Empirical quantitative thesis generic outline

Title page

Summary (1 page; written last)

TOC

LoT

LoF

LoA

1. Introduction (1500)
Drafted at the beginning of the write-up but finalized after the thesis is final

2. Search protocol (500)

Explain and justify how you identified, selected and analyzed the literature
Refer e.g., to Appendix # that is contingency table with 15 empirical papers reviewed and
synthesized

3. Literature review and synthesis (4000)

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Theories used

Here you would discuss the clusters of theories that emerged from Appendix #

3.3 Methods used

Here you would discuss the clusters of methods that emerged from Appendix #

3.4 Findings
Here you would discuss the clusters of findings that emerged from Appendix #

3.5 Philosophical paradigms

Here you would discuss the clusters of philosophical paradigms that emerged from Appendix #

3.6 Conclusion

4. Research design (1000)

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Hypotheses development

Here based on Ch3 - you develop the hypotheses you want to test.
 4.3 Operationalization
Here you operationalize the constructs you want to investigate and present the instrument
(questionnaire) you developed. Discuss validity and reliability issues

4.4 Data collection

Here you discuss how you defined your sample, identified it, what sampling strategy you
employed; response rate

4.5 Conclusion

5. Data analysis and discussion (2000)

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Data presentation

Here you present and discuss descriptive statistics of your data.

5.3 Data analysis

Here you present and discuss analytic statistics focusing on the relationships you wanted to
investigate based on the hypotheses identified earlier.

5.4 Discussion
Here based on the knowledge from 5.3 + Ch3 + from conceptual/theoretical papers - you
would create a new, refined understanding of the phenomenon you are studying, suggesting
new relationships, new propositions, new hypothesis, new ways to look at it (theories), new
ways to investigate, new contexts.

5.5 Conclusion

6. Philosophical reflections (500)

Here you would reflect e.g., on your own journey, focusing on your personal views of the world, on
dominant views in the field you have studied, possible implications of all these on the results of your
study, on the advancement of the field you have studied.

7. Conclusion and limitations (500)

Combining of the findings from a theoretical approach and from a practical approach leads me to
find convergences and divergences.

Practical conclusion: -
The Market needs and the knowledge acquisition heavily determines the scale and scope of
modularization.
 - The companies formally communicated to commit to modularization agree to a cross functional
process to obtain modularization.
- The companies formally communicated to commit to modularization agree to form organization
in modules.

Theoretical conclusion:
- Market demand affects your modularization, and is essential to determine in order to know what
to modularize and what not to.
- By designing modules which are over
-engineered to serve several products you eliminate a substantial amount of components
- By defining modules, you can reach greater product variance with fewer components.
- By defining Module Decoupling with Standard Interface, and reusing well documented modules
you can increase quality
- When modularizing, cross functional involvement is essential to reach the synergy benefits of
modularization described above.

Both Theoretical and Practical conclusions lead to an overall conclusion: Modularization is a major
driver for-
- Improved Quality Level
- Major Cost Saving
- Shorter Development Time
- Lower Investment for Future Development
- A Company Platform for Agile Growth

With this Conclusion I have proven theoretically, with use of knowledge gained from literary
articles and practical empirical evidence from Multiple Case Study Company A,B,C and Consultant
Company X,Y that Modularization improve competitive performance.

Future investigation As this concluded there is a collaboration between market need and scale of
modularization. For further investigation, multiple case-studies in industry-specific markets may
determine how modularization can be proposed in one specific industry, and find divergence and
convergence in other industries.

References