Assignment Instructions:

Assignment Reference MDT/StudentNumber/Jan22/A2

Due Date 31 May

Word Count Max. 3,500

Weighting 50%

File Format MS Office or PDF

Submission Details Turnitin – instructions provided on Blackboard

Assignment Question:

A. YOUR TASK
Drawing on appropriate academic and practitioner literature, you should choose an industry or organisation where incumbents are facing disruption from digital platforms.
Here are some examples across multiple sectors, please try and find your own idea within your area of experience, originality will be rewarded:

• Asda tyres / Blackcircles.com vs. Tyre retailers
• Banks vs Fintech lenders (eg.Kickstarter, fanbacked.com)
• Insurtech vs traditional insurance firms
• Universities vs Coursera
• Driverless cars vs chauffeurs
• Tom Tom satnavs vs Google maps
• Party gaming vs casinos
• Health clinics vs Fitbit
• Spotify vs broadcast radio
• Netflix vs movie theatres
• Tinder online dating vs singles bars
• rover.com vs dog boarding kennels
• tyde.co vs traditional funeral firms
• Upwork / taskrabbit vs temping agencies
• Etc. etc.

Guidelines

Working individually, you should prepare an academic paper of maximum length 3500 words excluding references – 10% margin e.g. 3150 – 3850 words. By way of guidance, a typical approach would contain :

• Identification of the organisation(s) or industry under disruption. You can choose a broad industry focus involving large players (eg..Alibaba, AirBnB) but be careful as this is quite hackneyed and originality may be a problem. You could trace the history of the development of a successful platform (eg. Headspace.com, upwork.com), a failed platform endeavour (eg. Sidecar, Uber / EBay in China). Alternatively, you could draw on your own experience of potential or ongoing disruption from platform businesses in a sector or industry where you have worked (eg. Tyde.co vs. incumbent funeral firms; insurtech vs. incumbent insurance companies; Asda tyres vs. incumbent tyre dealers).
• Using appropriate conceptual frameworks, identify the before and after state explaining the disruptive effect of technology
• Critically analyse the strategies of the disrupter(s)? Refer to the principles of platform design from the course book eg. How the platform owners managed network effects, how they overcame the chicken / egg problem and how did they decide on platform monetisation?
• Analyse the response strategies of the incumbents vs the disrupters
• Identify the ongoing repercussions of the disruption on the stakeholders (negative / positive) including social responsibility

You will be given exemplars of the academic paper format and style in the papers we will study during the course. You will find many other examples in the key information systems journals which are available online via the library.

You should develop a 1 page skeleton outline of your proposed paper including the title, headings and subheadings and a description of your arguments. There will be time for discussion of this outline paper during the workshop, on the discussion forum or by email.

I would prefer it if you begin your proposal with a clear focussed statement : ‘this paper will argue……’ . Such a technique will force you as an author to be clear about your objective and purpose and will help the marker to award you a grade for the depth and clarity of your argument. Your ‘argument’ needs to be within the area of disruptive
technology, try to keep it narrow, focused and meaningful.

You should hone in to the relevant literature which illustrates your argument by reading widely from the course book, academic journals, select evidence from the popular press, magazines (e.g. The Economist, Financial Times), internet sources and from any contacts and experience you may have.

B. ASSESSMENT STRATEGY AND DEADLINES

Task Individual academic paper

Weighting 50%

Deadline for submission 31/05/2022

Deadline for the return of feedback Within 15 working days

Structure – 15% of 50%
coherence, narrative development, logical sequencing of parts; distinct self-contained paragraphs; opening and closing sections; signposts; headings
Writing style and presentation – 10% of 50%
clarity; precision; conciseness; grammar, spelling and punctuation; readable academic paper style
Reading, library research, referencing – 10% of 50%
research into appropriate sources; deployment of quotes; acknowledgement of quotes and sources; accurate referencing
Analysis/thesis/argument – 15% of 50%
understanding of concepts introduced in the course; clarity of arguments; ideally a critical approach to concepts and theories; clear objective and purpose.
Relation of claims to evidence – 10% of 50%
deployment, accuracy and relevance in the use of conceptual support and/or empirical evidence; avoidance of unsupported assertion and claims
Relevance – 15% of 50%
addressing and interpreting the course themes; keeping a course themes in focus
Scope/breadth of approach – 10% of 50%
adequate coverage of appropriate topics; balanced development of the different elements of the topic
Depth of approach – 15% of 50%
sufficiency of empirical detail and development of major points; avoidance of superficiality and repetition

C. Restrictions and Plagiarism

The coursework is subject to the School’s policies on word length, referencing, penalties for late submission, and the university policy on plagiarism. You are advised to be familiar with such policies. The essay must not exceed the word limit which includes every part of your work (essay title, abstract, main text, footnotes, tables, appendices, list of references etc.). Your essay must be typed in WORD. Use 12-point Times New Roman font, and the main text must be double-spaced. All work must be on A4-sized paper and margins at the top and bottom, and left and right of each page, must be set at 1 inch. Citations and a corresponding full list of references (Harvard- style) must be included. It is important that you write your registration number on each sheet.

School policy for late-submission and extensions (given in exceptional cases only) will apply. Problems with computers, disks and printing are the most commonly cited reasons for lateness. These excuses are NOT acceptable. Ensure that you plan ahead and save back-up copies of your work so that you will not experience such problems.

You are reminded that unacknowledged direct copying from the work of another person, or the close paraphrasing of someone else’s work (i.e., plagiarism) is a serious offence, equated with cheating in examinations. This applies to copying both from other students’ work, current and previous students and from published sources such as books, reports or journal articles.

D. Resources

The Business and Management Subject page on the Library website at:
http://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/business.
This draws together the various bibliographic and data resources. The list of online journals and journal article databases will be useful. The second is the Study Skills page from the Humanities faculty website at
http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/studyskills/
Contents include citation referencing at
http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/studyskills/assessment_evaluation/dissertat ions/citations.html

If English is not your first language, I strongly recommend you consider having your work professionally proof read.