale (including
relevance) of the study leading to an explanation of what the research aimed to
achieve. There are also brief references to the context of the study (Golf tourists
in Lisbon), the statistical analysis undertaken and the specific concepts (i.e. content)
examined (quality and value attributes).
After this introduction, revisiting the objectives is mandatory. One by one, you
should provide the answer to the objective. In answering an objective, the focus is
not on what you did to find the answer, but the answer itself. The perspective is: if I
have a look at the conclusions only I should have a good understanding (not generic)
of what you have found. It could involve some repetition of the (main) points made
in the results/discussion chapter as well as broader conclusions that you draw from
the results as whole.
TIP
When you address each objective the focus is on what you found, not what
youve done to get an answer. I say this because this is a re-occurring issue
that I see in many dissertations that I supervise and/or assess. The first
example shows this issue: the objective is revisited but from the answer I
do not know what the student found.
Objective 2: To develop an understanding of how events can influence
attendees perceptions of community events
The data collected from the questionnaires was analysed using SPSS to
identify any patterns or trends and how variables inter-relate. Event
perceptions, motivations and barriers to attendance were all assessed.
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9.4 Being fair to the results

Be very careful with the conclusions drawn. It is very important that you are fair to
the results and do not draw conclusions that are not supported by the data analysis
presented in the results chapter. You can speculate (e.g. why certain findings or
patterns could exist), but such speculation should be logical and fair. At this stage it is
very important to let the results inform the conclusions rather than emphasise your
own opinions about the topic as the key conclusions. The role of the researcher is to
try to be as independent as possible from the data and let it drive the conclusions.
For example, in one dissertation that I supervised on the product values associated
to a luxury event, the student said in the draft that conspicuous value was the most
important value. However, by looking at the mean value it was actually the least
associated to a luxury event. This is an example of not being fair (i.e. aligned with)
the results.
A more extreme case happened to me a few years ago. One student that I supervised
failed to understand this basic principle of research, and was very much focused on
using the dissertation to prove her own views. This is a process that I describe as
adapting reality to suit your ideas, rather than adapting your ideas to the reality).
The consequence of such mental state was that, for example, the methodology was
designed to aid her to prove her opinion (for example, leading questions), and in the
conclusion my most frequent comment was either this has not been covered by the
dissertation or this is not supported by the findings of the research. Needless to say,
it wasnt the best of the dissertations
9.5 Reflect on your learning

A dissertation is, first and foremost, a learning experience, focused on developing
your skills as a researcher. Learning can be broadly defined as a change in knowledge,
attitudes and behaviour resulting from experience. Hence, by asking you to do a
85
dissertation, your course is providing you with the opportunity to change your
knowledge, attitudes and behaviour in relation to planning and implementing a
research project. You are unlikely to get everything right (if you knew how to do
it, then why bother doing the dissertation?), therefore there will be many successes
and mistakes made throughout the journey.
I always tell my students that making mistakes is not a problem; the problem is if
you are not aware of the mistakes youve made. If you recognise those mistakes
and suggest ways of doing it differently next time to avoid making them, then you
are demonstrating that you learned. In other words, you are fulfilling an important
purpose of a dissertation: you developed knowledge about doing research and in the
future you would change your behaviour. In order to demonstrate that you learned,
you should consider adding a reflective section, on where you answer the question
what would I do differently next time.
In order to write this section, I suggest you go back to your journey and reflect
on what aspects of that journey you would keep and which you would change. The
stance is not one that assumes that what you did is wrong, but one that accepts that
there were limitations, that you are aware of these limitations and that if you were
to do it again you would know how to do it better. Students tend to have a tendency
to focus on data collection (e.g. the research could have had a bigger / more varied
sample), which is fine, but focus on things unique to your study, notably in relation
to the process and content. For example, could you have asked different questions?
Could you have analysed the data differently? Remember to always explain why.
ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY 4.1: The structure of an argument in
practice
In appendices you can find a paragraph by Arajo and Bramwell (2002) which is
trying to make a point, that is, it is trying to persuade the reader to accept a
certain statement as true. The paragraph is made up of 6 sentences. Read it carefully
and answer the question: Which of the sentences are conclusion(s) and which are
premises?
Despite their potential advantages, there are often significant difficulties with partnership approaches to planning (Bramwell and Lane 2000). One potential difficulty
is that involving diverse actors in regular meetings and decision making is usually
complex and time-consuming. Such collaboration can face difficulties because groups
refuse to work with others as this may reduce their own influence or power, or because
they distrust other parties (Hall and Jenkins 1995). When stakeholders are involved
in joint working, they may not be disposed to listen respectfully to the views of
others or to take them into account. In some places there may be no tradition of
several organizations participating in decision making. In particular, a participation
approach developed in and for developed countries may fail in the socioeconomic,
cultural, administrative or political circumstances of a less developed country (Roberts
and Simpson 1999; Timothy 1998, 1999a; Tosun and Jenkins 1998).
My take on the structure of the argument can be found here.
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ACTIVITY 4.2: Multi-level arguments in

practice
Text below is (an adaptation) from a dissertation that I supervised a few years ago
(Fogarty, 2010). Your challenge is to identify the components of this multi-level
argument. I suggest that you start by identifying the main stance (final conclusion)
the author is trying to make, a from that point try to identify the architecture
underpinning the conclusion. Once you had a go at identifying the structure, check
my interpretation in the Activities explained section (saee link below if you are
reading online).
Public Relations (PR) events are becoming more frequently used by PR agencies as
a means of satisfying their clients needs. Large companies are now using PR events;
Nokia with Nokia Skate Almighty, Vodafone with Vodafone TBA and Sanex with
Sanex Urban Beach are just a few. These companies use PR events to display elements
of their product portfolio and invite high profile journalists, celebrities and their
target market, all in attempt to heighten the media appeal. With the huge growth
in PR events over the past decade (Tassiopoulos 2005), it is imperative to generate a
PR event evaluation framework so that the effectiveness of PR events can be better,
and more frequently, assessed.
PR events are a new field of research and no academic studies were identified
that addressed the effectiveness of PR events. Social science literature and content
analysis research offer some frameworks, however these are not specific to PR and
thus a vast amount of the content is inappropriate (Phillips 2001). As a consequence,
existing frameworks are unsuitable to evaluate the effectiveness of PR events. Anyone
attempting examine the effectiveness of a PR event will be unable to find a specific
framework that has the ability to carry out such task. Given this gap in the literature
and the growing relevance of events within the PR industry alluded to earlier, this
study seeks to develop a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of PR events.
My take on the structure of this multi-level argument can be found here.
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ACTIVITY 5.1: Analysing the structure of an

introduction
The introduction below comes from a paper that I have co-authored with Rhiannon Santos-Lewis, a BA (Hons) Events Management student whose dissertation I
supervised (Santos-Lewis and Moital, 2013). The paper title is Constraints to Attend
Events across Specialization Levels. After reading through it, answer these three
questions.
1. What are the theoretical boundaries of the study? Explain.
2. Are theoretical boundaries defined at the approach, model or variable level?
Explain.
3. What context boundaries are defined? Explain.
The recognition that consumers are not all alike is an essential assumption of
the marketing concept. The need to break down consumers in groups has led to
the development of segmentation as an important area of study within marketing.
Breaking down the market in groups is driven by the objective of maximizing
homogeneity within segments and heterogeneity between segments (van Raiij and
Verhallen, 1994). A substantial part of the segmentation literature focuses on two
issues (e.g. Steenkamp and Hostede, 2002; Correia et al., 2009): the selection of
segmentation basis, and how to best divide consumers across segments. With regards
to the first, many variables have been used including demographic, psychographic
and behavioral (Beane and Ennis, 1987; Wedel and Kamakura, 2000). Among these,
some segmentation variables are static, that is, they do not change over time (e.g.
gender), others are dynamic (e.g. age) and others are potentially dynamic, changing
over the course of a persons life (e.g. benefits sought and brand loyalty). For the
marketer it is important to understand the how consumers patterns of decision and
consumption evolve along with changes over time.
Recreation specialization is one such potentially dynamic segmentation variable.
Recreation specialization (Bryan, 1977) suggests that participants in a leisure activity progress in a specialization path over time, with each level of specialization
involving unique characteristics which differentiate one level from another (Bryan in
1977; Ditton et al., 1992). Recreation specialization research suggests that the more
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89
individuals take part in a leisure activity, the more likely they are to organize their
lives around the activity (Ditton et al., 1992). Consequently, participants partake in
subsequent behaviors that are relevant to their activity (Burr and Scott 2004), such
as the purchase of products and services required to perform, or as a complement
to fully enjoy the recreational activity. Examples include the purchase artefacts and
the attendance of events & festivals (referred to as events throughout this paper)
themed around the recreational activity, the latter being the behavior explored in this
paper. Previous research suggests that each specialization level tends to be associated
to unique forms of behavior and experience, which makes them natural segments to
study by marketers (Scott and Thigpen, 2003; Ninomiya and Kikuchi, 2004; Kim et al.,
2008; Maple, Eagles and Rolfe, 2010; Park and Kim, 2010).
The effective marketing of products, services and experiences to recreationists requires a detailed understanding of how (progression in) specialization affects their
purchase and consumption. The concept of leisure constraints was put forward
specifically to help understand the reasons underlying participation in leisure activities (Jackson, 1993), such as event attendance. In their review of past studies
in leisure constraints, Godbey et al. (2010) concluded that different constraints
have been identified across socio-demographics such as age, gender, income and
geographical location segments. Thus it can be argued that exploring the relationship
between constraints and segments based on personal variables, such as recreation
specialization, merits academic attention. In fact, brief references in the literature can
be found that suggest level of participation/specialization as a desirable segmentation
variable in the context of constraints research (Samdahl and Jekubovich, 1997; Getz,
2007; Godbey et al., 2010). Despite suggestions that increased specialization (or
experience) is an important influence on the range of activities individuals decide
to do, the relationship between specialization and constraints to perform behaviors
associated to the recreational activity has not been explored to any detailed extent.
Therefore, this paper aims to examine the constraints to attend events across levels
of specialization.
This study was developed in the context of salsa dancing (the recreational activity)
and attendance of salsa events (the recreational activity related behavior). Salsa
dancing is one recreational activity which has gained significant regular participation virtually in every corner of the world. Originating in Cuba, salsa has been
described as having become a global phenomenon (Skinner, 2007, p.3). Salsa dancers
usually participate regularly in local salsa classes where they attempt to improve
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90
their salsa dancing skills. As salsa dancing continues to grow in popularity, a

vibrant and dynamic salsa events scene has emerged. These events do not have a
competitive profile; instead, they feature a number of classes for different dancing
styles or techniques, and for each class there is usually an a-priori definition of the
specialization level expected. These classes are following by freestyle dancing which
allows participants to practice their skills and socialize. Salsa events are usually paid,
however some smaller (one evening only) events only charge for classes, with entrance
to the freestyle stage free of charge. While there are no restrictions as to whom can
attend, there tends to be a self-selection exercise, whereby only those with a minimum
of salsa dancing skills attend salsa events. Thus, participants at salsa events tend
to be mainly, if not exclusively, in the category of active participants (Handelman,
1982). Given the participant nature of salsa events, attendees at such events are likely
to be draw from existing salsa dancers. While developed in the context of salsa and
salsa events, the methodology employed and results obtained in this study may also
be useful to researchers and practitioners attempting to understand participation in
other events attracting recreationists/active participants.
To go back to Chapter 5 click here.
ACTIVITIES
91
ACTIVITY 5.2: Process and End objectives

Below there is a list containing a number of objectives inspired in past dissertations
that I either supervised or assessed. Your task is to try to identify whether they are
Process or End objectives. I provide a link at the end that takes you to the Activities
explained chapter where my opinion about the types of objectives can be found.
1. To review the literature on customer satisfaction
2. To examine the factors influencing destination satisfaction
3. To compare the factors influencing destination satisfaction across demographic groups
4. To clarify the meaning and the importance of product innovation and its
relationship with brand equity
5. To analyse fan motivations to holding a season ticket
6. To explain the most appropriate theories and models regarding brand equity
in visitor attractions
7. To determine whether age affects loyalty and trust towards hotel brands
8. Collecting qualitative responses to various pictures from a young male audience
9. To discuss the findings in relation to theory and practice
10. To make recommendations for further research surrounding customer satisfaction with destinations
11. To provide clear recommendations for event managers on how to increase the
effectiveness of content marketing on Facebook
To see my opinion about which type of objectives they are, click here.
ACTIVITIES EXPLAINED
ACTIVITY 4.1: The structure of an argument in
practice
The first sentence is the conclusion, with the remaining five statements serving as the
premises (evidence) supporting the conclusion. Assuming that the five premises are
strong and connected to the conclusion, the conclusion is very robust and therefore
the reader will be inclined to accept it.
Structure of Araujo and Bramwells argument
93
94
ACTIVITY 4.2: Multi-level arguments in

practice
This example is a three-level argument and the conclusion comes at the end (the
premises are given before the conclusion), unlike Araujo and Bramwells example
shown in the previous Activity where the conclusion came at the beginning.
The structure of Fogartys (2010) multi-level argument
95
ACTIVITY 5.2: Process and End objectives

1. To review the literature on customer satisfaction
2. To examine the factors influencing destination satisfaction
3. To compare the factors influencing destination satisfaction across demographic groups
4. To clarify the meaning and the importance of product innovation and its
relationship with brand equity
5. To analyse fan motivations to holding a season ticket
6. To explain the most appropriate theories and models regarding brand equity
in visitor attractions
7. To determine whether age affects loyalty and trust towards hotel brands
8. Collecting qualitative responses to various pictures from a young male audience
9. To discuss the findings in relation to theory and practice
10. To make recommendations for further research surrounding customer satisfaction with destinations
11. To provide clear recommendations for event managers on how to increase the
effectiveness of content marketing on Facebook
Objectives 1, 4, 6, 8 and 9 are Process objectives.
Objectives 2, 3, 5, 7 are End objectives.
Objectives 10 and 11 are, in principle, process objectives as it is expected that any
dissertation provides recommendations for practice and future research. However,
some research is specifically designed to inform practice and/or identify future
research opportunities. In these circumstances, objectives 10 and 11 will be end
objectives. Personally, I view favourably the inclusion of this type of objectives in the
final document, notably the recommendations for practice, as it makes to students
think about how his/her results impact on industry practice.
REFERENCES
Arajo, L. and Bramwell, B., 2002. Partnership and Regional tourism in Brazil, Annals
of Tourism Research, 29 (4), 11381164
Bain, A., 2013. An evaluation of the prestige motivation model in the context
of prestigious sporting event attendance, Unpublished Undergraduate dissertation,
School of Tourism, Bournemouth University, UK.
Cassey, R., 2013. A critical exploration of customer engagement with Bestivals social
networking pages, Unpublished Undergraduate dissertation, School of Tourism,
Bournemouth University, UK.
Compton, H., 2011. An exploratory study into the external activities of information
search - the Beach Break Live Festival, Unpublished Undergraduate dissertation,
Cooper, H., 1984. The problem formulation stage. In: Cooper, H. (ed). Integrating
Research. A Guide for Literature Reviews, Newbury Park, Sage Publications, pp. 1937.
Correia, A. and Moital, M., 2009. The antecedents and consequences of prestige
motivation in tourism: an expectancy-value motivation, In: Kozak, M. and Decrop,
A., eds. Handbook of Tourism Behaviour: Theory & Practice, New York, Routledge,
pp. 16-34.
Fogarty, L, 2010. A framework for evaluating the effectiveness of public relations
events, Unpublished Undergraduate dissertation, School of Tourism, Bournemouth
University, UK.
Formica, S. and Uysal, M., 1998. Market segmentation of an international culturalhistorical event in Italy. Journal of Travel Research, 36(4), 16-24.
Gryntus, S., 2014. An Investigation into the Key Dimensions of Luxury Events
using Consumers Experiential Perceptions, Unpublished Undergraduate dissertation,
REFERENCES
97
Gutman, J., 1982. A Means End Chain model Based on Consumer Categorisation
Processes. Journal of Marketing, 46 (2), 60- 72.
Heinonen, K., Strandvik, T., Mickelsson, K. J., Edvardsson, B., Sundstrm, E., and
Andersson, P., 2010. A customer-dominant logic of service. Journal of Service
Management, 21(4), 531-548.
Jackson, R., 2014. An investigation into the benefits of customer-to-customer interactive practices at a trade show for product decision making, Unpublished Undergraduate dissertation, School of Tourism, Bournemouth University, UK.
Keller, K. L. (2003). Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. International
Edition, Pearson Edition.
Lewis, A., 2014. The factors influencing conspicuous consumption in clothing, Unpublished Undergraduate dissertation, School of Tourism, Bournemouth University,
UK.
Lewis, A and Moital, M., 2015. An Examination of the Factors Influencing Conspicuous Consumption in Clothing, Unpublished paper, Faculty of Management,
Moital, M., 2006. An evaluation of the factors influencing the adoption of e-commerce
in the purchasing of leisure travel by the residents of Cascais, Portugal. Unpublished
PhD Thesis, Bournemouth University, UK
Moital, M. and Bain, A., 2015. Affective Consequences of Prestige Consumption in
Sports Events, Unpublished paper, Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University,
UK.
Moital, M, Dias, N. R. and Machado, D. F. C, 2013. A Cross National Study of Golf
Tourists Satisfaction, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. 2 (1), 39-45.
Moital, M., Jackson, C. and Gouthro, M., 2009. Examining the Constribution of
emotions to Festival Satisfaction Using Logistic Regression, Paper presented at The
Australian Centre for Event Management (ACEM), International Event Management
Research Conference, 6-7 July, Gold Coast (Australia).
Moital, M., J. Whitfield, Jackson, C. and Bahl, A., 2012. Event Sponsorship by
Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic Drinks Businesses in India. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 24 (2), 289-311
REFERENCES
98
Rihova, I., 2013. Consumers as producers: customer-to-customer co-creation of value

at festivals, Unpublished PhD Thesis, School of Tourism, Bournemouth University,
UK.
Lewis, R. and Moital, M., 2013. Constraints to attend events across specialisation
levels, International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 4 (2), 107-124
Scully, K. and Moital, M., 2015. Peer influence strategies in collectively consumed
products: events and festivals, Unpublished paper, Faculty of Management, Bournemouth
University, UK.
The National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, 2014. Defining Critical
Thinking. Available from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-criticalthinking/766 [accessed 30.04.2014]
Turton, T., 2014. Charity giving: the effects of personal illness diagnosis on charity
donation behaviour, Unpublished Undergraduate dissertation, School of Tourism,

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Writing Dissertations & Theses

What you should know but no one tells you

Tweet This Book!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2. THE 6 Cs OF ACADEMIC WRITING EXCELLENCE . . . . . . . . . .

3. THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

4. GENERIC WRITING SKILLS . . . . .

9. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION . .

Being fair to the results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Full Table of Contents

Full Table of Contents

Full table of contents

Full Table of Contents

Full table of contents

Full Table of Contents

Full table of contents

To my Mentor, Professor Manuel Caldeira Pais (1930-2015)

To my PhD Supervisors, Professor Roger Vaughan and Dr. Jonathan Edwards

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The 6 Cs of Academic Writing Excellence

From my experience it is clear that a well communicated dissertation needs to adhere

THE 6 Cs OF ACADEMIC WRITING EXCELLENCE

2.1 Confined (to the aim and objectives of the

THE 6 Cs OF ACADEMIC WRITING EXCELLENCE

2.2 Corroborated (by evidence)

THE 6 Cs OF ACADEMIC WRITING EXCELLENCE

2.3 Critical (Actively engages with, rather than

THE 6 Cs OF ACADEMIC WRITING EXCELLENCE

2.4 Coherent (Logical and consistent)

2.5 Concise (Written in a brief, but

THE 6 Cs OF ACADEMIC WRITING EXCELLENCE

2.6 Captivating (Able to capture and hold the

3. THE RESEARCH PILLARS:

THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

Examples of Generic Processes

THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

Examples of Specific Processes

THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

Examples of Content Elements

3.2.1 Model level

THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

3.2.2 Variable level

3.2.3 Approach level

THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

3.4 Contribution to knowledge

THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

I have recently started creating a table where I write down my contribution to

Contribution to Knowledge Typology

3.5 Implications for your research

THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

was on customer engagement. This was as major breakthrough as the

THE RESEARCH PILLARS: Process, Content, Context

design theory by exploring the design elements related to customer-tocustomer interactions.

4. GENERIC WRITING SKILLS

4.1 Structure of an Argument

GENERIC WRITING SKILLS

ACTIVITY 4.1: The structure of an argument in practice

In summary, developing a strong argument involves:

GENERIC WRITING SKILLS

4.2 Multi-level Arguments

Generic structure of a multi-level argument

Activity 4.2: Multi-level arguments in practice

GENERIC WRITING SKILLS