Assessment Brief

Instructions for assessment

The coursework assignment requires students to submit a 2500 word report by the above deadline. The basis for the report involves students being allocated a country in which they need to provide an assessment of the business environment prevailing in that country. Another important feature of the report is that it should be focused around a particular business organisation. Therefore, the report should essentially provide an analysis of a specific organisation, of the student’s choice, that may be looking to expand its business activities in relation to the particular country that they have been allocated. The scenario to be considered could either be concerned with the establishment of a company in the country or an expansion of its current operations within the country i.e. it should relate to a foreign direct investment decision. In addition to the final report, students should also submit a two-page (maximum, using 12 point font) plan for their report by the start of week 7 (by 2 pm Monday 19 March 2018), on which they will receive feedback, but this will not be part of the summative assessment.

Smiling graduates hugging outdoors

Students will be randomly allocated a country that they should focus their report on (by drawing this from a container during the first seminar). They will also be required to focus their report around a specific organisation. In particular, the report should be written from the perspective of a multinational company (of their own choosing) that is contemplating expanding their business operations within the country that they have been allocated. This could be viewed as a consultancy report for the company or one produced by a manager from the company itself.  An example of a relevant scenario would be a report based around the issues that would need to be considered by Waitrose if they were considering opening new stores in the United States. Although it is not necessary to provide great detail on the current operations of the organisation that you have chosen in your allocated country, because it is essentially a hypothetical scenario, a certain amount of discussion on this is useful. Further information is available in an updated Frequently Asked Questions document on moodle. Students should have agreed with their seminar tutor which business organisation that they will base their report around by their seminar in week 4 at the latest (and ideally this should have been done by the end of week 3). Moreover, students are encouraged to discuss and confirm their choices of company with their seminar tutor as early as possible in the semester. No changes should be made to the specific organisation on which the report will be written after week 4, neither can changes be made to the country that was initially allocated. It is aimed that confirmation of the country and business organisation to be used in each student’s report will be posted on moodle during week 6. As a result, each scenario under consideration should be unique to a given student given that they will have chosen a business organisation that is of interest to them, within the context of the business environment that they have been allocated.

MA512 Accounting Management

The report will require an analysis of the general business environment in the country that the student has been allocated as well as relevant information on the organisation that they have chosen. In particular, students should attempt to relate specific aspects relating to the type and nature of the organisation with the main factors, issues and considerations affecting the business environment in that country. The report should include relevant tables, graphs and statistics, together with an accompanying commentary of these, in order to provide specific details – especially with regards to the business environment. Students will also be expected to develop some of their discussions around at least one appropriate analytical framework e.g. PESTLE analysis and Porter’s 5 Forces (it is recommended that students should avoid including SWOT analysis in their reports). Support for the development of the report will be provided by tutors during the seminars, which will also include more general exercises and discussions that are related to the material that has been covered in the module. A template for the suggested structure of the report has also been posted on moodle.

Your report will be assessed against the following criteria (further details in the rubric at the end of this assessment brief):

• Information on the selected business organisation (20%)
• Discussion of the allocated business environment (20%)
• Application of an appropriate analytical approach (25%)
• Use and application of appropriate data and examples (15%)
• Structure of and quality of writing in the report (10%)
• Presentation and referencing (10%)

Applied Marketing Solutions – Case study portfolio

Referencing

You MUST use the Harvard System.  The Harvard system is very easy to use once you become familiar with it.

Use this structure:

Introduction  :  (200 words)

• Name of allocated country (AUSTRIA)
• Name of organisation ( IKEA)
• Objective of report
• Analitical tools to be used

Background info of organisation (700 words)

• Name, location of hq, legal form, nature of activities, branches, market share , market structure ,financial performance ( previous 3 years  + 1 year ahead )

Discupssion of the business environment ( Country Austria)  (700 words)

• NB, use Pestle here, to provide relevant info +data , but do not conduct any analysis
• GDP , population size, unemployment , inflation ,interest rate, exchange rate, corporation tax rate

HI6006 Competitive strategy

Analysis of the business scenario (700 words)

       – Impact of opportunities + threats  (from pestle)

       – assessment of market attractiveness (porter 5 forces)

Conclusion + Recommendations (200 words)