Hello and welcome. In this video we will focus on how to write a research paper’s introduction.
Parts of a research paper:
Now a research paper introduction should have primarily at least these seven things. Now you start the research paper with identifying the value of your topic in general. Now if you are focused on a specific field or a specific area in your research paper, you should highlight why this particular topic is important in that particular field, why is there a need to study the concept. Next focus on existing research paper on your variables, what relationships have been studied followed by this. You identify the limitations, gaps and future result, directions on your topic based on previous studies on the variables. Now there must be latest the next are you focus on identifying the theoretical lens through which you are going to establish the relationships. Second last, you start by identifying the contribution of your study to the body of knowledge, since basic research is all about advancing the existing research. And finally, you propose the structure of your thesis of research paper. Obviously you can add to this, keeping in mind and the format of the term journal and obviously something that will add value or add potency to your introduction. Now we are going to look into detail, how you should write the value, how you should write about existing research, how you should write about limitations and the theoretical lens, the contribution and how you should write about the structure of your thesis or your research paper. It can be used in both. Now we are going to look into each of these in greater detail with examples and we are going to look into some research paper as well and see where we find these things in a research paper within the introduction.
Now the first thing is value of your topic in general. So for instance I’m focusing on or writing on corporate social responsibility. So I write about the importance or value of corporate social responsibility just a general identification of why and this particular area is important or why this particular topic is important.
Example of a research paper:
So here is an example from a research paper and latest research paper published in a 2020. It starts with the corporate social responsibility, has become a business imperative according to business for social responsibility 2000 CSR is operating a business in a manner that needs or exists exceeds the ethical legal commercial and public expectations that society has of business. Now social responsibility is a guiding principle for every decision made and in every area of business. Today firms are experiencing greater pressure from stakeholders to integrate social and environmental concerns into their business decisions and strategies. Now this is the first paragraph in this paper- revisiting the relationship between corporate social responsibility and organizational performance and the mediating role of team outcomes. Now this introduction or this paragraph helps us or helps the reader. What helps the writer set the tone that he or she is focused on establishing why copy social responsibility is a valuable topic for research? So once you have established the value of your research paper topic in general, now how do you write this? The more you read, the more you have got material on how to write. We have done a video on storing information and in there we did talk about writing or keeping some information on how existing research has established the value of a topic. So you keep a log of how different researchers in your area have established the value of the topic and by reading those topics or are by reading that content you are yourself able to write your own justification for the research paper topic. Moving on the next thing is if you are focused on a specific field or area, it’s very important and that you establish its value in that particular area. For instance, in this case the area is or the research paper topic is servant-leadership.
How does the author of research paper establish its value research on servant leadership has primarily focused on business organizations were with relatively scarce research in context of higher education institutions GIS are faced with increased complexity scarcity of resources and fierce competition for ranking and prestige servant leadership has a significant utility in a GIS where primary function is provision of service and to develop people leadership in the educational institutions is massively challenging. As leaders are faced with tough decisions pertinent to budgetary cuts, freezing pay raises or programs elimination, now this clearly sets the idea as to why this particular topic, this particular area is important in higher education which is the area of study in this particular research paper, the source is servant leadership career and life satisfaction in higher education cross country study of Spain, China and Pakistan. Now once you are done with establishing why a particular topic is important in a particular area.
The next step is you identify what existing research is available now in order to find what existing research is available. We have done a video on searching different databases or research databases. You search through those research databases and identify what has been done in this particular area what are the limitations of the existing research but before going into the limitations to identify the existing research on your variable. Now what relationships have been studied, now there are two examples in this slide and we are going to focus on just one of them.
I’m going to go to one of them.
The empirical research in research paper revealed inconclusive findings regarding the impact of CSR practices on organizational performance. Now for instance, the relationship between CSR and organizational performance has been found positive in some studies. Now here are a few studies that have found a positive relationship between CSR and organizational performance while others have found or rejected or have found no association between these two variables. Now based on existing research in research paper and based on the findings of existing research, we have established that the relationship between CSR and opie is inconclusive. So, obviously this shows that there is a need to further study these relationships. Now the next example is that game processes in particular knowledge sharing has captured a greater part of scholarly attention the role you which is entrepreneurial orientation has been assessed as a predictor of limited number of game processes such as knowledge utilization or knowledge sharing and knowledge creation in a research paper. Additionally entrepreneurial orientation literature linkage to knowledge related activities in the organization has attracted much less scholarship so reading this text actually helps us understand that this is how we write about the existing available research in research paper what has been done in existing research. Now how do we know obviously you have to search through the databases and retrieve relevant information as to what studies and research paper have been done and while going through those papers while reading through those that literature or those those papers you will identify but the limitations of existing research paper. The more you read, the more you are in a position to understand the limitations of existing research. This is very important. I read as much as possible read as latest as possible in order to identify what research has been done moving on the next step is to identify the limitations gaps or what future research directions have been proposed now again the emphasis are is that these should be latest or a mix of latest research like in this case there is a reference from 2014 2016 but there are also references from 2019 as well same is the case with the next example. So how do you write about it? You have to articulate your ident, you have to articulate the limitations, present them in a manner that creates the need for research despite the progress in the career satisfaction literature. The research is significantly limited and requires further exploration. Additionally, life satisfaction research is criticized due to its lack of focus on the work two main organizational settings additionally the literature to live satisfaction is relatively new and has been a flourishing rapidly and there is little research into lifestyle destruction in higher education that – in context of students now the sources servant-leadership career and life satisfaction in higher education across countries study of Spain, China and Pakistan. Next example although the interest in entrepreneurial leadership has been growing the concept of entrepreneurial leadership is still significantly underdeveloped the various parts of leadership literature have yet to permeate the field of entrepreneurship. So now reading this text helps us identify or propose the limitations of existing research and the further highlight the need to conduct further research majority of the papers that I go through as a reviewer I find that new scholars are students sometimes or people who consult us for writing. They miss this important part sometimes they are writing research paper about limitations, gaps and future research directions on their own without any reference. Now you need to substantiate support your argument with references otherwise it might sound harsh but who are you to say these things without any support, without any argument, based on existing available research. This is how you establish that okay this is what has been done and this is how the existing research is going to be taken forward. The next is you identify the theoretical lens for your study, what theory are you going to use to establish the relationship between variables this actually tells you had the research paper reviewer, the readers that you have got a strong grip on the subject on the area. Now how do you write about it a few simple, a simple paragraph is enough. For instance the first one the theoretical lens for this study in this research paper is knowledge based to you. Now, this study on this paper, director and configurational parts of knowledge oriented leadership entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge management processes to project success. They are using knowledge base tree which I’ll use that organizations are social entities that use and store internal knowledge competencies and capabilities that are vital for the firm survival a growth and success now has been extensively used in the game literature obviously in the literature review you are going to go into greater depth and use knowledge base you in greater detail to establish the relationship between your variables in this case the knowledge oriented leadership and project success aren’t and knowledge management processes. The next example complexity theory is used to describe situation where simple linear models can not adequately address the complex relationship which emerge as a result of a large number of interacting components. The study and research paper adopts the complexity theory in order to understand how complex consumer behaviors can lead to well-organized and possibly predictable behaviors. Now what they are doing is they are also explaining how they are going to use this theory to establish or explain the relationships or what relationships they are going to explain through this theory. So this is particularly important as this is how you establish or explain the use of the theory in your research paper. The next important thing is how your research and research paper would fill the gaps what are the contributions of viewers study this is more or less the last paragraph within your introduction. Now how do you write about your contributions now as you see more or less you won’t find any references in the contribution because this is based on what we have established as a background for your study the gaps that you have identified the limitations that you have identified now based on that you write the contributions of your study now how do you write it.
The research paper aims to assess the interrelationship between servant leadership career satisfaction and life satisfaction across three different countries.
Spain, China and Pakistan and in doing so makes important contributions. First it’s always a good idea to number them and it’s always a good idea to have at least three contributions. Now the first is this study and research paper contributes to the field of leadership across cultures. Second assess the mediating role of career satisfaction between servant leadership and life satisfaction in the in three different countries third no previous study proposes a cross-cultural cultural research of leadership in aichi is helping managers of these institutions to lead in a global context to discover an effective leadership of each culture. And finally, the study would add to leader member exchange theory. Now what is your contribution to the theory. This is very important majority of the research paper are rejected because they do not mention the contribution to the theory they failed to establish, they failed to identify which or what theory they are using to establish the relationship. What is their contribution to existing research and research paper, what is their contribution to the theory so in this case by ascertaining the role of servant leadership in shaping career and life satisfaction in a cross-cultural setting. The last one, you have to propose or you have to identify the structure of your thesis or research paper, the rest of the research paper is organized as follows. First there is a description of the context in which the study took place. This is followed by a discussion of the development of the conceptual model and the hypothesis, a report on the methodology used in the studies, then presented a discussion of the results, of the data analysis and hypothesis testing precedes a discussion of the research implications, limitations of the study as well as future research. Any news are finally put forward you may change the wording or consult different papers, how they write a good idea would be a research through existing research paper for a particular journal that you are interested in publishing. Now there are these things in a research paper, there are a few research paper. Let’s say, let’s open this one so there is the introduction and the introduction starts with the value. This is the value of CSR, this is the value of your topic followed by the next thing, i.e., the limitations are sorry. The gaps are what research is available in this particular area so followed by this there is another argument that there is a need to study mediators, the gaps in existing research and then obviously if there are other mediators you can establish the value of those mediators in the study and research paper as well and then because since, this study uses both symmetrical and asymmetrical methods. They are identifying the methodological contribution of their study as well and then they identify the contributions of the study and what are the contributions of the study itself to substantiate the relationship between CSR and organizational performance. It helps us evaluate the impact of CSR on team outcomes which is significantly limited now in this case they have shifted the identification of the theory at the end obviously and the arrangement can be changed but it has to be in the introduction. So this is how they write the introduction to a research paper. Let’s move to another paper for instance, this one similarly they start with the identification of value of the topic how servant leadership is important, why servant leadership is important. Now furthermore, the value of the topic in case of higher education why servant leadership is important in higher education moving on what existing research is available since, it’s a scale development study. So they have focused on what skills may be available and why they are important and now furthermore what are the limitations. These are the limitations of this study we have seen the examples why this study should be conducted what are the limitations of the existing research what has been done and why existing research is limited how this research based on the future result directions can be improved and finally there are these contributions which are already alright similarly in any other paper you will find in the same case that you start with the value of the topic and then moving on you identify the gaps in existing research the limitations in existing research and research paper.
Now how do you find these you read through latest papers and research paper. You read their introduction store relevant information, you go through their limitations and future research direction and you identify the limitations and gaps in existing research and based on those limitations and gaps obviously you propose your own model and then you identify the contribution so once you read through these latest research papers published in good research journals you will be able to identify how you should put them in writing.
Where to find great research papers online?
Various great research journals such as Global Research Letters are a great option and way to help you look up research papers to understand the process of writing introduction to research papers. With the help of which you will be able to read the papers and understand how to write introduction to research papers. Here, you will find a number of various research papers that are provided and made available to you in the journal.
You can very easily find various kinds of researches by a number of scholars recorded in a number of research papers at Global Research Letters. This will help you with your own research work’s introduction. With access to so many amazing research papers, you can practice and learn the process of writing introduction to research papers.
I hope the session was would have helped you understand how to write a research introduction thank you very much.