Hi all,

I am supposed to write my master thesis this semester (MSc Food Innovation & Market, with a major in Business), but my university is not providing any assistance what so ever. The rule is that once you have submitted a research proposal and this proposal have been approved, you will be fitted with a supervisor. Have spent the last few weeks writing a 20 page proposal. This was of course not approved, as my topic is to broad etc. The uni just told me to revise without giving any advice as to HOW, or any feedback at all on my chosen topic.

I have never written a dissertation before, and I feel I am in dire need of advice and guidance.
I want to focus on sustainable entrepreneurship within the food production industry, and my idea was to unveil some Critical Success Factors for sustainable innovation as this is somewhat of a mystery given the relative novelty of this type of enterprise. I planned to do this with the help of surveys using Likert scale where company managers can rate the importance of CSf's identified in related fields such as sustainability in general, food innovation and entrepreneurship. Open-ended question would be included in order to cover those factors which respondents thought were missing from the survey.
Q1: is this too broad of a topic? How can I trim it down?

Initially, I had no idea what country or region to perform the research. I am Swedish, but live in Taiwan. Taiwan has not enough sustainability focus at this time, and many countries who rate high in sustainability still can not show for a large sample of sustainability focused food entrepreneurs. Now, my idea is to include several countries in order to get a larger sample. For example, Sweden, Aus, NZ and Canada all rank in the top 12 of most sustainable countries, they are relatively homogenous in Hofstaedes cultural index and they all have cooperations or networks listing suitable SME's.
Q2: Would this be a valid approach?

I will appreciate any advice on this matter!

Hi hajnor, I'm sorry, but your thesis is so specific, you may struggle to find someone who can advise you!

You may just have to go with your instincts, as it seems you have narrowed it down. Could you speak to a fellow student for advice?