case study of business

Assessment Strategy

Students will undertake two assessments for this unit. The first assessment will be a Case Study of a business which will explore how one of the issues studied in the unit has affected the chosen company. This assessment meets learning outcome 1, 2 and 3 and will be submitted by week 18 of the Spring Term.

For the second and final assessment students will prepare a Marketing Plan of the country of the language they are studying. Students will be given guidance on the selection of products or services and asked to develop an analysis of the marketing environment in their target market, appropriate to the product or service, and suggest appropriate marketing strategies. The assessment meets learning outcomes 4 and 5. The report will be submitted in CAP week 2.

For the two assessments students at Level 5 are required to submit a Case Study and a Marketing Plan of 1,500 words each.

For the two assessments students at Level 6 are requires to submit a Case Study and a Marketing Plan of 2,000 words each.

Response to 2015/2016 student feedback.

The feedback on the unit was positive. Some students commented that although they had never studied business as a subject before they obtained helpful knowledge of business and the global marketplace and that the lecturers provided interesting lectures and seminars on a variety of topics. Students did request the opportunity to get formative feedback on the assessment tasks prior to the final submission, so we have incorporated elements of formative assessment in the teaching schedule. Overall the feedback was very positive, and no significant changes to the content are proposed for the 2016/2017 academic session.

Assessment Rubrics

Assessment 1 – Company Case Study

The purpose of the case study is to allow you to explore the issues discussed during the course as they affect the development of a company/organization, preferably based or located in your country of origin or a country you are studying. The case study must therefore have a very specific focus and it should not address issues which are not covered in this course. You may use any of the companies which have been discussed in lectures or seminars but you may not simply repeat information already presented. You must find new, up-to-date information. The table below is for illustration. You may choose other companies as long as the case study addresses on of the issues discussed in the course.

Issue covered in the course	Sectors	Companies
Globalization	food and drink Automobiles Sports apparel	Tesco, Parmalat, Chupa Chups, Coca Cola Renault, Volkswagen, Pirelli, GM Nike, Adidas
Privatisation	telecommunications electricity supply state holding companies	BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Olivetti Electricité de France, Hidrocantabrico, IRI, NHS
Liberalisation / Deregulation	air transport health services telecommunications financial services	American Airlines, British Airways, Air France, Alitalia, Lufthansa, EasyJet, Ryanair NHS Telecoms (as above) plus Vivendi, Orange, Vodaphone, Apple iPhone, RBS, Bankia
Sustainability	energy mining agriculture	BP, Exxon Mobil, EDF, Glencore, Monsanto
labour market flexibility	automobiles food and drink	Renault Danone, Parmalat, Sports Direct
Corporate Social Responsibility	Pharmaceuticals, Food manufacture and distribution	Smith-Klein-Beecham Nestlé, Macdonald’s, Coca Cola, BP

Remember, your case study must address one of the issues covered in the course and from the list above. You could discuss, for example, Parmalat from the point of view of globalization or labour market flexibility, but not in relation to the financial scandal of early 2004.

Note that when looking at the company in question if you simply download information from the company website to show how it has responded to the issues you are discussing then you will get poor marks. Too many students have failed or got poor marks because they have simply paraphrased, and sometimes simply copied, what the company says about itself. Furthermore they do not make an effective link between the issue under discussion and the company’s actions. Your job is to show you understand the debates around the issue under discussion, to analyse the company, analyse how it has responded to the issues under discussion and critically assess this response in your own words.

Please remember that your Case Study must include a full bibliography and appropriate references. You must use the APA 6th edition format for your bibliography and references. Your work must be word processed and a high standard of presentation will be expected. Purely descriptive material may be included in an appendix to the main text. The Case Study must include in text referencing and a full bibliography. Failure to supply a bibliography will result in a mark of zero (00) for this assignment.

The marks for the Case Study constitute 50% of the final mark for the unit. Assignments must be submitted via the Turnitin Assignment Inbox on the Moodle site for the unit.

More details of the assessment can be found on the Moodle site for the unit and requirements for the assessments are programmed in the Seminar/Workshop sessions.

Deadlines:

For Level 5 (Year 2) students: by 12.00 o’clock on Thursday 16th February 2017. Word limit 1,500 words.

You will receive feedback on this assessment by Thursday 16th March at the latest.

For Level 6 (Final Year) students: by 12.00 o’clock on Friday 17th February 2017. Word limit 2,000 words.

You will receive feedback on this assessment by Friday 17th March at the latest.

BISMARK marking criteria and feedback sheet for Case Study

Hemis number
Is the company situated in an appropriate context?	Sectoral?	Regional?	National?	International?
Which of the issues covered by the course does the case study illustrate? NB: students should usually only address one issue, and should not attempt a case study addressing more than 2 (related) issues.	Corporate Social Responsibility	Sustainability	Globalization
	Privatisation	Deregulation / liberalisation	Labour market flexibility
Is the case study recent?	Has a wide range of sources been used?	Standard textbooks	Journals & reports	Internet sources
Does the case study have a full bibliography? N.B. Failure to supply a bibliography will result in a mark of zero (00) for this assignment.	Is the bibliography presented according to the APA 6th edition conventions?	Are all sources cited fully and in accordance with the APA 6th edition conventions?	Is there a word count?	Overall standard of presentation (attention to use of English, spelling, grammatical accuracy, layout). Good Average Poor

Summative comments

MARK: