thinkPhD

Dr. M has been a great help this week as I have been working on the IRB Application. I think that with his suggestions and my modifications, the Application is just about ready to be submitted. Tonight I updated the Application, adding the permissions that I received from the owners of the survey.

I have also been playing around with SurveyMonkey and SurveyGizmo, trying to decide which will best meet my needs. I will have some time this weekend to work on that again.

Very soon I will be in the data collection phase….!

I found this little story today and encourage you to read it if you are working on your dissertation….it may put things in perspective!

The Rabbit’s Dissertation by A. Gerstlauer

Enjoy!

I am happy to announce that I paid off my student load today! Yippee! I had a Wells Fargo loan, not a federal loan. The bank did not require any payments until after graduation, but I went ahead and made payments all along. I did not want to wait until after graduation to pay — I just did not want that stress! Making the last lump sum payment felt very good, even though I was afraid the bank and I would be disconnected because we are in the midst of a thunderstorm. No worries, though, and my payment was accepted. I wrote PAID OFF in big letters on the most recent loan statement. Now, we can SAVE that payment amount each month.

It feels GREAT!

I am still pinching myself – my dissertation proposal (DP) was approved today!!! The OAR included some comments, actually more comments than they did when my CP did not pass the first time. My plan is to take each comment and throughly review it, before proceeding with IRB approval request.

One note was that I need to obtain copyright approval to use a figure that came from a source. I was not aware that I would need this because I properly cited the figure. There were two typos, that for some reason are not in my original file. Perhaps the reviewer tapped some keys unexpectedly.

Here is another point: “Avoid redundancies in hypothesis statements: The use of the phrase “significant difference” is redundant. There is either no difference (null hypothesis accepted) or a difference (null hypothesis rejected). See the Dissertation Center>School of Education Resources>Dissertation Best Practices for further guidance.”

The reference to the Dissertation Best Practices, includes this statement: “It is redundant to include the phrase “… is there a statistically significant difference…” when writing a research question. The process of hypotheses testing always checks for statistical significance. You need only say, “… is there a difference…”

Here is a research question from the DP:
“Among firms engaged in buyer-supplier relationships, what, if any, is the difference between firms identified as sustainable and firms not identified as sustainable in terms of environmental initiatives, as measured by the PSRQ?”

And the H0 and HA:

H0: Among firms engaged in buyer-supplier relationships, there is no significant difference between firms identified as sustainable and firms not identified as sustainable in terms of environmental initiatives, as measured by the PSRQ.
HA: Among firms engaged in buyer-supplier relationships, there is a significant difference between firms identified as sustainable and firms not identified as sustainable in terms of environmental initiatives, as measured by the PSRQ.

However, other texts state that the question should not be a yes or no answer, which the above seems to indicate. Others include the words “statistically significant.” So I am puzzling through this statement, and not sure how to modify my hypotheses….maybe just leave out the word “significant”?

Today finds me pretty nervous – my chair received notification that we should hear something from the OAR by Monday March 14 regarding my dissertation proposal (DP) …that’s tomorrow!

I re-read my DP yesterday and even after hundreds of edits, changes, and augments, I found a few correctible items. I wish I had seen these before sending it off to the OAR. ;-/

Perhaps the reviewers will not see those items needing improvement, which were mostly related to how I stated something or where a sentence was (beginning or end or middle of a paragraph). My real concern (based on what I have heard from others) is that sometimes the OAR rejects a DP thoroughly – and the student has to start from scratch. Scary.

My topic is very timely (sustainability and social responsibility in supply chains), so perhaps this will be an advantage. The theoretical framework is built on stakeholder theory, which was first articulated in a 1960s study at the Standford Research Institute. Here is a snippet from my DP:

“Stakeholder theoretical models support a view of aggregate and composite supply chain relationships rather than those that are singular and simplistic. A stakeholder map of an organization may include various groups with an investment or interest in the success and activities of the firm, such as owners, suppliers, competitors, employees, customers, government, political groups, and others (Freeman, 2010). Stakeholder requirements are key motivators for strategic actions taken by firm managers, including ethical and financial activities (Freeman, 2010). By extension, stakeholders may mandate socially responsible actions as public awareness evolves through media influence, social changes, and cultural shifts. The perspective of placing responsibility on organizations developed from the acknowledgment that broadened corporate activities had potential for repercussions on the general welfare of members of society (Russo & Perrini, 2010).”

Yesterday evening and this morning, I have been working on my submission to the University of Phoenix Faculty Research Grant Program. This new program has three award levels, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000. It is designed to support meaningful research that will be reported in academic literature. It would really be great if my research would be recognized in this way. The money would help defray some of the expense of gathering data. I will finish up the grant proposal today and I should hear something within 45 days.

Wish me luck – both with the DP review and the research grant!

Congratulations new Delta Mu Delta inductees at NCU! Today we had our Lambda Eta Chapter Induction Ceremony via teleconference. There are 15 new inductees to our Chapter. Welcome! Welcome!

We have a fantastic group of Officers who are highly motivated to build Chapter Scholarships in addition to the DMD Scholarships available to all DMD members. If you are a member of our Chapter, we need your ideas to fund Chapter Scholarships. Email or post your ideas here to the blog. I am the Secretary and will be happy to share your ideas with the Officers.

If you are interested in learning more about DMD, click this link.