Knowing which topic is only the beginning

1. Knowing which topic is only the beginning • Even if you have selected a topic for your thesis, and narrowed that topic down sufficiently, you do not have a research question. • Within any topic, no matter how narrow there always are many questions worth obtaining an answer to. • You must select one main research question • You start by examining what relevant and interesting questions arise within your chosen narrowed down topic. • These questions will most often be loosely formulated in the beginning, and that is alright.

2. You must try to operationalise your research question. Formulate your question in such a way that you can answer it. • First try to know and understand well how best to understand the research question when it still is only loosely formulated. • Once you know how you would go about answering it (you know which methods to use to answer it), you try to formulate the question so that you will obtain an answer to THAT question (and not to some other question or a similar question) with the methods you plan to use. • Even so you may discover in the course of your work that your research question needs to be modified or re-formulated.

3. The research question is the real topic of your thesis. • You should have only ONE main research question! • The research question focuses your research, the thesis is an attempt to answer the research question. • If you have more than one research questions, even if they are 'related' and clearly belong to the same narrowed down topic, you loose focus. You are now trying to "kill two birds with one stone". • It is all important that you have a sharp focus in your research, that you know well what question (or problem) you want to obtain an answer to.

4. Your thesis does not become better just because you try to answer many research questions. • You usually discover that trying to obtain an answer to your research question is a big enough project for your thesis, and often even too big. • If it is too big, you reconsider the research question, and see if you can narrow or change your project (or topic) slightly by modifying your research question.

5. You may have several smaller research questions you which you try to answer in order to answer your main research question. • These questions are smalls steps on the way to the answer to the research question. • When you formulate these smaller questions, you should ask yourself if they help you to answer your main research question, and why they help to answer it.

6. Suppose you wanted to write about finance, and in finance you chose banking, and in banking you chose internet banking, and in internet banking you chose if internet banking has led to the closure of bank branches. • Suppose your research question would be: "how many bank branches have closed down in Lahti since internet banking became widespread?" Is this a good research question, if so why, and if not why not?

7. The research question on the last slide is an interesting question. It is interesting to know how many bank branches closed down in Lahti since bank customers in Lahti (or rather in Finland) had the possibility to bank over the internet. • But is it a good main research question for a thesis? No, it is not! The answer to the question offers no insight into any possible link between the closure of bank branches and the growth of internet banking. Not every topical and interesting question is a good research question and suitable as the main research question of a thesis. • A better question would be: "do private bank customers in Lahti prefer to use a local branch of their bank or do their banking over the internet, and why?" • This last research question charts the banking preferences of banking customers in Lahti, and provides inside into why they have the preferences they do.

8. The answer to the last research question may give some clue to if even more local bank branches are likely to close in Lahti, or if some of the closed ones, are likely to open again. • Do not ask too difficult research questions! Even if you want the answer to your research question to be interesting and to provide an insight into a situation, you must be able to answer it, to obtain an answer to it. • "Why are so few women CEOs of listed companies?" is an interesting question, but how would you go about obtaining an answer to it? Unless you can come up with a method or know how you would obtain a relevant and significant answer to such a question, the question is no good as a research question, even if it may be a good topic of conversation.

9. Consider this research question: "How does the use of shelf displays in supermarkets in Helsinki affect buyer behaviour?" • This is a good question because it is specific, relevant and topical, but it may even so not be a good research question for a thesis. How would we go about obtaining an answer to it? Would we interview shopkeepers, and their staff? Would we survey customers? If we would survey customers, where would we do that? In the supermarket? Outside of the supermarket? Send customers survey questions by email, put the question on our Twitter or Facebook page? What questions would we ask? Do we know that an answer to these questions will provide an answer to our research question, and if so why?

10. Another question: "Do Finnish credit card companies highlight the measures they take to ensure customer security, in the marketing of their products?". Is this a good or bad research question? Why?

11. A research question or a hypothesis? • A hypothesis is a "testable proposition claiming a relationship between two (or more) variables". • Hypothesis, null hypothesis, and alternative hypothesis. Either the null hypothesis or the alternative hypothesis is true, there must not be any other alternative(s). • Once you have formulated your hypothesis, you cannot modify it or change it.