issues and controversies in marketing project

Brunel Business School

MG3123 Issues and Controversies in Marketing

study guide for the academic year 2019/20

Table of contents	Page
Introduction	1
Module details	1
Core reading list and supplementary reading	2
Lecture/seminar programme	2
Assessment, how the assessment relates to the learning outcomes	4
Assessment/requirements	4
Final Year Project/coursework submission information	5
Policy for coursework/Final Year Project submission	6
Additional vital information	6
Appendix
Problems with your study, and extenuating circumstances	6
Coursework/Final Year Project submission - important details	6
Feedback on Final Year Project/coursework	7
Re-assessment details	7
Employability skills and your ‘graduate identity’	8

Introduction

You should read this study guide carefully and also ensure that all the links have been followed to other accompanying documents. The College Student Handbook can be found on the College’s SharePoint site on the University’s webpages. Or, you can access it via Blackboard Learn. The College Student Handbook is an important source of information for all aspects of your studies, including policy, procedures, plagiarism, house style for assignments, group work submissions and other important matters. The School assumes that you will familiarise yourself with the information found in these, so you will need to look at these documents carefully at various times throughout your studies. The School operates within the rules and regulations of the University more generally, and you should also look at what are known as Senate Regulations , again under the University’s webpages. These policies and procedures, and rules and regulations, are liable to change from one academic year to another. You should therefore ensure that you make yourself aware of these, as you cannot later claim a lack of knowledge on these matters.

Module details

Credits	40
Module leader	Dr Lynne P Baldwin
Other staff	Seminar leaders
Term	Term 1 and Term 2
Contact and private study time	Lectures 10 hours Seminars 12 hours Private Study 354 hours FYP office hours available 24 hours Total 400 hours for 40 credits
Assessment	Coursework/Final Year Project 100% Examination 0%

The details provided in this study guide are based on the University approved Module Block Outline for this module which sets out the agreed aims, content, learning outcomes, assessment and teaching methods. The details in this Module Block Outline have been formally agreed by Senate and, once published, will not change for the academic year in question. Module Block Outline documents for your programme of study can be found by clicking ‘block outline’ in the homepage of this module on Blackboard Learn. At the same location you will also find a link to the ‘Programme Documentation Repository’, where you will find the formal scheme of studies document for your degree course which sets out the modules that you must study in order to complete your degree.

In the Appendix, you can see what employability skills are being introduced or practiced and, naturally, how your engagement in this module helps you “to ensure [you] have the capability of being effective in the workplace”. The formal Module Block Outline is necessarily brief, so you will find that this study guide will give you more detailed information. Any supporting material that you might need for this module is provided electronically via Blackboard Learn. Any queries about this module should be directed to the module leader, who you can contact either by way of ‘office hours’ or by email.

Core reading list and supplementary reading

This module is in part based around notions and/or material that can be found in the core text listed below. You are directed to study aspects of this text in your out-of-classroom time, that is, in your private study.

Core reading list

Bell E, Bryman A and Harley B (2019) Business Research Methods. Oxford, OUP.

Supplementary reading

Deane M and Borg E (2011) Critical Thinking and Analysis. Pearson Education.

Thomas G (2011) How to do your Case Study. A Guide for Students and Researchers. Sage Publications Ltd.

Easterby-Smith M, Thorpe R and Lowe A (2015) Management Research: An Introduction. Sage Publications Ltd.

Saunders M, Lewis, P and Thornhill A (2015) Research Methods for Business Students. London, Pitman Publishing.

Go to Library

Lecture/seminar programme

Term 1: The Term starts 23 September 2019 and ends 13 December 2019. Effective Learning Week in Term 1 is in week 7 (4-8 November 2019) and no lectures/seminars/labs are scheduled for this week.

Term 2: The Term starts 6 January 2020 and ends 27 March 2020. Effective Learning Week in Term 2 is in week 21 (10-14 February 2020) and no lectures/seminars/labs are scheduled for this week.

For full details of terms, holidays, the dates of the April/May and August examination periods and the full list of University weeks/week numbers and the rest, go to: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/campus/term-dates

The various study themes of the module are as shown below.

Study week	Week commencing	Study theme and module activities/think points or tasks
	TERM 1
1	23 September to 27 September 2019	Lecture 1 – Introduction to the module / Choosing what to research NO SEMINAR THIS WEEK. Read module study guide, assessment instructions and associated marking scheme, check which seminar group you are in (via the timetable), review recommended texts.
2	30 September to 04 October 2019	Lecture 2 – Asking good questions/ literature search using the Brunel library and electronic databases Seminar (various activities)
3	07 October to 11 October 2019	Lecture 3 – Writing the review of the literature / research design (methodology) / developing your Proposal Seminar (various activities)
4	14 October to 18 October 2019	Lecture 4 – Research design (data, data collection) / ethical issues in research Seminar (various activities)
5	21 October to 25 October 2019	No seminar this week Lecture delivered by ASK: Writing your FYP.
6	28 October to 01 November 2019	Seminar (various activities) Lecture delivered by ASK: Literature review.
7	04 November to 08 November 2019	Effective Learning Week. There are no lectures. There are no seminars. Use this week as you need to.
8	11 November to 15 November 2019	No seminar this week Submit your Proposal by 12.00 midday on Thursday 14 November 2019 Lecture delivered by ASK: Qualitative methods (interview and focus group, interview protocol, thematic coding and analysis).
9	18 November to 22 November 2019	Seminar (one-to-one feedback on your Proposal) Lecture delivered by ASK: Quantitative methods: (survey design, measurement and instruments).
10	25 November to 29 November 2019	Seminar (one-to-one feedback on your Proposal)
11	02 December to 06 December 2019	Seminar (This will be devoted entirely to helping you, on a one to one basis, to submit your application to BREO for ethical approval, if you have not already done so.)
12	09 December to 13 December 2019	Seminar (various activities) It is strongly recommended that you have submitted your application to BREO for ethical approval by the end of this week.
	TERM 2
16	06 January to 10 January 2020	Lecture 5 – Writing up the results / writing your Final Year Project (this is the last lecture delivered by the module leader) Seminar (various activities)
17	13 January to 17 January 2020	No seminar this week Lecture delivered by ASK: Choosing statistical test(s) to analyse your data (reliability, correlation and regression, T-Test and Anova).
18	20 January to 24 January 2020	Seminar (various activities)
19	27 January to 31 January 2020	No seminar this week Lecture delivered by ASK: Writing your discussion/conclusion.
20	03 February to 07 February 2020	Seminar (various activities)
21	10 February to 14 February 2020	Effective Learning Week/ASK week. There are no lectures. There are no seminars. Use this week as you need to.
22	17 February to 21 February 2020	Seminar (various activities)
23	24 February to 28 February 2020	No lecture (and no seminar) Submit your Project by 12.00 midday by Wednesday 26 February 2020

Assessment, how the assessment relates to the learning outcomes

The details provided in this study guide are based on the University approved Module Block Outline for this module which sets out the agreed aims, content, learning outcomes, assessment and teaching methods. As you will see from this, this module is assessed via one piece of coursework (the Report).

Assessment/requirements

Project Report (This is assessed. It accounts for 100% of the marks available for this module.)

Full details of this assessed task and the associated marking scheme are provided in a separate document. This document is available via Blackboard Learn.

In this, you will have shown how you have “draw[n] on the literature in the field, analyse[d] and interpret[ed] research evidence of a discipline-specific phenomenon in order to identify a suitable research problem/issue or opportunity to explore”, that you have “identified a suitable research problem/issue or opportunity, design[ed] and implement[ed] a research investigation/study, use[d] suitable research methods, appropriately justified, and report[ed] efficiently and effectively on the findings, conclusions and (where appropriate) proposals for appropriate action thereof”. You will also have demonstrated “that the requirements of responsible ethical behaviour in research [were] suitably taken into account”.

Getting ethical approval for your Project/research (This is a requirement; it is not ‘optional’.)

You need to provide evidence that you have understood and met “the requirements of responsible ethical behaviour in research”. It is a serious ‘offence’ under Senate Regulation 6: ‘Student Misconduct …’ if you do something which “constitutes research misconduct, as defined in the University’s policies, including conducting research with human participants without first obtaining research ethics approval”. You should be aware that approval is given not by your seminar leader or anyone else within the Business School. Approval is given by ‘the Research Ethics Committee’. You make your submission, online only, to BREO. The people making the decision about your research are those on the Research Ethics Committee. Where is this Research Ethics Committee? It is outside the School (it deals with ethical approval across the whole university). It operates via BREO. You need to read the instructions about BREO very, very carefully. BREO is in use across the whole University, in every department, in every discipline. As there are around 15,000 students in the University, you can imagine that they are very busy, particularly at peak times. There are two ‘stages’ to getting approval. One, the seminar leader has to look at your submission/request in BREO. And, then, sign it off. Two, the Research Ethics Committee has to make their decision. Both stages are done through the BREO system. The Research Ethics Committee commit to providing a decision within 15 working (note, working) days. Whilst they have often given approval much more quickly than this, you/we cannot rely on a quicker turnaround. This means that you need to build this into your planning, your preparations.

You will likely be collecting data around the end of December/the start of January, although this will vary slightly, from Project to Project. Assuming that it takes, as a minimum, 20 working days (a few days for your seminar leader to action, 15 working days for the Committee to action), we strongly recommend that you make your application to BREO by early to mid December (or earlier, if you plan to collect data in December).

Proposal (This is not assessed, that is, it gets no mark. It is useful in that it provides formative feedback to help you with your Project Report)

The Proposal is, in effect, ‘your Project, but at an earlier stage of its development’. That is, it is not something different, separate, to your Project. The Proposal has a little of (not all of) something about “the literature in the field” and an “analys[is] and interpret[ation of] research evidence of a discipline-specific phenomenon [which allows you] to identify a suitable research problem/issue or opportunity to explore”. It may or may not be at a stage of development which allows you to explain a little bit (or a lot) about the “design and implement[ation of] a research investigation/study” and the “suitable research methods, appropriately justified”. Feedback on the Proposal will, then, help you when it comes to working on/refining the Project Report itself.

Coursework submission information

You should prepare and submit all coursework according to the School's instructions for assessments. You should be aware that you cannot later claim that you did not know the rules and regulations; like all of us working or studying at Brunel, you must make yourself familiar with them. See the Appendix, below, for further details about coursework submission(s).

Full details regarding the module’s coursework requirements can be found via the Coursework Brief on WISEflow, including the submission date and time.

Proposal: by 12.00 midday on Thursday 14 November 2019 (week 8)

Submission to BREO for ethical approval: by the end of week 12 (strongly recommended)

Project Report: by 12.00 midday on Wednesday 26 February 2020 (week 23)

Policy for coursework/Final Year Project submission

The clear expectation is that you will submit your coursework/Final Year Project by the submission deadline stated in the guidelines about the Project. In line with the University’s policy on the late submission of coursework (revised in July 2016), coursework submitted up to 48 hours late will be accepted, but capped at the pass grade (D- for Undergraduate). Work submitted over 48 hours after the stated deadline will be graded as an NS (non-submission).

Additional vital information

The College Student Handbook can be found on the College’s SharePoint site on the University’s web pages. The Handbook is a useful source of information for all aspects of your studies, including procedures of how to inform us of problems you are facing with your studies, how to apply for an extension to your coursework, plagiarism, house style for assignments, group work submissions and other important matters. The School assumes that you familiarise yourself with this information, so you will need to look at these pages carefully at various times throughout your studies. The School also operates within the rules and regulations of the University more generally, and you should also look at what are known as 'Senate Regulations’ under the University’s web pages. These policies and procedures might change from one academic year to another and it is in your own interest to keep yourself aware about them and their possible changes.

This is the end of the study guide. Below is the Appendix, which informs and supplements the above.

APPENDIX

Problems with your study, and extenuating circumstances

You may feel that your ability to study is being affected by personal problems, illness or any other matter, or you miss an assessment because of extenuating circumstances (or you feel that the quality of an assessment you have taken may have been affected by extenuating circumstances). If so, you should first read the relevant sections in the College Student Handbook . If, after reading this, you have further queries, you are encouraged to get in contact with your personal tutor.

Coursework/Final Year Project submission – important details

As per the College Student Handbook and College Coursework Submission Procedure , formal coursework submissions must be made via WISEflow in which you must use the College’s electronic coursework coversheet. On no account will we accept any coursework (‘coursework’ includes the Final Year Project) via any other means. So, if you attempt to, or actually submit it to, a lecturer, the Taught Programmes Office (TPO) or to anyone else, either in person or via email, we will not accept it, and we will not look at it or mark it. This is the case for those with extenuating circumstances and for those without extenuating circumstances. Any coursework not submitted via WISEflow will be deemed to have not been submitted.

Please note that we will not accept coursework submitted in any other file format than this/those prescribed on the coursework brief’s submission instructions section. Therefore, your files should be converted to the approved format. After submitting your coursework to WISEflow, please check that it is actually there. Do not rely on simply pressing the ‘submit / upload’ button hoping that it has been submitted and it is on WISEflow. Go back in, and check, that it is actually there. Because, if you discover, later, that it is not then this will be an error on your part for which the university cannot be held accountable.

In addition to submitting your Final Year Project (FYP) online (it is the online submission, only, which ‘counts’ as ‘the submission’) you must also submit two paper copies of your Final Year Project, as well.

You must make sure that the online submission and the paper copy you submit are the same.

The two paper/hard copies of your Final Year Project must be submitted by 17.00pm UK time on the same working day as the online submission, and must be submitted to the Taught Programmes Office (TPO). If you cannot submit it in person yourself, get someone else to do it for you. Or, instead, post it, via the Post Office, in the normal way (the day that you post it will count as the date of submission), ensuring that you get a ‘proof of postage’ receipt from the Post Office, as your proof. Address the parcel ‘The TPO, the Business School’, followed by the full postal address of the University.

Feedback on coursework/Final Year Project

The School is committed to providing you with feedback on all assessed coursework/Final Year Projects and will do so normally within 25 working days from the submission deadline. You will get feedback on your performance via various means, including face-to-face. If you do not receive feedback within this time, then you should first contact the module leader. If it proves necessary, you should then contact the Pathway/Programme Leader or the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Submitted coursework, including your Final Year Project, will not be returned to you. This is true for all coursework, in all modules and at all levels, and does not apply only to this module.

Re-assessment details

The Board of Examiners is responsible for making decisions about ‘progression’ (or not) or ‘recommendation of an award’ (or not). After the board’s meeting, you are able to see your results on eVision. The Board of Examiners meets only at the end of a Level. The Board of Examiners may have decided that you have been given an opportunity to be re-assessed. This might be for a capped mark/grade (so this will be counted as a ‘second attempt’) or for a full mark/grade (this will be counted as a ‘first attempt’), depending on whether or not there are/were extenuating circumstances. You will know whether you need to be (re-)assessed by looking at eVision.

You will be asked to revise/work further on the Final Year Project that you had been working on earlier, as this is simpler, quicker and easier. You will not be asked ‘to start/do a new Project’. The deadline for submission will be conveyed to you via e-Vision (it is a decision of the Board of Examiners; not that of any module leader, the TPO or anyone else).

In order to help you to prepare, you will have access to the Blackboard Learn sections of the module which, as you know, provide you with details of what the module involves from a learning and assessment point of view. Also in these Blackboard Learn sections you will find the associated teaching materials, such as weekly lecture slides and any supplementary learning material (or directions to it). Whilst no lectures or seminars are provided between the end of Term 1/Term 2 and the re-submission, the seminar leader has 'office hours' which you can make use of to ask any questions that you might have. In addition, the University also has the Academic Skills (ASK) service based within the Library, which can help you with (non module-specific) skills development.

Between finding out that you will be working on your Final Year Project up until the submission deadline, you are entitled to get further support from the seminar leader. It may or may not be the case that you had extenuating circumstances. Your seminar leader will not know (and we will not be telling them) that you had (or did not have) extenuating circumstances or the nature of them, as is only right and proper (they do not need to know). But, what they do need to know is that you are working towards submitting your Final Year Project. So, you can, and should, tell them this. And, if you want/need to see them for feedback, or to get further support with your Final Year Project, to book their time/use their office hours accordingly.

Note, however, that it will be ‘the vacation period’. This means that staff will be taking leave over the summer. An ‘extenuating circumstance’ is something not known, unforeseen, not able to be planned for. Holiday/leave is, in contrast, something that is known, is foreseen (you/students know about it in advance) and can be planned for (you/students can plan around it). So, if you plan to discuss your Final Year Project with your seminar leader, you need to work/plan accordingly. Because, if you later claim ‘my seminar leader was on leave so I couldn’t see them’ as an ‘extenuating circumstance’, this will be rejected. Why? Because this is something that you could have planned for (and can, right now, plan for). You will have to work around their holidays/leave (so you will need to find this out from them).

Employability skills and your ‘graduate identity’

Employability skills refer to “a set of attributes, skills and knowledge that [you] should possess to ensure [you] have the capability of being effective in the workplace” (CBI, 2009)[footnoteRef:1]. A study (Hinchliffe and Jolly, 2010)[footnoteRef:2] asked “employers from various sectors … about their perceptions of graduates and the importance they place on almost 50 specific skills, competencies, attributes and personal qualities”. When senior executives were asked what the most important factors were when recruiting graduates “employability skills came out on top”. [1: Confederation of British Industry and Universities UK. (2009) Future Fit: Preparing Graduates for the World of Work. London, CBI.] [2: Hinchliffe, G. and Jolly, A. (2010) Graduate Market Trends: Employability and Graduate Identity. HECSU.]

In this section of the study guide, findings from two publications have been used to create the grid below. Note that these are ranked in order of importance (to employers). From this, you can see what employability skills are being introduced or practised and, naturally, how your engagement in this module helps you “to ensure [you] have the capability of being effective in the workplace”.

Ranking	Employability Skills	This Module?
1	Interpersonal Skills Self-management: readiness to accept responsibility, flexibility, resilience, self-starting, appropriate assertiveness, time management, readiness to improve own performance based on feedback/reflective learning.	yes
	Teamworking: respecting others, co-operating, negotiating/persuading, contributing to discussions, and awareness of interdependence with others.	yes
2	Written Communication Skills Communication and literacy: application of literacy, ability to produce clear, structured written work and oral literacy including listening and questioning.	yes
3	IT Skills Application of information technology: basic IT skills, including familiarity with word processing, spreadsheets, file management and use of internet search engines.	yes
4	Experience of the Work Environment Employers say that they want graduates who already have actual, real work experience, that is, that you have been in employment (paid or unpaid) before they employ you (talking/writing about work, at university, is different from doing it, in the workplace).	no
5	Commercial/Business Awareness Problem solving: analysing facts and situations and applying creative thinking to develop appropriate solutions. Business and customer awareness: basic understanding of the key drivers for business success, including the importance of innovation and taking calculated risks.	yes
6	Numeracy Skills Application of numeracy: manipulation of numbers, general mathematical awareness and its application in practical contexts (e.g. measuring, weighing, estimating and applying formulae).	yes
7	Presentation Skills Communication and literacy: application of literacy, ability to deliver ideas, concepts and related with clarity, focus and cogency via oral/spoken means.	yes
“Underpinning all these attributes, the key foundation, must be a positive attitude: a 'can-do' approach, a readiness to take part and contribute, openness to new ideas and a drive to make these happen” (CBI, 2011).

This is the end of the Appendix/this study guide.

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