Personnel management topics include worker productivity, employee policy, compensation structures, benefits, team-building, morale, motivation and leadership principles. Michael Hannan of the Stanford Graduate School of Business believes businesses need to pay more attention to employee management and planning, even if these topics are not as glamorous as venture capitalism or product development. "Business plans usually have 20 pages on the product, and a paragraph about employee relations, and that needs to shift," he notes. To write a paper on personnel issues, use case studies and documented industry trends to pinpoint a thesis and argue a solution.
Start-up businesses face a set of challenges that established businesses do not, and each one of those challenges can become a paper topic. A new entrepreneur must thoroughly research her idea, do a risk analysis, write a business plan and raise capital. Additionally, entrepreneurs research and make decisions about location, logo design and marketing campaigns. Venture capitalists, the people who invest in start-ups, are also interested in those decisions and how to evaluate them. A paper on entrepreneurship can investigate any one of these topics or others that are slanted toward a reader who is a budding entrepreneur or toward a venture capitalist. A paper for an entrepreneur might be "Financial Factors to Consider When Starting a Bricks and Mortar Business." For a venture capitalist, the paper might be "Financial Factors to Evaluate When Investing in a New Business."
International business papers explore the global perspectives of doing business in other countries. According to University of Wisconsin's Andersen Library, important topics include consumer trends in emerging markets, and, more specifically, international generational trends and international consumer food trends. A paper might address whether fast food chains can develop a viable market in China. Other topics include social customs in international business negotiations, the cost of doing business in another country and using international currency rates to a business' advantage. A paper that concerns international business may have to address two issues: the central topic, for example, negotiations, and approaching it in a specific foreign setting.
After questionable business practices took the spotlight in the late 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s, there is pressure on businesses to be socially responsible, according to the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Students who want to consider how businesses play a role in social issues can find many good topics just by reading news headlines. A paper could outline how a given business or industry helps a community, or how its practices harm a community. The writer might also go further and include a proposal for improvement. Broad topics might concern unions and unionization, purchasing goods from sources that use child labor, environmental concerns, political campaign contributions, hiring, and promotion practices as they affect women or minorities. The writer should narrow down a broad topic to a title that concerns a specific company. These papers are often controversial, and the writer must take special care to look at all sides of the issue and not to misrepresent.