Business Research Methods: Individual Reflection Journal

This individual reflection journal details a student's learning journey throughout a business research methods course, focusing on a project examining the advantages and disadvantages of social network utilization within the hospitality business. The journal covers key phases of the research, including topic approval, team charter development, a comprehensive literature review, and the documentation of research methodology. The student reflects on their experiences, including feedback received, teamwork dynamics, and insights gained, highlighting the importance of these elements for future career development. The reflection also emphasizes the practical application of research methodologies, the value of critical analysis, and the acquisition of essential skills such as communication and collaboration, ultimately concluding with a synthesis of the learning experience and its relevance to future professional endeavors.

Running Head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
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Business Research
Individual Reflection
(Student details :)
6/23/2019

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Contents
Individual Reflection Journal.........................................................................................2
Introduction...................................................................................................................2
Reflection......................................................................................................................2
Topic approval and Team charter.............................................................................2
Literature review........................................................................................................2
Documenting the research methodology..................................................................3
Conclusion....................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................4

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Individual Reflection Journal
Introduction
The reflective journal is mainly contained the critical reflection of the learning journey
process experienced during the 12 weeks of the unit while completing a course on
Business Research Methods (BRM). For doing so, based on (Hirsch & McKenna,
2010) my reflection will include many facets of acquired MBA skills during the
completion of a high-quality business research project. In order to write this reflective
journal, I will be integrating the whole learning journey of week 1-12 while
summarising critical reflections on various phases of the research project. In this
way, this journal will include my personal learning journey covering topic approval
and team charter, literature review as well as documentation of the research
methodology. At the end of every topic of this reflective journal, I will discuss my
responses to Philip’s feedback as well as my role while preparing the final draft.
Besides, I will critically reflect on my research experiences, team-work, and insights
gained during this business research project (Johns, 2014).
Reflection
In this context, the whole experience of finding advantaged and disadvantages of
utilizing social network within the hospitality business was great from the perspective
of acquiring life-long learning for the future career development (Hickson, 2011).
Section 1: Topic approval and Team charter
To me, the phase of research topic identification, approval and discussion played an
important role to make our business research project successful. This is because I
found that without internet use nobody can survive in this digital era. We all group
members have discussed during the selection of the topic as everyone’s opinion was
equally important for the better functioning of our project (Bassos, 2016). I observed
that non-appearance of an internet-based social network makes the interaction of
millions of people impossible all across the world. Although, our research project was
focused on identifying advantages as well as disadvantages of utilizing social
network within hospitality business yet we studied every good and bad aspect of
using the social network in real-life (Knott, 2010). In addition to that, the topic
seemed important to me because the utilization of social media within any business
keep the noteworthy values by making products and services easily available for the
people. Our topic identification assessed the facts like all types of social media
networking provides a chance for all of the people to endorse different products and
services among the diverse communities worldwide. One more reason why I found
this topic very useful was that a well-structured social network within a business
always focuses on community people and their preferences rather than products.
However, there are some challenging aspects which may make social media scary
for marketing as well as confronting for marketers (Bell et al., 2018).
Section 2: a Literature review
This was one of the major sections of my business research project report as it
provides us the motivational point for conducting research on social networking use

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in business. In this context, the literature survey within this research project allowed
each of us to get introduced with our topic as well as realized the importance of
social networking in a business (Kim, 2018). I have also accessed the past methods
of conducting research on this topic along with their individual findings with the help
of conducting a literature review. For instance, the literature survey made us know
about four major types of social networking services. I learned that social networking
can be effectively used in businesses as well as companies in order to help the
workforces while interacting with each other (Kim, 2018). Moreover, when we were
conducting literature survey we realized that social media giants such as Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn and many more can assist for enhancing the communication amid
the people of an organization while also improving the communication with the
organizational consumers. In addition to that, my personal responses to Philip’s
feedback on the initial draft of the literature review was positive as I got learning
opportunities for my future personal and professional development. On the other
hand, my role while preparing the final literature review paper was very important as
I was one of the team members who conducted a literature survey on the chosen
topic (Knott, 2010).
Section 3: Documenting the research methodology
While completing this business research project, I have learned a lot about research
methodology as this is the core part of any research. I got to know about quantitative
and qualitative BRM which seemed very useful from future career endeavors. In this
way, the third section of the business research project was about documenting the
research methodology. In this context, data collection, data analysis, and application
of research methodologies have been practically done as well as documented during
this phase of the research project. I also realized the importance of documenting the
research results and main findings as documenting the research methodology is very
important for future researchers as well as for the future scope of the current
research project (Bell et al., 2018).
Apart from this, a critical reflection on the research experience is suggesting that
BRM play a key role in a researcher or scholar’s whole personal and professional
development. Based on (Heyrup & Bente, 2009), when I was conducting research as
well as completing the research project on social networking in business I have
learned about teamwork, collaboration, co-operation, supervision, and technology-
enabled world. I acquired useful skill-set including effective communication, BRM,
leadership, feedback and active learning from the perspective of future career
development. In addition, I experienced life-long learning which can be further
integrated while working in future workplaces efficiently. Apart from this, I realized
that all stepping-stones being different phases of the research act as the primary key
drivers for conducting the research in a good manner. Besides, team-work assisted
all of us team-members to grow the capability of critical analysis that effectively
demonstrates a detailed evaluation of the current literature (Australis College, 2018).
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have successfully completed the project as well as critically reflected
upon the personal learning from the module with the help of writing this reflective
journal. I have included the major learning of the business research project in the
form of three main parts of the research project on the topic of social networking in

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business. In this way, reflecting on business research on social networking role
within a hospitality business made me learn a lot about learning by doing. I will
integrate all of the learning acquired from this unit for my future career development.

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References
Australis College, 2018. The Importance of Reflective Practice. [Online] Available at:
https://www.australiscollege.edu.au/blog/community-and-counselling-study-blog/the-
importance-of-reflective-practice/.
Bassos, B., 2016. What is reflective practice? In The reflective practice guide: An
interdisciplinary approach to critical reflection. Oxon: Routledge.
Bell, E., Bryman, A. & Harley, B., 2018. Business research methods. London: Oxford
University Press.
Heyrup, S. & Bente, E.B., 2009. Reflection: Taking it beyond the individual. New
York: Routldge.
Hickson, H., 2011. Critical reflection: Reflecting on learning to be reflective.
Reflective Practice, 12(6), pp.829-39.
Hirsch, P.L. & McKenna, A.F., 2010. Using reflection to promote teamwork
understanding in engineering design education. International Journal of Engineering
Education, 24(2), p.377.
Johns, C., 2014. What is reflective practice? In Becoming a reflective practitioner.
England: John Wiley & sons.
Knott, C., 2010. Chapter 1: Reflective practice revisited. In C. Knott, & T. Scragg
(Eds.), Reflective practice in social work. London: Reflective Practice in social work.
University of Cumbria, 2019. Rolfe et al.’s (2001) reflective model. [Online] Available
at:
https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/MyCumbria/Documents/ReflectiveModelRolfe.pdf.