Proposal Guidelines

Proposal Guidelines

eBusiness Research Center Overview:

The eBusiness Research Center is an industry-supported research center, which is part of the Smeal College of Business at The Penn State University.

Learn more about eBusiness Research Center

Research Program:

The eBusiness Research Center supports publishable academic research by providing expense funding, data access, and assistance in contacting our member companies. We work with faculty and graduate students at universities around the world. Our emphasis is on research that contributes to improved e-business strategies and practices and/or leads to a better understanding of the role and impact of e-business strategies.

Our primary research areas include, but are not limited to:

  1. Business Model disruption and evolution
  2. Mapping business architecture to technology architecture
  3. Information and decision quality

For a listing of currently supported and past projects, please visit the current projects page.

For a listing of our current research focus areas, please visit Focus Points.

Proposal Deadlines:

The eBusiness Research Center accepts proposals at any time during the year. The Doctoral Award Support Competition is held annually; please watch for a call for proposals each Spring.

Research Awards:

The funding awards provided by the eBusiness Research Center are intended to supplement, not replace, existing sources of funding. Most grants are small seed grants, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 for direct research expenses. We will also work with researchers to find additional funding from our sponsors if we believe that a research project will be of special interest to one or more of our sponsors.

Each year, the number of proposals funded will vary, based on resources available to the eBusiness Research Center and the quality and number of proposals submitted.

The Proposal:

Faculty and graduate students are encouraged to explore our priority areas of research and/or contact our Research Director, Arvind Rangaswamy, before preparing a proposal. He can provide information about the availability of funds and whether the suggested topic falls within the eBusiness Research Center research guidelines. Initial proposals should be brief. In fact, most should be submitted as "preliminary proposals" first. Preliminary proposals should be one to three pages, double-spaced.

Each proposal should address the following topics:

  1. Describe the importance of your research to the e-business topic you are exploring. Include a brief assessment of the short and long term impact of the results/ findings from your research.
  2. Summarize the theoretical/academic importance of your research proposal. What's novel about your study as compared to previously published work?
  3. Outline your research methodology. To the extent feasible, summarize your conceptual/modeling approach, data collection procedure (e.g., survey, sample selection, experimental design), analysis approach, preliminary findings, validation, etc.
  4. Indicate your need for eBusiness Research Center support. Please be specific, separating your direct financial estimates from your need to access eBusiness Research Center-related firms and/or data. Provide a budget that supports each aspect of your proposal.

Use of Funds:

eBusiness Research Center awards cannot be used to support faculty release time during the academic year. Additionally, overhead, indirect costs, tuition, salaries, equipment and other durable equipment purchases will not be funded.

Awards should be used for the direct expenses of conducting the research and include, but are not limited to:

  • Data collection
  • Research travel
  • Communications
  • Mailing and printings

Principal Investigator:

The expectation is that most principal investigators will be full-time faculty or graduate students. Additionally, Ph.D. students may enter the annual eBusiness Research Center Doctoral Support Award Competition for dissertations in e-business. Please watch this space for more details; we will post information about the competition annually.

Commitment:

In return for eBusiness Research Center support, the selected researcher must agree to the following:

  1. Papers related to the supported project should be submitted for publication in the eBusiness Research Center Working Series for release to our corporate members (This will not in any way hinder the publication of this paper in academic journals). We request a copy of this paper in an electronic format or in a printed form.
  2. Most universities, including Penn State, have an approval process for the use of human subjects in research. Your research must meet all the human participants requirements of your institution.
  3. The eBusiness Research Center may require a research presentation at one of our conferences or workshops. Transportation expenses and related costs will be paid by the eBusiness Research Center. eBusiness Research Center will request progress reports on your project at the agreed times, not exceeding twice per year.
  4. The eBusiness Research Center should be given credit in any publications based on this research. The credit should read, "The author(s) acknowledge(s) the support of The Penn State eBusiness Research Center."

Approval Process:

The eBusiness Research Center Review Committee will make the final decisions on the awards. This committee will consist of the eBusiness Research Center Executive Director, John Jordan Research Director, Arvind Rangaswamy and Associate Research Director, Lee Giles, and at least one faculty expert familiar with the topic. One copy of the proposal should be sent to:

Dr. Arvind Rangaswamy
Research Director
eBusiness Research Center
Smeal College of Business
The Pennsylvania State University
481 Business Building
University Park, PA 16802-3603

Phone: 814-865-1907
Fax: 814-865-3015

or to:

Dr. C. Lee Giles
Associate Research Director
eBusiness Research Center
311 Information Sciences & Technology Building
University Park, PA 16802

Phone: 814-865-3528

Submissions should be sent as MIME or UUENCODED attachments by email. Acceptable formats for submissions are Word, PDF, and RTF. Electronic submissions should be sent to arvindr@psu.edu.

Decisions are normally made within two to three weeks from submission.

Document Actions