How much for assignment?
Acceptable Business Research Topics The following 3 example topics are to illustrate that your topic must be differentiated from others by means of the following: the actual business activity/problem that it relates to; and/or the economic sector or industry or company that you are focusing on; and/or the country or region that you base it on and/or whether it is about the current time or the short-term future: 1. Outsourcing supply of ………… (materials / processes) from ………. (country/region) for the ………. (industry/company name) in ……….. (country/region) 1. Benefits of …………… (club/society/network) membership in promoting business collaboration between members of the …………. (industry) in ………….. (country/region) 1. The current (or future) uses of ……….. (e.g. Big Data / Robotic Process Automation / Artificial Intelligence) in …………….. (types of transactions) in the ………………. (industry) Those are just examples. Please develop your own unique topic that can hold your interest for the full 12 weeks. Do NOT request approval for your topic or expect your tutor to allocate you a topic. Refer to the detailed assignment instruction for your Topic Development (assignment 1), in which you are required to develop your topic to ensure that it has relevance as a business-related problem and has a specific Research Question that you intend to try and resolve. The following topics are specifically disallowed this trimester: · Online Learning · Covid/Corona Virus/SARS/Swine Flu/Ebola Pandemic · Endangered wild-life Do NOT use any of these in any form. If you do your assignment will be non-compliant and will be marked as a 0. Professor David Robinson MBA Course Convenor HOLMES INSTITUTE FACULTY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Page 6 of 6 Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines Trimester T1 2021 Unit Code HI6008 Unit Title Business Research Project Assessment Type 1. Research Project Development (including Topic, Problem Statement, Research Question), with Team Charter Appendix (Presentation may be requested) Assessment Title Topic Development Purpose of the assessment (with ULO Mapping) Clearly identify your chosen topic, having carried out some basic review of available secondary data to secure your interest (e.g. 5 academic articles OR at least 3 academic articles, plus a business report, plus a relevant current news item). Indicate the Research Problem, as you see it so far, and at least ONE research question at this stage (additional questions may be defined as you progress with this unit). Unless you are a SOLO GROUP (i.e. one person working alone) this assignment also requires the addition of an appendix in which you list the student numbers and names of your team members and complete a Team Charter, indicating what role(s) each will contribute throughout the project. A brief presentation in-class may be requested by your lecturer. Matches to Unit Learning Outcomes 1, 2, and 5 Weight 20 % of the total assessments Total Marks 20 Word limit Not more than 1200 words for the Topic Approval [Note that a Team Charter, which is only to be appended if your team is 2 or 3 persons, not applicable to solo-groups, is additional to the 1200 word-count of the Topic Approval] Due Date Before midnight on the Friday of Week 5, i.e. 23 April Submission Guidelines · All work must be submitted on Blackboard by 12 midnight on the due date, with a completed Assignment Cover Page as one single document. [If no cover page your mark may be reduced -20%; Late submissions attract penalties at the rate of -5% per day] · The group members’ names and student numbers listed on the Cover Page must align with the members officially registered in your group. [any errors or omissions may affect your grade and there is no guarantee of any adjustment] · The assignment must be in MS Word format, 1.5 spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings, paragraphing, and page numbers. · Reference sources must be correctly cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list (see Adapted Harvard Referencing) *Note: Students are required to form groups – a maximum of 3 students per group. If you are unable to form a group, you may undertake this assignment as a solo-group, i.e. you must form a group of 1 and officially enroll in a solo-group. You will not be able to submit your assignment unless you are OFFICIALLY enrolled into a designated group (even if it is a solo-group of 1). Submit as a single document, including the Holmes official COVER SHEET. Once formed, the group composition should NOT be changed for the duration of the trimester. For help with any assignment group matters, please address your email to
[email protected] ensuring that your full details (Name, student ID, unit name and number) are included. Assignment 1 Specifications Purpose: This unit aims to give you an opportunity to combine many facets of your acquired MBA skills into the production of a high-quality research project. Your tutor will LEAD and FACILITATE you through the process, week by week. The learning will be progressive, so for best results you will need to be listening to the weekly lectures as well as in contact with your tutor during the interactive tutorials. Assignment 1 - the Topic Development - is to ensure you have given sufficient thought to the topic you are choosing to base your research project on. The following 3 example topics are to illustrate that your topic must be differentiated from others by means of the following: the actual business activity/problem that it relates to; and/or the economic sector or industry or company that you are focusing on; and/or the country or region that you base it on and/or whether it is about the current time or the short-term future: 1. Outsourcing supply of ………… (materials / processes) from ………. (country/region) for the ………. (industry/company name) in ……….. (country/region) 1. Benefits of …………… (club/society/network) membership in promoting business collaboration between members of the …………. (industry) in ………….. (country/region) 1. The current (or future) uses of ……….. (e.g. Big Data / Robotic Process Automation / Artificial Intelligence) in …………….. (types of transactions) in the ………………. (industry) in ……………….. (country/region) Those are just examples. Please develop your own unique topic that can hold your interest for the full 12 weeks. Do NOT request approval for your topic or expect your tutor to allocate you a topic. Refer to the detailed assignment instruction for your Topic Development (assignment 1), in which you are required to develop your topic to ensure that it has relevance as a business-related problem and has a specific Research Question that you intend to try and resolve. The following topics are specifically disallowed this trimester: · Online Learning · Covid/Corona Virus/SARS/Swine Flu/Ebola Pandemic · Endangered wild-life Do NOT use any of these in any form. If you do your assignment will be non-compliant and will be marked as a 0. You will ideally work within a group consisting of 2 or 3 class-mates (the maximum size of an assignment group in this unit is 3 persons). Your respective contributions in this first assignment (as well as assignments 2 and 3) will be governed by your assignment group’s Team Charter, which is an appendix you will submit at the same time as your Topic Development. The Team Charter appendix must indicate what roles will be undertaken by each member of the team. If you are working SOLO, the team charter appendix is NOT required. Assignment Structure Your Topic Development Report should be in accordance with the following structure: 1. Official Cover Sheet 2. Say why this topic interests your team 3. Discuss your team’s initial search for relevant literature and show that it has provided you with a good contextual understanding of the topic and its associated business-related problem(s) 4. Define the Research Problem that your team intends to address (as you see it, so far) 5. Propose at least ONE research question that your team will be seeking to answer through your research project (additional questions may be defined as you progress with this unit) 6. Append a Team Charter (unless working Solo) and include the student numbers and names of your team members. Adapted Harvard Referencing Holmes has now implemented a revised Harvard approach to referencing: 1. Reference sources in assignments are limited to sources which provide full text access to the source’s content for lecturers and markers. 1. The Reference list should be located on a separate page at the end of the essay and titled: References. 1. It should include the details of all the in-text citations, arranged alphabetically A-Z by author surname. In addition, it MUST include a hyperlink to the full text of the cited reference source. For example; P Hawking, B McCarthy, A Stein (2004), Second Wave ERP Education, Journal of Information Systems Education, Fall, http://jise.org/Volume15/n3/JISEv15n3p327.pdf 1. All assignments will require additional in-text reference details which will consist of the surname of the author/authors or name of the authoring body, year of publication, page number of content, paragraph where the content can be found. For example; “The company decided to implement a enterprise wide data warehouse business intelligence strategies (Hawking et al, 2004, p3(4)).” Non Adherence to Referencing Guidelines Where students do not follow the above guidelines: 1. Students who submit assignments which do not comply with the guidelines may be required to resubmit their assignments or incur penalties for inadequate referencing. 1. Late penalties will apply per day after a student or group has been notified of a resubmission requirements. 1. Students whose citations are fake will be reported for academic misconduct. HI6008 Assignment 1 – Topic Development - Marking Rubric Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Topic identification and discussion Topic is clearly identified with robust concise discussion Topic is clearly identified with very good discussion Topic is clearly identified with good discussion Topic is identified Missing or confused Initial literature search 5 or more academic sources with compelling argument At least 4 academic sources with good argument At least 3 academic sources with good discussion At least 3 academic sources with some useful discussion Insufficient rigour Statement of Research Problem Clear, concise, compelling The research problem is very-well evident The research problem is well-evident The research problem is evident Missing or confusing Research Question Clear, concise, compelling The research question is very-clearly stated The research question is clearly stated The research question is stated Missing or confusing Team Charter Appendix (only needed if working in a team, not needed if SOLO) Eminently clear what role each will play Each team member has contributed to the Team Charter robust discussion and has an appropriate role Each team member has contributed to the Team Charter discussion and has a useful role the Team Charter indicates that each team member has been allocated a useful role Unclear what role each will play Total Marks (20) Comments: /20 Late penalty