Skip to Main Content

BA 480 Ross School Senior Thesis Seminar Resources: Research Methodology

Resources to support students in BA 480 - the Ross School of Business Senior Thesis Seminar.

Methodology Resources

More to explore in Sage:

Once you're in Sage Research Methods: 

Click on the Sage Campus link to access video courses related to the research process, such as fact-checking sources, cleaning messy data, conducting literature reviews, selecting a journal to publish in and more.  NOTE: You have to register your UMich email in Sage to view the Sage Campus content.

Click on Business and then Business Foundations-->Business Analytics to find content related to Hypothesis Testing, Sampling, Regression, and more. NOTE: We do not have access to all Sage Business content so some screens will show 0 results. 

Click on the Reference & Academic Books-->Sage Reference-->Business & Management collection to access titles like the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research Quality (2025), the Sage Handbook of Mixed Methods Research Design (2023) and more.

Click on Data to browse available data sets related to a number of different topics, including Housing and Construction, Population and Income, Banking, Finance and Insurance, and more. 

 

AI and Research

You will encounter AI along your research journey. Be aware of it and use AI as a tool, *not* to create original content. Do *not* rely on it as an infallible source of information or data. Check your sources, AI or otherwise, and when in doubt, ask the Kresge Library for help!

Start with:

  • UM-GPT (https://umgpt.umich.edu/)
    • This UMich tool includes GPT-4o (latest version of Chat-GPT), Claude, Llama and other LLMs as well as DALL-E 3 and other AI image tools.
    • UM-GPT is a contained system which means it is not tracked, nor is it used to train UMich or other AI models. And it’s free for the UM Community.

 

Good uses of AI:

Think twice:

Avoid:

Refining and reframing drafts, editing for length/clarity, etc.

...before citing an AI-sourced citation (confirm it exists)

...writing entire first drafts with AI

Brainstorming and iterating research questions, identifying research gaps

...before citing an AI-sourced fact (confirm it is true)

 ...starting or ending your research process with AI

Summarizing meetings (e.g. otter.ai, etc.)

...before generating content you’ll claim as your own

...answering questions without checking sources

As a pointer to original sources (e.g. Google/Gemini search AI summaries)

...about using any source AI points you to.

...trusting data (or anything) from AI blindly

 

Important Guidance on Use of AI Tools and Library Licensed Resources:

Content from the electronic resources licensed by the Kresge Library, U-M University Library and other library entities on campus are governed by terms of use set out in individual vendor agreements which provide limitations on their use. In general, the terms of use governing this licensed content do not make allowances for sharing content with third parties. Uploading content into an AI service or platform could be considered a violation of these terms of service.

 

Research Methodology eBooks