Research questions and methodology for my dissertation

   Before the term 2 was over in March, I got some feedbacks about the proposal of my dissertation from my professors. I have changed the design of my research a little and decided to focus on corporate communications of national brands after the huge national trauma, i.e. the Great Earthquake in Japan.

   My initial research questions were;

l  In order to gain a reputation, should companies focus on key stakeholders such as the customers and supply chains or the general public for disaster relief?

l  How can PR strategically get involved in disaster relief?

   However, my professors advised me to see how Japanese companies or foreign affiliated companies in Japan communicated with the people because companies are now considered to have great social responsibility to react to it. It is quite difficult to handle the situation, but companies need to be prepared to a natural disaster. If they kept silent after the disaster, they would be regarded as irresponsible. Some CSR activities after the hurricanes in the US and the earthquakes in China were already researched by some scholars. It is also important to compare the CSR policy of the company with what they actually did. So, the new research questions will be;

l  How did companies in Japan react to the huge national trauma?

l  Had the policy suggested that they were ready for the disaster beforehand?

l  What do people say about the contribution of the company after the disaster?

Quest for my research questions---

   In terms of methodology, my professors agreed to employ case study with in-depth interviews of the senior managers, employees and experts on CSR in the UK and Japan. Since I have already contacted to the communication teams of some of the global companies before I came to the UK last year, I will ask one of them for interviews and analyse how the media reported their activities.