Presenting a PhD research proposal: A guide for commerce students

Abstract

This paper provides commerce PhD students with advice on how to structure research proposals. In particular, the paper addresses the question: How should a PhD candidate in entrepreneurship (or another commerce discipline) present a research proposal? The paper guides students through the various stages of proposal writing. Firstly, the fundamental aspects of business research and their implications on postgraduate research proposals are discussed. Secondly, the focus of the paper turns to presenting some common proposal evaluation criteria used. Thirdly, the structure and components of a proposal are explained and specific guidance on how to present each component of the proposal is provided. The paper concludes by discussing technical aspects of academic writing including language, references and plagiarism.