Competitive Intelligence
· For coursework, the submission should be no more than 2,500 words, excluding references and appendices. You must comply with the word count guidelines.
· For coursework, please use font size 12 for body text and the typeface (font) should be Arial or Times New Roman with minimum 1.5 spacing. For headers and titles, please use font size 14. Your submission must have standard margins and page numbers.
· Please use English (UK) as your language in the submission.
· You are required to use only Harvard Referencing System in your submission. Any content which is already published by other author(s) and is not referenced will be considered as a case of plagiarism.
The Competitive Intelligence assignment is the preparation of a research project proposal and getting it to the point where, if you were to hand it to someone else they could follow your instructions and complete the actual research. In reality you will do the research yourself.
Therefore, thought must be given now to the size of the project i.e. small scale localised studies, rather than ‘measure the world’ type studies. Further thought must be given to timescale – your proposal must include a realistic research plan as to when activities will be conducted – for example over a 12 week period. This is vitally important as you will be aiming to follow YOUR own plan.
Thought must also be given to how you will gather the actual data from respondents or secondary sources as many students fail to understand that you actually have to do ‘actual survey work’ and produce a report on YOUR findings. Please do not consider undertaking research in other countries unless you are confident that you can access enough people in those countries, unless. You need to consider how you access the data – would you use telephone interviews, Skype recordings or postal questionnaires?
Therefore, consider undertaking a research project where respondents / businesses are localised geographically, plentiful, easily accessible, possibly sector specific i.e., retail, banking, educational, hospitality, fashion, etc.
Task:
Choose a topic / theme in the field of Management. Using the skills you have developed during the teaching sessions your task is to design a research proposal using contemporary and business relevant research methods.
Develop a research proposal of up to 2,500 words explaining and justifying the rationale of the decisions you made when designing it.
You have to show that for your chosen topic / theme:
· You can make informed decisions about a suitable research approach
(i.e. is your approach inductive or deductive?)
· You have an understanding of a variety of research methods available (i.e., case study, Action research, Survey etc.) and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each in relation to your topic / theme
· You can recognise the value of qualitative (i.e., secondary research, interviews etc.,), quantitative (i.e., questionnaires, observations) and mixed methods (mixture of previous examples) research and how you might best collect the relevant data
· You have produced a realistic timeline for your research, explaining how you would actually gather the data, including a justifiable sampling strategy, if relevant, and ways you would analyse the different types of data (e.g. Microsoft Excel, SPSS, Pattern analysis, qualitative analysis etc.,)
· You recognise any relevant ethical and access implications involved in your investigations, including a short discussion about the usefulness, and limitations of the research.
Note:
1. You are not expected to actually carry out the proposal – the summative assignment is a research proposal of a project that you may / may not conduct.
Please remember to include the following:
· Title page of your business report.
· Table of contents.
· A short introduction to your chosen topic.
· Each section must have a numbered heading.
· Page numbers.
· Reference List/Bibliography.
Report outline:
· An introduction that briefly outlines the research project plan.
· Literature Review – A literature review that summarises and critically reviews key academic and/or practitioner literature from a range of sources on your chosen topic / theme in Management. The literature review should explain the rationale/context/relevance of the individual’s interest in the research area. This will be in the region of 500 to 750 words.
· Aims and objectives – Your proposal must include the objectives of your research and a description of the issues you are aiming to explore. From your literature review you should develop an overall aim for your project and specific research objectives. Your choice will be influenced by the research design and approach you are taking.
· Methodology – You must state your proposed research design and approach. In this section you should discuss: if the research is exploratory or explanatory; the research design (e.g. case study, action research); the time frame (cross-sectional or longitudinal); and whether you are adopting a qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approaches. You should also briefly explain the method(s) you will use to collect your data e.g. face to face interviews, focus groups, online survey, secondary data searches etc. and justify your choice by drawing on best practice. You need to justify these decisions by referring back to the literature on the subject
· Sampling strategy – Depending on your proposal you may or may not need to explain your sampling strategy. Your proposal may just involve gathering secondary data in which case you do not need a sampling strategy, but if you are proposing to undertake a primary investigation you will need to explain how you will recruit participants, and your anticipated sample size. You need to justify these decisions by referring back to the literature on the subject.
· Ethics and Access – Any access or ethical issues that you have identified. You should consider ethics throughout your whole project. You need to discuss any procedures that you must follow to conform to industry guidelines. You need to justify these decisions by referring back to the literature on the subject
· Draft schedule of research – An outline timetable for conducting the research. This should map the various activities you have described in your proposal as well as the analysis stage. We recommend you present this information as a matrix or GANNT Chart and plan your work over a 12 week timescale (10 teaching weeks / reading week and consolidation week)
· References– These must be presented according to the Harvard Referencing System. You must include the papers, books etc., you have used in your report. So if for example you use a phrase from Creswell, (2014) in your report to support your choice of research approach, then Creswell (2014) should be listed in your reference list. The list must be in alphabetical order.
Marking criteria
This assignment will be marked out of 100. The following table shows how marks will be awarded and the level 7 generic marking criteria will also be used to guide the marking.
Introduction
Has the student focused on a justifiable topic / theme in Management?
Does the student demonstrate a breadth of knowledge that includes a range of sources?
Quality of the synthesis of literature – has the student critically evaluated the literature?
5%
10%
10%
Research design/methods/aims & objectives
Has the student included all the elements for a coherent research proposal? Including a sampling strategy (If appropriate)
Is the research design appropriate for the project and justified by appropriate theory (validity/reliability)?
25%
25%
Research plan, ethical and access issues
Has the student provided a plan (Matrix or GANNT chart) for executing the project?, and is realistic to be achieved in one semester?
Has the student considered ethical issues in the research proposal?
Does the student understand what access issues they may face when conducting their research project?
5%
5%
5%
Referencing skills
Has the student applied Harvard Referencing to both the reference list and in text references?
Is the referencing coherent throughout the text?
10%
