Asking AI to come up with an MBA dissertation proposal: on home buying of the HK retirees: an illustration

Asking AI to come up with an MBA dissertation proposal: on home buying of the HK retirees (information from perplexity.ai)

My question 1: "Please come up with an MBA research theme based on the following key words: Hong Kong retirees' home buying preference location (Hong Kong vs nearby mainland cities), financial service design to serve Hong Kong retirees' home buy preference on location (within Hong Kong or outside Hong Kong), home buying behavior of the Hong Kong retirees. The research theme should be based on pragmatism. A few academic theories about financial service design, home buying behavior of retirees, financial service marketing in Hong Kong are to be used."

The reply: "Pragmatic MBA Research Theme: Tailoring Financial Services to Hong Kong Retirees' Cross-Border Home Buying Preferences

Hong Kong retirees increasingly favor properties in nearby mainland cities like Dongguan and Shenzhen over local options due to lower costs, spacious living, and policy support in the Greater Bay Area. A pragmatism-based MBA research theme focuses on practical insights from mixed methods to inform actionable financial service designs. This aligns with your interests in housing studies, silver economy behaviors, and pragmatic approaches for MBA dissertations.

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Proposed Research Theme

Pragmatism guides this theme by prioritizing real-world utility through flexible mixed methods, blending quantitative surveys on preferences with qualitative insights from retiree interviews and bank managers to yield managerial recommendations.

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Theme Title: "Pragmatic Design of Financial Services for Hong Kong Retirees' Home Buying in Hong Kong vs. Greater Bay Area: Insights from Location Preferences and Cross-Border Behaviors."

The theme examines retirees' preferences for local vs. mainland properties, driven by factors like affordability and lifestyle, and develops tailored services such as remittance facilitation and mortgages.

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Key Theories

• Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): Explains retirees' home buying intentions via attitudes toward locations (e.g., cost vs. space), subjective norms from peers relocating north, and perceived control over cross-border finances.
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• Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic: Frames financial services as co-created value with retirees, emphasizing networks for cross-border remittances and mortgages rather than standalone products.
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• Design Thinking: Informs iterative service design by empathizing with retirees' behaviors (e.g., border travel ease) and prototyping solutions like GBA-specific financing.
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Research Relevance

This theme addresses gaps in retiree-specific financial services amid rising GBA migration, with banks like HSBC offering international mortgages but limited retiree tailoring. Pragmatism suits your MBA/Housing Studies focus by integrating experiential data for policy-relevant outcomes, such as enhanced cross-boundary remittances expanded in 2025. It builds on silver economy themes like psychological drivers in 50s-60s consumption."

My question 2: "Please come up with a dissertation proposal on the research theme you offered above; the proposal should have a dissertation project title, 3 business issues, 3 research issues, 3 research objectives, 3 research questions, 4 academic theories to use (with references in Harvard reference format), 3 research methods (2 primary research methods and 1 secondary research method). The project is based on pragmatism."

The reply: "Dissertation Proposal: Financial Services for Hong Kong Retirees' Cross-Border Home Buying

This proposal develops the pragmatic MBA research theme on tailoring financial services to Hong Kong retirees' preferences for homes in Hong Kong versus Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities like Dongguan and Shenzhen. Grounded in pragmatism, it employs mixed methods to generate practical insights for banks and policymakers.

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Project Title

Pragmatic Design of Financial Services for Hong Kong Retirees' Home Buying Preferences: Hong Kong vs. Greater Bay Area Locations

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Business Issues

• Hong Kong banks lack tailored cross-border mortgage and remittance products for retirees seeking affordable GBA properties amid high local prices.
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• Retirees face regulatory hurdles in personal remittances to mainland China, limiting seamless financing for second homes or retirement relocations.
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• Financial institutions miss opportunities in the silver economy by not addressing retirees' location-specific behaviors, such as proximity to Hong Kong for family ties.
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Research Issues

• Limited understanding of how affordability, lifestyle, and accessibility drive retirees' preferences for GBA over Hong Kong properties.
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• Gaps in service designs that integrate cross-border financial needs, like simplified mortgages and currency hedging for retiree investors.
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• Insufficient empirical links between retiree home buying behaviors and pragmatic financial marketing strategies in Hong Kong's regulatory context.
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Research Objectives

• To identify key factors influencing Hong Kong retirees' home buying location preferences between Hong Kong and GBA cities.
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• To evaluate how current financial services align with retirees' cross-border behaviors and propose design enhancements.
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• To develop actionable recommendations for banks to market tailored services, enhancing retiree satisfaction and institutional revenue.
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Research Questions

• What location preferences (Hong Kong vs. GBA) shape Hong Kong retirees' home buying behaviors, and what financial barriers impede them?
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• How can financial service designs, informed by retiree behaviors, facilitate cross-border property purchases?
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• What marketing strategies best promote these services to Hong Kong retirees under a pragmatic framework?
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Academic Theories

Four theories underpin this pragmatic study, enabling mixed-methods analysis of behaviors and service co-creation:

• Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, I. (1991) 'The theory of planned behavior', Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), pp. 179–211): Models retirees' intentions based on attitudes, norms, and control over GBA purchases.
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• Service-Dominant Logic (Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F. (2004) 'Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing', Journal of Marketing, 68(1), pp. 1–17): Views financial services as value co-created with retirees via networks.
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• Design Thinking (Brown, T. (2008) 'Design thinking', Harvard Business Review, 86(6), pp. 84–92): Guides iterative service prototyping empathizing with retiree needs.
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• Retirement Migration Framework (Gibler, K.M. and Nelson, S. (2003) 'Segmenting the retiree housing market', Journal of Real Estate Research, 25(1), pp. 81–103): Segments preferences by lifestyle and financial factors.
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Research Methods

Pragmatism justifies mixed primary methods for practical validity, supplemented by secondary analysis.

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• Primary: Surveys of 200+ Hong Kong retirees on buying preferences and service needs (quantitative, stratified sampling).
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• Primary: Semi-structured interviews with 20 retirees and 10 bank managers on behaviors and design gaps (qualitative, thematic analysis).
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• Secondary: Analysis of HKMA remittance data, bank reports, and GBA property trends for contextual triangulation."

*** Please adopt some of the refined proposal ideas above, refined and customized them further in necessary, and produce your own synopsis form.

*** a three-step method to produce a proposal prototype.

A collection of blog notes on using chatgpt for research purpose.