A note on how to formulate a crude research theme for MBA dissertation proposal formulation

A note on how to formulate a crude research theme for MBA dissertation proposal formulation

 

In order to conduct a few preliminary brainstorming exercises with perplexity to produce 1 to 2 more specific MBA research themes to me, a part-time MBA student, learning to do a dissertation project, I offer a crude research theme, plus a few relevant key words (of interested to me) to perplexity to generate 2 to 3 more concrete research themes. My query is: how to formulate a crude research theme so that there is a relative large space of imagination for perplexity to come up with a few more concrete research themes. Could you give me some advices with reference to the topic of "top management succession planning for family business in Hong Kong".

To formulate a crude research theme that gives Perplexity (or any AI) enough “imaginary space” to generate concrete, useful MBA research themes, you want to:

1.    Keep the core idea broad but meaningful

2.    Add a small set of focused keywords that reflect your interests and context

3.    State your constraints and goals (e.g., part-time MBA, Hong Kong, family business, succession)

4.    Invite multiple angles (strategic, HR, organizational behavior, governance, etc.)

Below is practical advice tailored to your topic: top management succession planning for family business in Hong Kong.

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1. Start with a “crude” theme that is broad but not vague

A good crude theme should:

·        Name the phenomenon (succession planning)

·        Specify the level (top management / senior leadership)

·        Specify the context (family business, Hong Kong)

·        Leave methodology, theory, and exact focus open

Example of a well-balanced crude theme:

“Top management succession planning in Hong Kong family businesses”

This is:

·        Broad enough to allow many sub-questions (e.g., governance, culture, performance, next-gen readiness, non-family executives)

·        Specific enough to stay within your interests and feasible data access in Hong Kong

Avoid being too narrow at this stage, e.g.:

·        ❌ “How second-generation sons take over as CEO in Hong Kong family listed firms” (too narrow for brainstorming)

·        ✅ “Top management succession planning in Hong Kong family businesses” (good crude theme)

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2. Add 4–6 key words that reflect your interests and MBA context

Your keywords should:

·        Reflect your personal interests (e.g., governance, strategy, leadership, organizational culture)

·        Indicate theoretical lenses you’re exploring (e.g., stewardship theory, agency theory, resource-based view)

·        Hint at practical angles you care about (e.g., performance, sustainability, cross-generational conflict)

For your topic, a good keyword set could be:

Keywords: family business, succession planning, top management, Hong Kong, corporate governance, leadership transition, next-generation, organizational performance

You can adjust this set depending on whether you lean more toward:

·        Strategy (e.g., firm performance, competitive advantage)

·        HR/leadership (e.g., leadership development, talent management)

·        Governance (e.g., board composition, family council, ownership structure)

·        Culture (e.g., filial piety, trust, family dynamics)

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3. Explicitly tell Perplexity what you want it to produce

Instead of just pasting the theme and keywords, frame a clear instruction that:

·        Specifies the output: 2–3 concrete research themes

·        Specifies the level of specificity: suitable for an MBA dissertation

·        Asks for variety: different theoretical or practical angles

·        Mentions your constraints: part-time MBA, Hong Kong context, feasible data access

Example prompt structure:

“I am a part-time MBA student in Hong Kong working on my dissertation.

Crude research theme:
‘Top management succession planning in Hong Kong family businesses’

Key words:
family business, succession planning, top management, Hong Kong, corporate governance, leadership transition, next-generation, organizational performance

Please generate 2–3 concrete MBA dissertation research themes based on this crude theme and keywords. For each theme, provide:

1.    A clear, specific research title

2.    A one-sentence research focus

3.    Suggested theoretical framework(s)

4.    Suggested methodology (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed) and data sources feasible in Hong Kong

Make sure the themes are distinct from each other (e.g., one governance-focused, one leadership/HR-focused, one strategy/performance-focused).”

This gives Perplexity:

·        Enough breadth (via the crude theme and keywords) to imagine different angles

·        Enough direction (via your constraints and output format) to produce useful, concrete themes

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4. Keep some “open slots” for imagination

To maximize creative space, intentionally leave these unspecified in your crude theme:

·        Exact theory: Don’t lock yourself into “agency theory only”; let AI suggest theories.

·        Exact method: Don’t say “only case studies”; allow qualitative, quantitative, or mixed.

·        Exact dependent variable: Let AI propose performance, sustainability, succession success, conflict, governance quality, etc.

·        Exact family business type: Listed vs. unlisted, SME vs. large, traditional vs. modern sectors can all be proposed by AI.

Your crude theme + keywords should be a launchpad, not a contract.

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5. Example: From crude theme to concrete themes (illustrative)

Using your topic, Perplexity might generate themes like:

1.    Governance-oriented

·        Title: “The Role of Family Councils and Board Independence in Top Management Succession Planning in Hong Kong Family Listed Firms”

·        Focus: How governance mechanisms affect succession quality and firm performance.

·        Theory: Agency theory, stewardship theory.

·        Method: Quantitative (panel data from HKEX-listed family firms).

2.    Leadership/HR-oriented

·        Title: “Leadership Development and Readiness of Next-Generation Successors in Hong Kong Family SMEs”

·        Focus: How family firms prepare next-gen leaders for top management roles.

·        Theory: Human capital theory, leadership development frameworks.

·        Method: Qualitative (multiple case studies of Hong Kong family SMEs).

3.    Strategy/Performance-oriented

·        Title: “Impact of Top Management Succession Patterns on Organizational Performance in Hong Kong Family Businesses”

·        Focus: Comparing family-only vs. mixed family/non-family succession on performance.

·        Theory: Resource-based view, socioemotional wealth (SEW).

·        Method: Mixed methods (quantitative performance analysis + qualitative interviews).

You didn’t specify these exact angles; the crude theme + keywords + instructions allowed Perplexity to imagine them.

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6. Practical checklist for your next brainstorming session

When you go back to Perplexity with your crude theme, check:

·        Crude theme is broad but meaningful (succession + top management + family business + Hong Kong)

·        4–6 keywords reflect your interests and MBA-level concepts

·        Prompt explicitly asks for 2–3 concrete research themes with titles, focus, theory, method

·        Prompt asks for distinct angles (e.g., governance, leadership, strategy)

·        You do not over-specify theory, method, or exact variables at this stage.

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

An example of asking generative AI to examine housing affordability problems via the critical realism lens: for Housing Studies students

An example of asking generative AI to examine housing affordability problems via the critical realism lens: for Housing Studies students

 

Suggest 3 main housing affordability problems facing the Hong Kong middle-class families in 2026, based on the Hong Kong public media-reported issues.

Three housing affordability problems stand out for Hong Kong middle-class families in 2026: private home prices are still far beyond household incomes, rents are consuming a very large share of pay, and many “sandwich class” households are stuck between not qualifying for public housing and not being able to afford private housing.

1) Private home ownership is still out of reach

Public reporting in 2026 says a mid-sized private flat can cost more than 18 years of an average household’s combined income, showing that ownership remains structurally unaffordable even after some price declines. Reports also note that Hong Kong remains one of Asia’s least attainable housing markets, with a price-to-income ratio far above the common affordability benchmark. For middle-class families, this means saving for a down payment and meeting mortgage requirements is still extremely difficult.

2) Rents are rising faster than incomes

Media coverage shows that average rents now absorb around 72% of median monthly income, which leaves little room for family spending or savings. This is especially painful for middle-class households that cannot buy yet also do not qualify for subsidised housing, so they remain exposed to the rental market. The result is a squeeze on day-to-day living standards and on the ability to save for a future home.

3) The middle class is squeezed out of policy support

A recurring issue in Hong Kong media is the “sandwich class” problem: many middle-income families earn too much for public housing but too little to buy privately without severe hardship. Public reports also describe strict income and asset tests, which make it hard for families to move up from subsidised housing into private ownership. That leaves them in a long-term affordability trap rather than a clear path to stable housing.

A concise way to frame it in your dissertation or notes is: price, rent, and policy-gap.

 

Suggest 3 causal mechanisms that produce the three problems raised above from the critical realism (notably the real layer)'s perspective.

From a critical realism perspective, the three problems can be explained by three deeper real-layer mechanisms that generate the visible affordability crisis.

1) Land-supply constraint mechanism

Hong Kong’s highly constrained land supply, together with planning and development bottlenecks, pushes the housing system toward chronic scarcity. In critical realist terms, this is a generative mechanism because it continuously reproduces high prices and rents even when demand weakens temporarily. This mechanism helps explain both the unaffordable purchase market and the persistent rent burden on middle-class families.

2) Asset-speculation mechanism

Housing in Hong Kong functions strongly as a financial asset, so price formation is driven not only by shelter need but also by investment demand, capital flows, and expectations of future gains. This mechanism inflates purchase prices faster than household incomes and also supports landlord pricing power in the rental market. In other words, homes are treated as stores of value, which makes the market structurally hostile to ordinary wage earners.

3) Stratified-tenure exclusion mechanism

The housing system is segmented into private, subsidised, and public sectors, but middle-income households often fall between the eligibility thresholds. That creates a mechanism of exclusion: they are not poor enough for public assistance and not wealthy enough for market entry, so they remain trapped in expensive renting or prolonged saving. This also reproduces the “sandwich class” problem and explains why housing stress persists across generations rather than being resolved by income growth alone.

How the mechanisms map

·        Unaffordable ownership is mainly produced by land scarcity plus speculation.

·        Rising rent pressure is mainly produced by asset-driven landlord pricing within a scarce market.

·        Policy exclusion of middle-class families is mainly produced by tenure stratification and eligibility gaps.

If you are writing this in dissertation style, you can frame them as: structural scarcity, financialization, and tenure stratification.

Describe four main characteristics of causal mechanisms in critical realism.

Four main characteristics of causal mechanisms in critical realism are as follows.

1) Generative, not just correlational

Causal mechanisms do not merely sit beside repeated patterns; they generate events by producing outcomes when activated in the right conditions. This is why critical realism distinguishes causal explanation from simple statistical association.

2) Real but often unobservable

Mechanisms belong to the real layer: they exist whether or not we directly observe their effects. Researchers usually infer them indirectly from patterns, events, and context rather than seeing them straight away.

3) Conditional and contingent

A mechanism may have causal power yet fail to produce an outcome if other mechanisms intervene or if the conditions are not favourable. In critical realism, causation is therefore not deterministic in a simple one-cause-one-effect sense.

4) Context-dependent and layered

Mechanisms operate in open systems, so their effects depend on interactions across different levels and with other mechanisms. This means the same mechanism can produce different outcomes in different social or institutional settings.

A compact dissertation-ready formulation is: causal mechanisms in critical realism are generative, real, contingent, and context-dependent.

 

** This method to discuss with generative AI is useful for developing a student's own discussion for the writing of his/her Housing Studies dissertation report chapter 5 (Discussion of findings); in the context of working on your dissertation chapter 5, you could ask generative AI to suggest some causal mechanisms that "may produce" your dissertation report research findings (re: dissertation report chapter 4).

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