Q: What should be the variables and limitations for my topic?

To start off, your topic sounds quite interesting. Matters of ethics, especially those in the corporate world, involve a lot of nuances and grey areas, and therefore, provide fodder for rich analysis and discussion. Also, it sounds like a qualitative or a mixed-methods study, which presents interesting challenges compared with a quantitative study. However, it is for these very reasons that we may unfortunately not be able to directly help you choosing the variables for your research. This needs you to think critically about your study and make appropriate decisions, based on your knowledge and understanding of research so far. Also, you would know your topic best. So, you would be the best person to make these decisions.

However, we can provide some pointers to help you get started, along with relevant resources at the end.

• The topic is presently just a topic. You need to work out a problem statement based on the topic. A problem statement, very simply, is a concise expression of the research problem talking about the present state of a situation, the ideal or desired state, and the solution to take it toward the ideal state.
• Before you start off on the problem statement, in case you haven’t done so already, you will need to do a detailed literature review. This will help you uncover valuable insights and necessary gaps that may feed into your study.
• Once you work out the problem statement, you will have determined the dependent variable (DV) and independent variable (IV), as they will be a part of the problem statement.
• You need to talk about limitations once you have completed the study. This involves looking back at your study and talking about what you could have done to make it better. You need to discuss the limitations or shortcomings of the study in the Discussion section. [If however, you meant delimitations, this means the boundaries you set on your research while designing the study. This is done to limit the scope of the study – otherwise, the study will not be feasible.]

So, bringing it all back to your study, some aspects you might need to work through are as follows.

Research question / Problem statement

What are the factors that determine when businesses be transparent with their customers (and when not)?

What are customers’ expectations of companies in matters of honesty and fair practices?

Study design / Scope

How many businesses will you look at? What kind? What size?

What is the population size you will look at?

What are the measurement methods you will utilize, such as questionnaire and interview?

Here is a list of resources related to the various aspects discussed above. For more, you may look up the site using the appropriate keywords.

• The basics of writing a statement of the problem for your research proposal
• What a journal editor expects to see in a literature review
• Types of qualitative research methods
• Can you guide me about the measurable variables for my study?
• What are the limitations of a study and how to write them?
• What is the meaning of scope and delimitations of a study?

All the best for your study!