Instructions for assessment

Instructions for assessment

The coursework assignment requires students to submit a 2500 word report by the above deadline. The basis for the report involves students being allocated a country in which they need to provide an assessment of the business environment prevailing in that country. Another important feature of the report is that it should be focused around a particular business organisation. Therefore, the report should essentially provide an analysis of a specific organisation, of the student’s choice, that may be looking to expand its business activities in relation to the particular country that they have been allocated. The scenario to be considered should relate to a foreign direct investment (FDI) decision and could either be concerned with:

1) the establishment of a company in the allocated country;

2) an expansion of its current operations within the allocated country. In addition to the final report, students should also submit a two-page (maximum, using 12 point font) plan for their report by the start of week 7 (2pm on Monday 4th November), on which they will receive feedback, but this will not be part of the summative assessment.

Students will be randomly allocated a country (by drawing this from a container during the first seminar) that they should focus their report on. They will also be required to focus their report around a specific organisation. In particular, the report should be written from the perspective of a multinational company (of their own choosing) that is contemplating establishing or expanding their business operations in the country that they have been allocated. This could be viewed as a consultancy report for the company or one produced by a manager from the company itself. It is required that the report relates to an FDI. Thus, an example of a relevant scenario is a report based around the issues that would need to be considered by Waitrose if they were considering opening new stores in the United States. On the contrary, if the allocated country is Sweden, companies like IKEA or Volvo will not be valid options for the report.

Although it is not necessary to provide great detail on the current operations of the organisation that you have chosen in your allocated country, because it is essentially a hypothetical scenario, a certain amount of discussion on this is useful. Further information is available in an updated Frequently Asked Questions document on moodle. Students should have agreed with their seminar tutor which is the business organisation that they will base their report around by their seminar in week 4 at the latest (and ideally this should have been done by the end of week 3). Moreover, students are encouraged to discuss and confirm their choices of company with their seminar tutor as early as possible in the semester. No changes should be made to the specific organisation on which the report will be written after week 4, neither can changes be made to the country that was initially allocated. It is aimed that confirmation of the country and business organisation to be used in each student’s report will be posted on moodle during week 7. As a result, each scenario under consideration should be unique to a given student given that they will have chosen a business organisation that is of interest to them, within the context of the business environment that they have been allocated.

Choosing a Business Organization and Allocated Country

The report will require an analysis of the general business environment in the country that the student has been allocated as well as relevant information on the organisation that they have chosen. In particular, students should attempt to focus on specific aspects relating to the type and nature of the organisation with the main factors, issues and considerations affecting the business environment in that country. The report should include relevant tables, graphs and statistics, together with an accompanying commentary of these, in order to provide specific details – especially with regards to the business environment. Students will also be expected to develop some of their discussions around appropriate analytical frameworks e.g. PESTLE analysis, Porter’s 5 Forces and demand-supply scheme (it is recommended that students should avoid including SWOT analysis in their reports). Support for the development of the report will be provided by tutors during the seminars, which will also include more general exercises and discussions that are related to the material that has been covered in the module. A template for the suggested structure of the report has also been posted on moodle.
Marking and feedback process

Between you submitting your work (18th December 2019) and then receiving your feedback and marks (13th January 2019), there are a number of quality assurance processes that we go through to ensure that students receive marks which reflects their work. A brief summary is provided below.

Step One – The module and marking team meet to agree standards, expectations and how feedback will be provided.

Step Two – A subject expert will mark your work using the criteria provided in the assessment brief.

Step Three – A moderation meeting takes place where all members of the teaching and marking team will review the marking of others to confirm whether they agree with the mark and feedback.

Step Four – Work at Levels 5 and 6 then goes to an external examiner who will review a sample of work to confirm that the marking between different staff is consistent and fair.
Step Five – Your mark and feedback is processed by the Office and made available to you.

For students who are offered a resit, you are required to improve and resubmit your original work as well as adding a further reflective commentary discussing what you have learned from the process.

You must resubmit your work using the specific resit Turnitin link on Moodle. In particular, you should:

1. Review your previously submitted work and read carefully the feedback given by the marker.
2. Use this feedback to help you revisit and rewrite your work, improving it in the areas identified as weak in the original marking process.
3. Include with your resubmission an additional reflective piece on what you understand was weak, how you set about addressing this and what you have learned from this that may help you with further assignments. You should address the following specifically:

i) Identify tutor feedback points on your original work and identify where/how the resit work has changed (give page number) in response to feedback;

ii) Identify the lessons you have learnt from doing the resit;

iii) Reflect on how your feedback and this process will help you improve future assignments.

If you did not submit your work at the first opportunity you cannot reflect on your feedback. However, you are still required to submit a reflective piece in which you identify your reasons for non-submission, the implications of non-submission for your future success and how you propose to address this in the future. If you have issues with confidentiality of your reasons for non-submission then you could reflect on how you have met the learning outcomes for the module, how you can use what you have done on the module to support your future career and what skills/employability attributes you feel the module has helped you to develop.