A note on using a company’s own research report findings in an MBA dissertation project

A note on using a company’s own research report findings in an MBA dissertation project

With regard to doing a part-time MBA dissertation report, how can the dissertation student make use of a company's own study (e.g. customer opinion questionnaire survey with statistical analysis findings) in the dissertation report without making dishonest academic behavior (e.g. claiming that the customer survey and its analysis is done by the student)? For instance, how to report this kind of company report findings in the dissertation report?

    You should treat the company’s survey and analysis as secondary/company-provided evidence, not as your own primary data collection, and say so explicitly in the dissertation. In practice, that means you describe the report, cite it properly, and explain how you used its findings rather than implying you conducted the survey yourself.

How to describe it

In the methodology or data section, write something like:

·        “This dissertation uses a company-internal customer survey report as secondary data.”

·        “The questionnaire was designed, administered, and statistically analysed by the company; the present study draws on the reported findings for further academic interpretation.”

·        “The author did not collect the raw data and did not independently verify the statistical procedures unless stated otherwise.”

That wording makes ownership of the work clear and avoids misrepresentation.

How to write the analysis

You can still discuss the findings in your dissertation, but frame them as reported results from the company study. For example:

·        “According to the company’s customer opinion survey, 72% of respondents rated service quality as satisfactory.”

·        “The company report found a significant association between delivery speed and customer satisfaction.”

·        “These findings suggest that operational performance may be linked to customer loyalty, although the original data and full statistical outputs were not available to the author.”

This is acceptable because you are analysing the company’s report, not claiming the underlying survey was your own.

Example wording

A safe paragraph might read:

“Secondary data were obtained from an internal company customer survey report. The survey questionnaire, sampling procedure, and statistical analysis were conducted by the company’s research team. The dissertation uses the published summary findings as documentary evidence to support the case study analysis, while acknowledging that the raw data were not independently collected by the author.”

That wording is transparent and academically defensible.

Referencing the report

If the company report is unpublished or internal, cite it as an internal report in the reference list, following your school’s style guide. A common APA-style format is: Company Name. (Year). Title of report. Internal report, unpublished. If the report is accessible only within the company, state that clearly in the bibliography or appendix notes.

Good practice

·        State in an ethics or limitations section that access to raw data was restricted.

·        Distinguish between “company-reported findings” and your own interpretation.

·        Do not reproduce tables or claims as though you generated them.

·        If you quote exact figures, note that they come from the company report, not your own fieldwork.

This approach is consistent with guidance on using secondary/company data in research and with general expectations of transparency in academic-company data use.

 

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