Assessment 3: Project Report
Weight: 55%
Format: Written report (Total 4500 words with 10% tolerance including 1500 words from Assessment 2)
Your final assessment task is to bring your research together in your final project report. You will present your analysis of data and showcase your findings and recommendations, backed up with well-justified theories and analytical frameworks. You will integrate feedback from your previous assessments and demonstrate your understanding of well-researched theories and analytical frameworks that apply to your chosen problem or opportunity. You must provide an updated ‘Project Reference Map’ as Appendix 1 of your final Project report. In your ‘Project_Reference_Map‘ provide the full reference and specific details of the information that has been used from the credible resource in your project assessment such as the specific page number of the reference (credible academic sources) where the information that you are using has been taken from, and a brief summary of the information used. Please refer to Appendix 1 of the example of the second assessment for additional guidance.
- Critically examine contemporary business theory and practices related to an identified enterprise (or industry) problem or opportunity. [#1]
- Demonstrate ability to apply innovative approaches, techniques, ethical perspectives and the use of secondary data, to an identified enterprise (or industry) problem or opportunity. [#2]
- Critically evaluate business (or industry) concepts and synthesise existing research, theory and secondary data to advise business stakeholders on business solutions. [#3]
- Communicate evidenced-based recommendations to stakeholders clearly, persuasively and credibly. [#4]
Procedure
Structure your report as follows, incorporating feedback from your previous assessments:
- Introduction
Introduce your project report. Provide background information about your case organisation(s) or case industry, and the problem or opportunity that you are investigating. Briefly introduce the data, methodology and methods you are using. Finish the introduction with a brief overview of the structure of your report. - Review of theories and frameworks
Refine the review of theories and frameworks from Assessment 2 and address the feedback you have received.- Business theory: Critically examine relevant literature (credible academic sources) and briefly review two (2) specific, narrowed down contemporary business theories that are related to your identified problem or opportunity. Clearly explain and justify why these theories were selected and how they are relevant to your problem or opportunity.
- Analytical frameworks: Critically examine relevant literature (credible academic sources) and briefly review and compare two (2) analytical frameworks (methods or tools) that could be applied to analyse data. Clearly explain and justify why these frameworks were selected and how they are relevant to your problem or opportunity.
- Methodology and methods
Refine the methodology and methods section from Assessment 2 and address the feedback you have received.- Case study research methodology: Describe the use of case study research methodology as it relates to your problem or opportunity by making use of the credible academic source provided for Assessment 2, ‘Toward developing a framework for conducting case study research‘ (Ebneyamini & Sadeghi Moghadam 2018). Clearly state whether your case study is based on a case organisation, or an industry. Explain the type of case study research you are planning to undertake (e.g., undertaking a single case study on a case organisation or using a single case study approach in which there is a comparison between a case organisation and another case organisation(s) or industry)
- Secondary data: Provide a detailed overview of the secondary data that will be used for the analysis of the problem or opportunity. In detail, describe the sources of that secondary data. Briefly discuss the limitations and potential biases as these relate to the data that you are using for the analysis. Provide reference(s).
- Analytical framework (method or tool): Provide a detailed but brief description of the analytical framework that was applied to analyse the secondary data. Discuss and justify why the analytical framework selected is being used for the analysis of the secondary data that you have described in the previous section and how the framework was applied to the data. Clearly link your justification and discussion to that secondary data and your problem or opportunity. The analytical framework selected must be one of the two you have briefly reviewed. Make use of relevant literature to show what you have learned about the analytical framework, and how to apply it correctly. Credible academic sources have been used.
- Analysis and findings
Critically analyse the secondary data by applying the selected analytical framework (method or tool). Explain and discuss the findings of your analysis relevant to the problem or opportunity (using literature, logic and secondary data to support the argument). Be focused with any tables and figures that you include. You must contextualise and explain all figures and tables in detail. Do not leave it to the reader to interpret your figure or table. - Discussion and implications
Critically reflect on the findings and issues related to the investigated problem or opportunity, linking them to the contemporary business theories reviewed. What are the implications for your chosen organisation(s) or industry? - Recommendations
Provide evidence-based, achievable recommendations (with credible academic sources) to address the investigated problem or opportunity. - Conclusions
Close your investigation and briefly summarise how the purpose of your research has been achieved. - References
- This assessment requires you to use a minimum of fifteen (15) credible academic sources. You may also use credible company, industry, government and media sources to support your statements, but these will NOT count toward the minimum required credible academic sources for your assessment. Many web-based sources are not sufficiently rigorous and credible for use in academic assessments and will NOT count toward the minimum required credible academic sources for your assessment. For further guidance, refer to Scholarly, academic & peer-reviewed journals.
- You must appropriately acknowledge all sources of information in your assessment with the AIB Harvard author-date style of referencing. This includes the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT. See relevant sections on ‘Academic Integrity’, ‘Generative Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Referencing’ in the AIB Style Guide. See also the Academic Policies and Procedures.
- Note: Keep quotations to a minimum and paraphrase as much as possible with appropriate credible academic sources.
- Structure
In terms of structure, presentation, and style, you are required to use:- Ensure all the important points in your arguments are in your text and that the reader does not have to search a table or figure for those points.
- AIB standard report format (Project Final Report Template)
- AIB preferred Microsoft Word settings—see the AIB Style Guide.
- Note: examples are not provided for this assessment, as your approach must be independent and highly specific to your problem or opportunity. Refer to the Report structure guide for guidance.
- Project Reference Map
- Complete the Project_Reference_Map and provide the map as Appendix 1 of your project report.
- Provide the full reference of your credible academic source and specific details of the information, such as page number and a brief summary of the information that has been used from the credible academic source in your assessment. Please refer to Appendix 1 of the example of the first assessment for additional guidance.