Capstone Project Guidelines Batch PGDM 2022-24

The Capstone Project is aimed at evolving the capability of students to identify a problem, applying research tools and techniques to generate a possible and probable solution to the identified problem. All students will work on their projects under the guidance of allotted faculty mentors. The desired outcome from every capstone project is a research paper that may be presented in a conference or published in a reputable journal. Since the publication process is generally long, the capstone project will be evaluated for its overall research quality and publication potential. Students will steer the project using their technical knowledge and skills guided by the input from their faculty mentors. The faculty guide will actively participate and try to improve the content of the paper, making it suitable for publication.

The Capstone Project is conducted to analyze a comprehensive management problem or conduct an in-depth study of a situation or event with high practical relevance and significance. Students will demonstrate their technical proficiency by analyzing the chosen problem and produce a scholarly paper that reflects an in-depth understanding of the topic.

Students should choose the topic as per their interest and competence to explore a specific problem or to deepen their understanding of a particular management concept or theory. The Capstone Project allows students to demonstrate creative thinking and critical reasoning when they apply the theoretical concepts, conduct analysis, synthesize their understanding, and evaluate the application and relevance of concepts in the practical world. This helps students to expand their focus from only acquiring knowledge to evaluating and creating knowledge.

A Capstone Project must demonstrate the following characteristics:

Originality: The problem should be original and clearly defined. Students must demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the problem. They should formulate and develop their own perspective on the topic and not remain limited to what already exists in the broad research area.

Independence: Students must be able work on the problem independently, though a faculty mentor will be available to guide and mentor them.

Scope: The Capstone Project is equivalent to a three-credit course and students must dedicate adequate time to the project work to be able to produce substantial research results. Students must clearly define the realistic scope of their project work.

Process of Inquiry: Students should ask the right questions to work on the topic. They must demonstrate their comprehension and understanding of the theoretical underpinnings related to their topic and must be able to synthesize ideas, identify, collect, and scientifically and logically analyze the evidence in order to build and support their arguments and clearly communicatetheir ideas and conclusions.

Intellectual Stretch: The Capstone Project is intended to stretch the capacity of students to think originally, work independently and explore what they thought was difficult to explore.

Publication potential: The Capstone Project work will be evaluated on its research quality and its publication potential. The faculty guide will participate with the students in its publication.

Allocation of Faculty Guide: An objective process which considers both faculty and student preference for allocation of faculty guide as per their common areas of interest, will be used to designate members of the research group with the faculty mentors. For students we will have two students as members of a single project.

Guidelines to conduct study

Students must do the following:

1. Defining the problem: Analyze a research area and define the research problem

1. Proposal: Prepare research proposal briefly specifying the following:
   
   
   1. Need and scope of the Study explaining the reason behind the choice of the topic and the extent to which it shall be explored.
   
   
   1. Literature Review to explore the past research work conducted on the problem
   
   
   1. Defining Research Objective and creating a Hypotheses
   
   
   1. Method of Inquiry explaining the process of conducting the research specifying whether it would be Quantitative, Qualitative or Case based
   
   
   1. Data Collection & Organization describingtheprocessthroughwhichdatawouldbe collected
   
   
   1. Methods of Data Analysis giving details about the tools that would be used to analyze data
   
   
   1. Discussion of Findings would prescribe the way the results would be analyzed to enable a conclusive perspective.
   
   
   1. Summary of the research work conducted
   
   
   1. Publication opportunities: The group will identify at least three publication opportunities relevant for the research, under the guidance of faculty guide. These journals must be reputed and indexed in databases including UGC, Scopus, Web of Science, ABDC, etc.
   
   
   

3. Approval of Research Proposal by Faculty Guide: Faculty guide will approve the research proposal based on its novelty and scope of publication.

3. First Review of Research Proposal: The presentations and report will be reviewed by a faculty panel that will suggest changes for improvements. The allocated faculty guide will approve the proposal after the revisions are incorporated. The proposals will be checked for their distinctiveness and unique contribution to management theory and

5. Second Review of Research Proposal: The presentations and report will be reviewed for the second time by a panel of internal faculty and external experts to assess the intricacies and robustness of the Research The panel shall approve and/or suggest changes for further improvements.

5. Conduct of the Study: Students will develop a time schedule for working on the project in consultation with the faculty Students will have to conduct extensive literature review and prepare a list of reading material that can serve as a guide while conducting the study. The research design must clearly lay out the objectives, scope, limitations, population, sample, data collection techniques, data analysis tools and presentation style of results. Before using a method of data analysis, students will have to thoroughly understand the appropriateness, pros and cons, diagnostics, and limitations of the process.

5. Students must adhere to the structure of the report and the report must be free from

5. Research Paper Format: Format of the Research Paper will be as prescribed by the targeted publications. All the publication guidelines must be fully adhered to.

5. Guidelines for Paper Submission to PGDM Office: Soft copy of the paper approved by the Mentor will be submitted to the faculty mentor with a copy to the PGDM Office (Original .doc/.docx file, Times New Roman, Font size 12, keeping line space of 5). All figures and tables, etc., must be numerically numbered, captioned (captions to be attached to tables/figures) and embedded into the original file. APA reference style must be followed. The length of paper should be 5000 7000 words including abstract, tables, references, etc. but excludingappendices.

Plagiarism check will be conducted before evaluation by faculty guide. Plagiarism above

20% (excluding references) will not be accepted as a submission.

10. Evaluation by faculty guide: Faculty guide will evaluate the paper for its publication potential and will identify three or more potential publication opportunities (along with their listing categories) for the research work.

11. Capstone Evaluation: The final report will be presented to a three-member committee of faculty members including external expert(s) from industry and/or academia. The presentation files for the report will be sent to the PGDM Office. Final presentations will be held on scheduled date and time declared beforehand. Late submissions are not permitted and will be automatically graded as F.

First Review Presentation Marks: 20 Final Review Presentation Marks: 30 Final Report Marks: 50

In addition, final grades will be subject to following requirements based on publication potential:

1. Grade A- & above: Well formatted paper that can be published in ABDC, and Scopus, Journals

1. Grade B & above: Well formatted paper that can be published in Web of Science, and UGC Care listed Journals

1. Grade C+ & above: Well formatted paper that has been accepted in a conference of repute

Assessment Details

First Review of Research Proposal 20 Marks

Research must be conducted to resolve a business problem or analyze a business situation using technical and theoretical concepts discussed in various courses over the two years of the program.

Marks will be allocated to four components as follows:

Second Review of Research Proposal 30 Marks

Research must be done in a systematic manner following a predesigned process. Marks will be allocated to four components as follows:

Evaluation of Capstone Project Report 50 Marks

Publication Potential

If the project is not done satisfactorily the students will need to repeat the Project on a different topic. In the case of repeated projects that maximum grade that can be given is B. The timeline for completion will be Apr 2024. If the student does not submit the report before the last date, it will be completed with the next batch.

ANNEXURE 1

CHAPTER SCHEME OF THE FINAL CAPSTONE REPORT

Specimen Cover Sheet

Topic

By

Name of Student

Capstone Project Report submitted in partial fulfillment of PGDM Programme 2022-24

Name of Faculty Guide

Designation & Department

DECLARATION

I/We hereby declare that this report Name of Project is my/our own work, to the best of my/our knowledge and belief. It contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of any other institute, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text.

Signature:

Name

Roll Number

Batch 2022-24

Date:

CERTIFICATE FROM FACULTY GUIDE

This is to certify that work entitled Project title is a piece of work done by Student Name under my guidance and supervision for the partial fulfillment of degree of PGDM at Delhi School of Business.

To the best of my knowledge and belief this study embodies the work of the candidate. This requirement of the rules and regulations relating to the Capstone Project of the institute, is up-to the standard both in respect of content and language for being referred to the examiner.

Signature

Name

Designation

Date:

TEMPLATE FOR FINAL PRESENTATION

• Project Title

• Project Objective

• Theoretical Background

• Methodology Followed

• Data Collection & Analysis

• Conclusions / Findings / Observations

• Key Suggestions

• Key Learnings