Some students ask me whether it is acceptable to do a market research for their final dissertation projects. The theme of market research is acceptable. Nevertheless, a student could not just apply a market research model in their dissertation project. They need to demonstrate that they have literature review skill and that the dissertation reports must have academic value. Thus, they need to do literature review and relate their dissertation project ideas and research design, etc. to ideas, techniques, and concerns in the academic community. Students need to indicate how their dissertation works can contribute to the discussion in the academic community on market research.
Because of that, students cannot solely rely on market research textbooks for their literature review. The learning objective of dissertation is not just to demonstrate that a student has learned a method and know how to apply it; and then, it is not sufficient for the dissertation reports to have practical value; it also must have academic value in order to be a proper dissertation project.
Advice: visit academic journal publishers and type "market research" to search for market research articles to study.
