During this semester, we reviewed a number of areas in risk and risk management, risk assessment, and the way in which companies can try and minimize their risk exposure. Getting closer to your dissertation, you will need to choose a topic in your first dissertation class, DSRT-736, so it is essential to start preparing. This week, let us take a look at some topics to consider, and by the end of the week, we could have several ideas for dissertation topics. Since you have already examined several research articles, another way would be to examine previous dissertations in these areas. Visit the University of Cumberland’s library, go to the Dissertation Database, and locate an interesting topic on risk, a model, framework, some approach to minimizing risk, etc. Here are some pointers that will help critically evaluate some viable topics:

• Is the topic attainable for a first-time dissertation student
• Is the problem rooted in the literature?
• Is the research empirical, i.e., is there a survey, is there an interview guide, has the data been analyzed via some statistical tool?
• Is there a theoretical model or framework discussed?