Your next assessment task is to build up your plan of how you will carry out your research. You will draw on your project statement in Assessment 1 to write two sections that feed into your final project report. In the first section, you will critically examine business theories and analytical frameworks from the literature that are relevant to the problem or opportunity and explain and justify why these are relevant and linked to your problem or opportunity. In the second section, you will describe and justify your use use of case study research methodology, provide a detailed description of the secondary data you will use, and explain how the analytical framework chosen for secondary data analysis was applied. 

Subject Learning Outcomes

• 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]

Procedure

Use the Project Review template (.docx) to write up your project review and see Assessment 2 example (.pdf). Be sure to incorporate the feedback from Assessment 1.

1. Purpose of the research

Restate the purpose of the research. Use the ‘Purpose of the research’ section from your project statement (Assessment 1) and address any comments or feedback received. Changes are indicated with red font colour.

2. Review of theories and frameworks

Provide all credible academic sources used in Appendix 1 – Project Reference Map. 

• 2.1 Review of business theories: Critically examine relevant literature (credible academic sources) and briefly review two (2) specific 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.
• 2.2 Review of 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.

3. Methodology and methods

Provide all credible academic sources used in Appendix 1 – Project Reference Map. 

• 3.1 Case study research methodology: Describe the use of case study research methodology as it relates to your problem or opportunity with the support of at least one credible academic source. Clearly state whether your case study is based on a case organisation or an industry. Explain the type of case study research approach you plan to undertake (e.g. undertaking a single case study on a case organisation (or industry) or using a single case study approach in which there is a comparison between a case organisation and another case organisation or industry). The case study approach needs to be linked to the problem or opportunity.
  In your discussion of the case study research methodology, ensure that the following credible academic source has been used to support the use of this methodology:
   Rashid, Y, Rashid, A, Warraich, MA, Sabir, SS & Waseem, A 2019, ‘Case study method: A step-by-step guide for business researchers‘, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, vol. 18, article 1609406919862424, DOI:10.1177/1609406919862424.
• 3.2 Secondary data: Provide a detailed description of the secondary data that was used for the analysis of the problem or opportunity. 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 data sources (these do not have to be provided in the Appendix 1 – Project Reference Map).
• 3.3 Analytical framework (method or tool): Provide a 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 will be applied to the data. Clearly link your justification and discussion to that secondary data and your problem or opportunity. Use relevant literature (credible academic sources) to show what you have learned about the analytical framework and how to apply it correctly.

References

• This assessment requires you to use a minimum of thirteen (13) recent 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.

Appendix 1 – Project Reference Map

• Use the Project Reference Map template (.docx) and provide the map as Appendix 1 of your assessment.
• Provide the full reference of each 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. Be mindful that the reference map is worth 30% of your grade. 
• Refer to Appendix 1 of the Assessment 1example (.pdf) for additional guidance.

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 (see section 9.3 of the AIB Style Guide).
• AIB the standard report format (Project Review template (.docx))
• Apply AIB-preferred Microsoft Word settings – see the AIB Style Guide.

Refer to the Assessment 2 example (.pdf) for guidance, and look at the Report structure guide to see how this assessment feeds into your final report.

Grading criteria

Your assessment will be marked according to the Assessment 2 rubric (.pdf).

Access your grade and individual feedback below once your OLF advises that grades have been released. Refer to Where is my grade and feedback? for guidance.