I never thought a Sunday family dinner would solve my academic crisis, but that’s exactly what happened. I was in my final year, studying Accounting, Business, and Management, and I had been stuck on my research topic for over a month. My supervisor wanted a clear research question, and all I had was a pile of rejected ideas and a growing sense of failure. I’d tried brainstorming alone in the library, reading journals, and even asking ChatGPT for generic suggestions. Nothing felt right. I was so desperate that I started avoiding my parents’ phone calls because I didn’t want to lie about my progress. But they insisted I come home for a family meal, and I reluctantly agreed.
At dinner, my uncle—who ran a small logistics business—started complaining about how difficult it was to retain young employees. “They want flexible hours, purpose, and training,” he said, “and I don’t know how to give them that while staying profitable.” Everyone around the table started offering opinions, and I found myself genuinely interested. This was a real business problem, not an abstract theory. When I got home, I opened a page of ABM research topics (you can browse them here: https://premierdissertations.com/abm-research-topics/) and searched for something related to employee retention or workplace flexibility. There it was: a topic about the impact of flexible working on employee motivation in small businesses. It connected directly to my uncle’s dilemma, and suddenly I had a research question that felt alive. That dinner-table complaint became the foundation of my entire dissertation.
From there, the work finally flowed. I interviewed small business owners, surveyed employees, and collected real data from the kind of companies my uncle ran. The topic wasn’t glamorous, but it was genuine. It made me want to keep reading, keep asking questions, and keep writing. My supervisor was impressed by how grounded my research was, and I finally felt like I had something to offer. The lesson I learned was simple: ABM research topics are everywhere—in family conversations, in workplace frustrations, in the news—if you’re willing to listen. You don’t need a brilliant flash of inspiration. You need a real problem that makes you curious. And often, that problem is closer than you think.
If you’re stuck choosing an ABM research topic, stop forcing it. Pay attention to the business problems around you, the complaints you hear from working people, the headlines about companies struggling to adapt. Then browse real research topics to see how others have turned those problems into academic questions. That’s how I found mine—over a plate of biryani and a conversation about why young people don’t stay in jobs anymore. Your topic is probably waiting in a similar moment.