BUS7095 Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria specific to this assignment:
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this module, students will be able to:
- Formulate, design, and justify a business and management research project, including its aims, scope and objectives.
- Identify and appraise ethical challenges relating to the research design. Secure ethical approval for the research project, and ensure that it is conducted in line with BCU policies and the norms of business and management research.
- Self-manage the development of the research, using rigorous research and project management techniques, and critically appraise the work undertaken, to facilitate improvements in personal research and project practice.
- Critically evaluate and synthesise current business and management theory, which is at the forefront of the academic discipline, and is relevant for the course, pathway and the particular topic, case or organisation under investigation.
- Assemble and source valid business data which will support the requirements of the project aims, scope and objectives.
- Professionally present the outcomes of the project, including drawing appropriate, original, evidence-based conclusions. Provide recommendations and guidance for business decision-making in the chosen discipline or pathway.
Business and Management Research Project Assessment Brief – First Attempt and Resit: Option 4 – Business Plan
Contents
1. Assessment Overview
2. Assessment Structure
3. Planning your Business Plan
4. Assigned Tutor and Student Roles and Expectations
5. Keeping Records
6. Ethics
7. Business Plan Structure
8. Turnitin and Avoiding Plagiarism
9. Final issues
10. Arrangements for Resubmitting Students
References (with BCU Library links)
Appendix 1: Indicative Business Proposal Assessment Checklist and Marking Scheme
Appendix 2: Indicative Assessment Checklist and Indicative Marking Scheme for the Business Plan
Appendix 3: Research Ethics Protocol
Assessment Overview
Rationale
This assessment brief provides the practical and theoretical focus for the Entrepreneurship pathway and is the culmination of the programme of study that requires you to undertake a piece of independent research that links theory to practice.
As a student on the MSc Management and Entrepreneurship pathway, you have been given the option to develop a comprehensive business plan project in an industry/market area of your choice and self-appraise your entrepreneurship skills and suitability to implement it through a reflective diagnostic account. You will be expected to develop a real business concept and take it through to a finished business plan. This will require detailed marketing, operations and financial analysis and creation of a convincing and robust business model, strategy and plan based on primary and secondary research.
You will be expected to critically appraise and evaluate the existing academic literature in your field of application and evaluate your proposed business plan against published academic best practice in key areas of finance, marketing, operations and human resources, providing the academic rigour required for a project at Master’s level, contributing to the core vision of the programme pathway.
This module will enable you to build on and develop your professional management skills, such as project management, problem solving, critical analysis and synthesis of data. You will receive
significant support through access to an allocated tutor, providing opportunities for feedback through one-to-one and group interaction.
To pass this module, you must achieve a final overall mark of at least 50%. Failure to achieve a pass after the second attempt will result in the student being withdrawn from the course.
Assessment Structure
Required task
The Module is assessed using a business proposal and a final report (business plan). The business proposal should be submitted as a single electronic file via Moodle by 9 am on Monday, 1st July 2024. The final report should be submitted as a single electronic file via Moodle by midday on Wednesday, 4th September 2024.
Word count
The maximum word count for the business proposal is 2,000 words. The maximum word count for the finale report is 6,000 words. Penalties are only applied on submissions over 10% longer than these maximum figures. Parts of these submissions are not included in the word count. For the proposal, the word count can be calculated by counting the number of words from the start of the introduction to the end of the schedule. For the final report, the word count can be calculated by counting the number of words from the start of the introduction to the end of the reflective chapter (immediately before the reference list and appendices). Tables should be presented in text format as they are included in the word count. Figures should be presented in image format and are not included in the word count.
The word limit is for your coursework assignment, and does not cover material submitted as an appendix. Material submitted as an appendix provides background for your coursework, but it will not be marked unless specified in the brief. Also, it is important that you cross-reference between the main text of your assignment and any appendices, to demonstrate the linkage and that the appendices do not constitute additional material unrelated to that included in the body of your assignment. If you do not refer to this work in an Appendix, then this included work will not be marked.
Your reference list will not be included in the word count, but your in-text citations used in the main body of the assignment (e.g. Smith and Jones (2010) identified that…) will be included.
You are required to declare the number of words used in your assignment. There is no fixed penalty for exceeding the word count, but your marker will not consider any work after the +10% word count tolerance has been reached within the allocation of marks. You may therefore be penalised for a failure to be concise and for failing to submit your work within the word count specified.
The Business Proposal
Students are required to produce a 2,000-word business proposal for their chosen business area. This will be given a mark which will count as 20% of the overall project mark.
The business proposal should be submitted electronically via Moodle by 9 am on Monday, 1st July 2024. The Proposal is a development of your initial business idea and will take the format of an Introduction (Background, Problem Analysis, Proposed Solution, Value Proposition, Target Customers, Business Goals and Objectives), Outline Business Model, Industry Analysis, Plan for Market Positioning and Finances, Outline Operational Plan, a Project Development Plan (Gantt chart or similar), and a Draft Ethics Request Form.
See Appendix 1 for the detailed requirements of the Business Proposal.
Overview of Business Plan Structure
The final report Business Plan contains the details of how you will start and sustain a new venture over three years. As such, it should contain the following elements:
A thorough examination and demonstration of the feasibility of your opportunity (technological, legal, financial, market and industry feasibility, operational feasibility):
- Critically appraise the industry analysis in terms of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats;
- Critically appraise the consumer/buyer buying behaviour in the past, present and future
- Give evidence of actual primary research carried out using a robust methodology that demonstrates market demand;
Define the legal structure for the business activity.
Outline the management structure, human resources and organisational structure
Provide a start-up budget, sales forecast, balance sheet and cash flow for the first three years;
- In the financial planning section, the project must analyse the financial assumptions about income and expenditure;
Detail, with a thorough and convincing rationale, the recommended marketing strategy
Provide an operational plan
Present the business model and value creation for all stakeholders
Discuss the risks and rewards of the business idea.
Provide a reflective account
Planning your Business Plan
You are required to create a project plan for creating your business plan to guide you right from the outset. Essentially, this plan is an outline of what you intend to do, chapter-by-chapter, and therefore should reflect the business goals and objectives of your business plan.
There are several reasons for having a plan:
- It provides a focus for your thoughts.
- It provides your allocated tutor with an opportunity at an early stage of your work to make constructive comments and help guide the direction of your research
- The writing of a plan is the first formal stage of the writing process, and therefore helps build up your confidence.
- In many ways, the plan encourages you to come to terms with the reading, thinking and writing in a systematic and integrated way, with plenty of time left for changes.
Finally, your project plan generally provides a revision point in the development of your business plan in order to allow appropriate changes in the scope and even direction of your work as it progresses.
Your project plan should be included in your business proposal as an appendix in your final report, where it scores towards your reflective account mark.
Assigned Tutor and Student Roles and Expectations
Assigned tutor
All students are assigned a tutor who will probably be one of the tutors in their seminar class. Most interaction will take place verbally within the seminar classes, but you are also permitted to email your assigned tutor, and you may receive some written feedback from them.
Student expectations:
- To obtain written or verbal feedback on one draft only, normally on a chapter-by-chapter basis of the final report.
- To receive feedback on a draft ethics request and, if necessary, revised ethics requests
- To give your assigned tutor a reasonable amount of time to review drafts (up to one week) and to respond to emails (about 2 to 3 working days) during term time.
Student responsibilities:
- Attend all the lectures
- Attend all the seminar classes
- Complete work on time as agreed with your assigned tutor
- Work independently
- Submit one draft of the proposal and each chapter of the final report
- Engage with the ethics process and ensure that the chosen research project has obtained ethics approval
- Be familiar with academic misconduct regulations with regard to plagiarism and the misuse of AI
- Comply with the submission requirements
- Ensure appropriate use of the BCU Harvard referencing system
The role of the assigned tutor is about
This includes:
- To help you decide on a suitable research topic
- To help you draw up your individual research paper plan
- To assign some directed reading (but most of the literature search must be yours)
- To stimulate and enthuse you
- To provide a steady stream of interaction of ideas and guidance
- To help you develop a suitable methodology
- To review and approve your ethics request form
- For Option 1, to help you improve your data collection instrument (e.g. questionnaire or interview questions)
- To support you in your data analysis
- To give you feedback on your draft submissions (once per chapter only).
Note: The responsibility for completing the research paper on time remains solely with you, not with your assigned tutor.
Assigned Tutor Responsibilities:
- Make initial contact with assigned students in the first seminar
- Be familiar with module specification and assessment requirements
- Be familiar with the relevant Moodle site
- Provide timely response to emails (see above)
- Provide timely feedback to draft material (see above)
- Be familiar with Turnitin procedures and reports
- Give reasonable notice regarding alternative cover arrangements
- Give detailed feedback for failed projects
- Be available for support for assigned re-sitting students
Note: Students who persistently fail to engage with the seminar classes will not be entitled to written feedback, as this would create an additional burden on the assigned tutors who are available for 36 hours to provide verbal feedback to the students who attend.