The introduction of your MBA dissertation is arguably its most important chapter. It is the first thing your supervisor, examiner, and future readers encounter — and it must immediately convey that your research is purposeful, relevant, and academically rigorous. Getting this chapter right sets a strong foundation for everything that follows.
What an MBA Dissertation Introduction Must Achieve
Unlike a standard essay introduction, an MBA dissertation introduction performs several simultaneous functions. It must establish the business or management context of your research, identify a specific gap or problem in the existing literature, articulate clear research objectives and questions, explain the practical significance of your study, and provide a structured overview of the dissertation that follows.
Each of these functions deserves dedicated attention. A common mistake is conflating them — rushing through context to state the research questions without adequately justifying why those questions matter.
Section 1: The Opening Context (Background)
Begin with the broader business or management landscape relevant to your topic. If your MBA dissertation examines digital transformation in retail banking, open by discussing the current state of digital disruption in financial services — the forces driving change, the scale of investment, and what is at stake for established institutions.
This contextualisation should be evidence-based. Reference industry reports, academic studies, and credible business sources. Your examiner needs to see that your understanding of the business context is informed by real data, not general impressions.
Aim for three to five paragraphs in this section — enough to establish genuine authority without overwhelming the reader before the research problem has been introduced.
Section 2: The Research Problem and Rationale
This is the heart of your introduction. The research problem explains precisely what is missing, unresolved, or inadequately understood in the existing literature or business practice. It must be specific, evidence-based, and directly linked to your opening context.
A weak research problem reads: "Little research has been done on this topic." A strong one reads: "While extant literature extensively examines the adoption of digital banking by retail customers (Smith, 2022; Jones & Patel, 2023), the strategic responses of mid-tier banks with legacy infrastructure constraints remain underexplored — a gap with significant implications for competitive strategy in this sector."
The difference is specificity. Identify the exact gap, connect it to the literature, and explain why it matters from a business perspective.
Section 3: Research Aims, Objectives, and Questions
Your research aim is the overarching goal of the dissertation — broad enough to capture its full scope. Your objectives are the specific, measurable steps through which that aim is achieved. Your research questions are the interrogative forms of those objectives.
For an MBA dissertation, three to five research objectives and a corresponding set of research questions is typical. Each question should be answerable through your chosen research methodology — do not ask questions your data cannot address.
Write these in parallel structure: "To examine…", "To analyse…", "To evaluate…", "To propose…". This parallelism signals academic precision and makes the scope of your study immediately clear.
Section 4: Significance of the Study
After establishing what you are studying and why, explain who benefits from your findings. MBA dissertations are expected to demonstrate both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, your research might extend or challenge an existing framework. Practically, it might provide actionable insights for business leaders, policymakers, or professionals in your sector.
This section does not need to be long — two substantial paragraphs is typically sufficient. But it must be specific. Vague claims about "contributing to the field" do not impress examiners. State exactly what your contribution is and who it serves.
Section 5: Scope and Limitations
Briefly outline the boundaries of your research. What is included and what is deliberately excluded? What geographical, sectoral, or temporal scope applies? Acknowledging limitations at this stage demonstrates academic maturity — it shows you understand the boundaries of your claims before making them.
Section 6: Structure of the Dissertation
Close your introduction with a brief chapter-by-chapter overview of what follows. This signposting section is mandatory in most MBA programmes and typically runs to one or two paragraphs. It tells the examiner what to expect and confirms that your dissertation has a logical, coherent flow.
Common Mistakes MBA Students Make in the Introduction
Writing the introduction first is the most frequent error. Always draft it last — once you fully understand what your dissertation has accomplished. Other common mistakes include writing overly broad background sections that never narrow to a specific problem, stating objectives that are too vague to be measurable, and failing to connect the research problem to real management or business implications.
The introduction is not a summary of your dissertation. It is an argument for why your dissertation needed to be written. Make that argument with precision, evidence, and clarity.
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