STAT4010: Developing a Research Question

NOTE: These are topics, not questions, and will need to be narrowed!

Business Ideas:

• Marketing trends of x population in y industry
• Motivational drivers for purchasing
• Management styles
• Automation and its impact on X

Popular Topics:

• Generational differences
• Legalization of marijuana
• Populism in politics

Topics to Avoid (note: there are ways to modify all of these to be good topics):

• Physiology/Exercise Science
• Coffee and its effects on X
• Very narrow topics on a specific niche hobby

There are many types of research questions, but here are two of the main categories:

Observational Questions: Focuses on how two things are related - how do two variables work together?

Casual Questions: Focuses on cause and affect - does changing a variable impact the outcome of other variables?

There are also DESCRIPTIVE questions (i.e. describing a phenomenon), but those might not be the best choice for this class.

Your research question should ideally be:

• Open ended - cannot be answered with a simple yes or no
• Can be answered with data - qualitative, quantitative, or both
• Not loaded - does not imply the answer in the question itself
• Not based in ethics - subjective right and wrong don't exist in empirical research