A client of mine asked me to write a couple of examples of the research problem statement, so I thought I would share them. I have done one that’s a little theory slanted and the other that is more practical.
A theoretical research problem statement
I’ll take for my first example, the theory slanted one, the topic of culture and entrepreneurialism. The research problem asks the question — How do we account for entrepreneurialism in collectivist, high power distance, and risk-averse cultures when these values are deemed non-entrepreneurial?
So, for the theoretical statement, I would write something like:
From the dominant Western perspective and much of the scholarly work underpinning it, entrepreneurialism is associated with sets of values that include individualism, risk-taking, and beliefs in all having an equal chance to participate in an entrepreneurial economy. From the levels of entrepreneurial activity in cultures that both theoretically and empirically are perceived to have quite the opposite values, it is clear that this dominant perspective and its theoretical basis are at the very least open to question.
Our fundamental assumptions about entrepreneurialism may, after all, be baseless or incomplete. Therefore, this research asks the question: How do we account for entrepreneurialism in collectivist, high power distance, and risk-averse cultures when these values are deemed non-entrepreneurial? Challenges to this dominant thinking arise from all quarters of the globe from the Confucian collectivist societies of the Far East to the Islamic nations of the Middle East and in historical terms, these cultures have always displayed ample entrepreneurialism and an aptitude for trade and commerce.
A practical research problem statement
I’ll take for my second, more practical example, the topic of the seeking of health-related information online among the general public of the UK and its effect on the relationship between patients and healthcare professionals. So, it asks the question: How do seekers of health information online perceive and interpret their behaviour and the effects it has on their relations with healthcare professionals?
My practical statement would go something like this:
With internet connectivity now so high and increasingly matched by digital literacy, more and more people are seeking online health information to complement or even replace information provided by healthcare professionals. In the UK, medical authority and the status given to information, diagnoses, treatment recommendations and general advice given by figures such as the family GP has been historically very high. The dissemination of health information online has broadened access to previously restricted knowledge and enabled peer-to-peer sharing of health information such as through online health forums. This proposed research will investigate how seekers of health information online perceive and interpret their behaviour and the effects it has on their relations with healthcare professionals.
So there you have it – two different examples of the research problem statement. If you want to know where this should go in your thesis then take a look here.
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