Comparative Table:

Differences between a business proposal and formal research.

Process Steps	Business Proposal	Research Project
Overview	Executive Summary	Abstract
Report Formatting	Variety of formats, sometimes proprietary	APA formatted
Preliminary Data Gathering	Previous or similar internal situations or cases from the competition.	Ideas based upon the results of other researchers
Literature review	Proprietary and industry specific literature.	Primarily scholarly literature (preferably peer reviewed) to articulate the context of the study
Definition of the problem	Mainly framed as a business decision making concern	Careful framing of the area of concern as a potential contribution to scholarly research
Research question	Directed at finding an the best possible solution to a business problem	Framed so it can be proven as an experiment: Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods.
Theoretical framework	Normally not used	Defines the theories that support the variables used in the hypothesis
Purpose of the study	Finding an optimal solution	Builds upon other comparable research and expressed as an event that can be replicated.
Design Approach	Analysis of alternatives	Performing an experiment
Data collection methods & analysis	Search for current data sources available and make a decision	Have to generate your own data to make a discovery
Conclusions	Normally the same as the recommendations	Scope limited to results of experimental design.
Recommendations	Normally the same as the conclusions	List of areas for further research, contribution to the academic field
References	Proprietary and industry specific literature	Target the most recent and reputable scholarly sources