Henry Pomerance

4/28/20

Senior Project 2020

Business and Marketing

Critical Reflection #3: Essential Question Reflection

What have you learned about your essential question so far? What further questions do you have? and/or Has your essential question changed? If so, how? What do you want to know more about?

First off, my essential question has changed since I started the project, so my first two weeks of research did not actually answer my original question that well. In any case, I have learned that there are many layers to it, especially in terms of how business decisions actually affect the public positively; they are often separated. In the coming days and weeks I hope to learn more about how impact investing as an ESG practice can cut down on such separation, so as to increase the efficiency of such positive public effects and not dilute the impact. As previously stated, my essential question has changed, but I discussed that in my previous critical reflection. I am also interested in continuing to learn how microeconomics and environmental economics specifically relate to my essential question. 

 

How are you exploring your essential question; is it different from what you expected? If you don’t feel like you’re answering your essential question, what is happening that’s different from what you expected?

My project is less straightforward than I originally expected. This is in part due to the multitude of different ways I am performing research, but also because I did not fully understand what my essential question was asking until recently. Reading annual reports, the New York Times business section and a book about the history of risk has provided me with myriad perspectives on the topic of ESG, yet I still sometimes find it difficult to connect my findings from them in a coherent way. Online research and my two economics courses have given me some background, which is helpful, and hopefully with my revamped essential question that background will help solidify my research.

Are you surprised by any of the challenges that you’ve faced so far? How have you met those challenges and what can you do going forward to deal with them?

As mentioned, I did not realize how hard it is to maintain a streamlined research project with so many different inputs. However, I expected that this would at least be somewhat of a challenge, since I have never done a research project on this scale or with this amount of independence before. My cohort meetings have assisted me in tackling this challenge, mainly by helping me take a step back and see the bigger picture of my project, so I do not get bogged down in small details. This mindset will make the next couple of weeks more straightforward I hope.