pricing and growth strategies og coles and woolworth
ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE___________________________________________________ Subject Title ECONOMICS AND FINANCE FOR BUSINESS Subject Code ECO600 Lecturer / Tutor HEMANATH SWARNA Trimester FEBRUARY 2019 Assessment Title RESEARCH REPORT Learning Outcome/s (found in the Subject Outline) 1, 2, 3 Assessment type (group or individual) INDIVIDUAL Weighting % 35% Word count AIM FOR 2,500 WORDS (3000 WORDS MAX) Due day & date AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LECTURE, IN WEEK 11 Class submission Lecture X Tutorial ☐ Submission type Paper copy ☐ Turnitin X Format / Layout of Assessment (details of what to include) Report: ICMS cover page Table of contents Executive summary/abstract Introduction Findings Conclusion Recommendations/proposals Reference list Appendices X No TOC X X X X X X No appendices Essay: ICMS cover page Introduction Body Conclusion Reference list Appendices ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Oral Presentation: Paper submission PowerPoint submission Peer review (group presentation) Reference List ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Other: ☐ ☐ ☐ Assessment instructions (clear, succinct, without repetition) When? Question/task issued by the lecturer in Week 5/6. The complete written report should be submitted via Turnitin in Week 11, before class begins. “What must I do?” Write a research report using primary data and secondary data. Collect primary data (data you observe) from site visits to the premises of two competing Australian businesses in the same industry. The businesses should ideally be located nearby each other. The lecturer will announce details of the site visits in class (which companies and where). Students may go on site visits at their own leisure. Bring along a writing pad, pen and a phone equipped with a camera to record your observations. Collect secondary data (data from published sources, like news articles, books, journals, reports etc.) about the businesses or industry you investigated. Use this to write a literature review of market competition and structure, and to support your arguments in the other parts of the report. Write about: (i) the state of competition in this industry (Week 5’s topic on market structure) (ii) how they grow their businesses. Recommend how one of the businesses could grow better (Week 6’s topic on growth strategies) (iii) how the companies price their product and/or use non-price strategies to attract customers. Recommend how one of the businesses could improve its price and non-price strategies (Week 6’s topic on pricing and non-price strategies) How many parts will the report have? The report will have three key parts sandwiched by other sections: (i) Abstract (ii) The introduction (iii) A literature review (an overview) of the state of competition in the industry in recent times, and developments that have and might occur in it (iv) Write about how the companies are trying to grow their business. Recommend growth strategies. (v) Evaluate the pricing and non-pricing strategies used by the businesses (based on your observations). You may support these observations by citing published works that speak about similar used elsewhere (news articles, books, reports, journal papers). Recommend strategies. (vi) Conclusion (vii) References Critical analysis is important to get good marks Use critical analysis widely in your report. Critical analysis means demonstrate you have analysed your observations in an intelligent and creative way to unearth and identify patterns, motives or some interesting insight. Compare. Contrast. Evaluate. Argue. Support with secondary sources. Analysis is more than just describing what you saw. It is not merely saying, “I saw this… I saw that”. It is about “I saw Company A do this…, but this was not done by Company B. I noticed that because Company A had less staff, they could not do that. Also, I observed that Company A priced certain products like this… but the other company prices them differently, like this..., possibly because...”. What reference material should be used? Make use of a combination of academic literature (books, journal papers), credible news articles (e.g., online news), magazines or reports (e.g., from the Internet). When citing published works, use credible, reputable Internet articles and/or books, journals and government, industry or other reports to support and enrich their findings. Do not cite blogs written by people who are not authorities in the subject. Do not cite a Facebook page. It is alright if you cannot find enough journal papers. Credible news articles and online reports are also acceptable. Your sources of information must be appropriately cited in the text and referenced in the ‘References’ section of their report. The report should have at least five relevant references to qualify for a pass grade. Citing/referencing/plagiarism Do not copy the work of other students and authors. In the body of your report, cite properly (do you know how to cite and reference published work? You should have learnt about it during Orientation Week). If not, you might be at risk of committing plagiarism. And plagiarism has penalties. Go here to learn again about what plagiarism is, and what the college’s policy on it. Learn how to avoid plagiarism by properly citing and paraphrasing sources of information (journals, books, news articles) here. Figures and tables in the report The report may contain figures (images/photographs/diagrams) and tables. If you have figures and tables, they must be about something you wrote in the text. Do not insert a figure or table in the report, but there is no written text referring to it. Also, if you have a figure or table, you must mention it in the text. E.g., “It is clear that the prices of petrol differ according to whether the petrol station is located in a high-income suburb or not (see Figures 1 and 2)”. Figures 1 and 2 should then appear after the paragraph in which you mention them. All figures and tables must be in the body of the report. All figures and tables musts have labels/captions describing what they are about. E.g., “Figure 1: Premium pricing applied to a fur coat at H&M with clever branding (non-pricing strategy)”. Do not use appendices. In what style should the report be written? The report must be written professionally but in a clear and simple way. Do not use big and complex words if you can avoid it. Pretend you a business consultant doing a market survey or analysis on behalf of a client who wants to enter the industry. Or pretend you are going to enter an industry yourself. The layout and structure of the report must be neat. The formatting must be consistent. Do not use one type of font in some parts, and another type of font elsewhere. Imagine you are selling your report to a client. How would you make it look like? Be proud of your work. How to submit the report? The assignment must be submitted electronically by Week 11 via Turnitin. Upload it onto Turnitin through Moodle. The lecturer will give you instructions on this later. If you fail to submit it on time, you risk getting a fail grade of 0%. Are you late with your submission? See the college’s policy on late submission here. In general, 5% will be deducted if you are late by one day, 10% (two days), 15% (three days) and so on. If you are late by seven days, you fail with 0%. Readings for the assessment (instructions where they can be found, e.g., MyAthens database, Moodle etc.) The readings for this assessment should not limited to textbooks or reading material provided by the lecturer. Those are basic information. Search, find, read and use any literature you can get hold of, out of your own initiative. Grading Criteria / Rubric See below. Fail Pass Credit Distinction H. Distinction Lower bound 0 50 65 75 85 Mean 25 57.5 70 80 92.5 Upper bound 49 64 74 84 100 Assessment No. Criteria Score Comment 1 Demonstrates adequate knowledge of how modern businesses behave competitively (market structure) and how they price their products (pricing and non-pricing strategies) Correctly refers to and use of the relevant economic theories, concepts and terms in the report. A lack of understanding or incorrect use of relevant theories, concepts and terms would result in a deduction of marks. Connect real-life observations (primary data) or the observations and findings of other researchers (secondary data) to theories and ideas, where possible. 2 Makes statements or arguments that are clear and coherent. Crystal-clear and sensible writing. Statements and arguments should not be fuzzy, incoherent or wordy. They should be concise. Writing concisely, even if you are trying to convey a complex idea, demonstrates that you understand the idea you are addressing. Thus keep sentences short or moderately long (say, 15 to 25 words). Avoid wordy sentences that do not convey your point succinctly. Rambling, unclear sentences indicate the writer is unsure about what he or she is saying. See here and here. Sentences or paragraphs should flow logically. Sentences that jump from one point to another unrelated point should be avoided. 3 Demonstrates a high standard of analysis and the ability to be critical where necessary. Analysis refers to the ability to examine something in detail or carefully, and say something insightful or interesting. Tease out interesting points, patterns, behaviours or complexities. Offer a critique if possible. Analysis shows that you had thought about the matter in a careful, creative or deep way. It is ‘perspicacious’, meaning ‘having or showing an ability to notice and understand things that are difficult or not obvious’ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). When writing, therefore, dig deep and look for interesting details that are not so obvious, or contrasting points of view,