Selection of thesis/dissertation domain

Writing in this blog to help students at bachelors and masters level to better select their thesis/dissertation domain and topics. Here are few simple guidelines.

1. Do not select the whole subject matter (such as supply chain, information system, software technologies, marketing etc) , you cannot certainly research the whole area in a limited time
2. Usually every research has these ingredients, look for them;
   • The research domain
   • The industry (such as manufacturing industries) or specific organisation
   • The research tool/technique/philosophies
3. Do not be extra excited to do something new, everyone wants to do the same, you may rather chose to do the old in a more precise, scientific, quantifiable and practical manner.
4. Look for the pain areas in the domain of your interest, see what is concerning industries at present times and select something that industry values, do the work more for your career rather than the marks at your institution.
5. Make your topic represent your research idea include the name of industry/industries, the tool used to carry the research, and the research domain. Do not worry about the titles, they can be changed even at the last day.
6. Research and take a deep drive into the various areas of your interest, do not drop or select topics merely on the basis of their names/titles. If there’s something which is very new, it might not have implementation in the industries of your region.
7. An example of a thesis topic is like this “ The impacts of information systems on supply chain business practices in the manufacturing industries of New York”
   you may notice, this topic has a domain ” supply chain business practices”, the tool or instrument of research ” information systems” and industry ” manufacturing industries of New York”.
8. You may refer to something called ” research onion” which asks for the selection of research philosophy, approach, strategy, choice, time horizon, and techniques. Detailed discussion on this will be the part of my next post.

I hope the above mentioned points will help.