Apeejay School of Management

Guidelines for Final Research Project

PGDM (Mkt., Fin., HR) / PGDM (CRM, IB)
(2009 – 2011)

Importance of FRP: Final Research Project (FRP) is the most

prominent part of any PGDM program from the point of view of
practicing acquired management learning in real life situations. A
manager is recognized for his art of decision making and its success.
Fine decision making depends on the capability of finding the right
data and extracting the best information to explore the hidden
issues and solutions. Such capabilities cannot be substituted by
fanciful thinking. FRP is meant for developing such skills. Also,
report writing trains a student to communicate information in
effective and convincing way, thus, contributing to the
organizational planning and decision making. FRP in itself a
complete and compact training programme. It makes a student
capable of handling complex management assignments, if performed
properly.

As part of the PGDM curriculum, all students are required to undertake

the Final Research Project (FRP) in their respective area of Major
specialization. For this purpose, each student will be assigned a Faculty
member as his/her Project Guide. A co-supervisor may also be
appointed, if situation demands. For example if marketing expert is
guiding a project of financial management then a finance faculty can
act as a co-supervisor.

The Final Research Project carries 200 marks. This is an individual

project work and NOT a group work. The Research Project should
typically use the theoretical knowledge base into a business situation.
To carry out your study students can associate themselves with any
business organization or can do the study independently. The Research
project could take any of the following two forms, the choice of which
has to be decided in consultation with the Faculty Guide(s).
1. Carry out a business issue/ problem Research on a Topic:
Under this option, the student would choose a topic/ business
issue/ problem & conduct an investigative research into the
nature, reasons, causes, effect of the problem on different
aspects of business. The essential aspect of this type of study
will be to collect data and finding hidden patterns to solve
business problems. The tools to collect data may be
questionnaire, schedule, observation, interviews, focused group
 discussion, projective techniques, case study, Historical records
etc. The mentioned tools are indicative in nature.
2. Study on existing Knowledge: Under this option, the student
would choose a topic of his/her choice and conducts a detailed
research based on the current literature or available data and
compile a comprehensive report on the topic. This is basically a
library research. The essential aspect will be to analyze the
existing knowledge and data to produce something new. Data
and information can be drawn from corporate literature, research
literature, websites, newspaper, periodicals etc.
The following activity schedule has been developed to
facilitate the process.
Following are the steps:

1. Topic and abstract submission: The topic should be ideally of

not more than 6 to 10 words. It should be crisp, clear and precise.
Topic should emerge from the abstract. The abstract should
describe the problem, background, value of the output of your study
and brief idea of the path you will pursue. The length of the abstract
should be between 100-150 words. Preferably, there should not be
more than five key words.
2. Synopsis submission: Synopsis is a blueprint of your research
plan. It is a stepwise description of what would you do, one step
after another, to reach to the proposed end. It should contain brief
description of significance & background of the study, Literature
Review, Objectives, Hypothesis (if required), and Research Design
containing sampling plan, theoretical framework and data analysis
techniques.
3. Report I: This task will be performed just before embarking on the
data collection exercise.
It should contain the following in complete detail:
 Problem background and significance of the study
 Literature Review and theoretical background
 Objectives
 Hypothesis (if required)
 Research Design and sampling design
 Theoretical Model (If any)
 Data collection tools & Data analysis tools to be used
 Bibliography and references
 Soft-copy should be submitted for evaluation and ‘progress review
viva-voce’.
4. Final Report Submission: This part would involve data collection,
tabulation, data analysis, findings, suggestions, limitations, conclusion,
and scope for further studies. Students should use appropriate data
analysis tools and software.
Hard copy shall be submitted according to prescribed format. Following
should be the chapterization scheme of your report. The list of
chapters is indicative in nature and can be modified by the Faculty
guide if required.
Indicative chapters for Final Research Report
o Introduction (Background and significance)
o Literature Review & Theoretical background
o Objectives
o Hypothesis (if required)
o Research Design and sampling design &
Theoretical model
o Data Analysis
o Findings
o Suggestions
o Limitations
o Conclusion
o Appendix
- Bibliography& Reference
- Tools
- Scales
- Tables & Graphs
IMPORTANT DATES
ACTIVITY LAST DATE MAX. MARKS
Topic approval by September 17, 2010 -
mentor
Abstract approval by September 30, 2010 20
mentor
Synopsis approval by October 25, 2010 30
mentor
Report I submission November 25, 2010 -
Viva-voce for report I December 9-10, 2010 60
(by evaluation panel)
Final report February 17, 2011 -
submission
Viva-voce (by March 14-18, 2011 90
evaluation panel)
TOTAL 200

(MARKS WILL BE AWARDED IN PHASES, THAT IS, JUST AFTER

THE END OF DEFINED DEADLINE AND RESULT WILL BE
FINALIZED ON THE BASIS OF AWARDED MARKS IN THOSE
PHASES)

The students are advised to meet and interact with their faculty guides
at least once a week as per mutual convenience. Please note that if the
student does not interact with faculty guide, the faculty guide will not
be able to award marks for different stages and also will not sign the
project synopsis and final report. FRP coordinator will not accept
direct submission of either synopsis or the report.

A Performa will be provided to keep the details of meeting with the

Faculty Guide(s). Copy of the same shall be submitted to the FRP
Coordinator on 30th of every month positively (next day in the case of
holiday). Original copy should be attached with the hard copy of FRP
report.

There will be award and certificate of merit for the best three FRP
reports, which would be decided by the evaluation committee formed
for the purpose.

(Prof. Sanjeev Sharma) (Prof. D.

Chakrabarti)
FRP Convener DEAN

FRP Team
Prof. Neeti Leekha Chhabra (coordinator)
Prof. Ruchi Malik
Prof. Anchal Gupta
Prof. Rajesh kumar Sinha
Copy to:
- Director – for information
- Programme Head/Coordinator
- All Faculty Members
- Students’ Notice Board