Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
Trimester T1 2022
Unit Code HI6008
Unit Title Business Research Project
Assessment Type 2. Group* Report on Literature Review
Assessment Title Literature Review
Purpose of the assessment (with ULO Mapping) This assessment item seeks to ensure that all students enrolled in the Capstone Unit – Business Research Project – are competent at sourcing relevant and current literature using academic search portals, such as Pro-Quest, and other places where high quality secondary data resides.
Furthermore, this assessment requires students to not only read and summarise what other authors have already established, but also to become skilful at weaving together
complementary or contrasting arguments relevant to their approved topic, research problem, and research question(s). This assignment builds on and extends the topic that was selected for Assignment 1.
Relates to Unit Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 5
Weight 30 % of the total assessments
Total Marks 30
Word limit At least 2500 words for the Literature Review
Due Date Before midnight on the Friday of week 8, i.e. 13 May.
Submission Guidelines • All work must be submitted on Blackboard by 12 midnight on the due date, with a completed Assignment Cover Page as one single document. [If no cover page your mark is reduced -10%; Late submissions attract penalties at the rate of -5% per day]
• The group members’ names and student numbers listed on the Cover Page must align with the members officially registered in your group. [any errors or omissions may affect your grade and there is no guarantee of any adjustment]
• The assignment must be in MS Word format, single spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings, paragraphing, and page numbers.
• Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list, all using Holmes adapted Harvard referencing style.
• Include as an Appendix, your group statement of ‘who wrote which sections’)
Holmes Adapted Harvard Referencing
Holmes has now implemented a Holmes adapted Harvard approach to referencing:
1. Reference sources in assignments are limited to sources which provide full text access to the source’s content for lecturers and markers.
2. Your Reference list is to be located on a separate page at the end of the essay and titled: References.
3. It should include the details of all the in-text citations, arranged alphabetically A-Z by author surname. In addition, it MUST include a hyperlink to the full text of the cited reference source.
For example;
Hawking, P., McCarthy, B. and Stein, A. 2004. Second Wave ERP Education, Journal of Information Systems Education, Fall, http://jise.org/Volume15/n3/JISEv15n3p327.pdf
4. All assignments will require additional in-text reference details which will consist of the surname of the author/authors or name of the authoring body, year of publication, page number of content, paragraph where the content can be found.
For example;
“The company decided to implement an enterprise wide data warehouse business intelligence strategy (Hawking et al, 2004, p3(4)).”
Adherence to Referencing Guidelines is Mandatory
If students do not follow the above guidelines:
1. Students who submit assignments which do not comply with the guidelines will incur penalties.
2. Students whose citations are fake will be reported for academic misconduct.
*Note: Students will already be registered in assignment groups (same as for assignment 1).
Assignment 2 Specifications
Purpose:
This unit aims to give you an opportunity to combine many facets of your acquired MBA skills into the production of a high-quality research project.
Assignment 2 - the Literature Review - is designed to ensure that each team member masters the skills of searching, locating, reading, summarising, and using relevant academic literature as secondary data to support a compelling discussion of factors central to the identified and specified research problem and crafting an ‘argument’ that brings the reader closer to a prospective answer to the specified research question(s).
Your tutor will FACILITATE the process, week by week, in the tutorials, BUT remember that this is a ‘learn-by-doing’ unit, in which you will spend a significant amount of tutorial time discussing and practising research skills. The learning will be progressive, so for best results you will need to be listening to the weekly recorded lectures as well as participating in the interactive tutorials and using the discussion board to interact with other students in your cohort.
[note that you are not expected to solve the research problem entirely from secondary data, just to demonstrate sufficient context to be able to plan the methodology phase of your research, which is assignment 3]
Assignment Structure should be the following:
1. Cover Page
2. An opening statement of the Research Problem (RP) and Research Question (RQ) – your explanation of these should at this stage be more detailed than what you wrote in your Topic Approval and identification of appropriate body of existing knowledge. (see Marking Rubric row 1)
3. Discussion of major theories, models or streams of influence relevant to the RQ. This provides evidence that you are able to find literature relevant to a deeper understanding of your Research Question (RQ) as well as a model or theory that will support your quest to answer it. (see Marking Rubric row 2)
4. Quality of Literature cited, drawing the reader’s attention to any contrasting views expressed in prior research in this area and give your view of how differing opinions can be brought together to help answer the research question and ultimately resolve the research problem. (see Marking Rubric row 3)
5. Discussion of current state of knowledge, with logical structure. (see Marking Rubric row 4)
6. Evidence of understanding, flow, and academic argument. (see Marking Rubric row 5)
7. Converge on how this literature review has brought you closer to an answer to your research question(s). (see Marking Rubric row 6)
8. Ensure all in text citations are correctly referenced. [10-12 academic sources are required]
9. Add a comprehensive List of References, in Holmes adapted Harvard referencing style. [Students please be warned that errors in referencing attract suspicion of plagiarism/academic misconduct and may require detailed investigation. Note: fake referencing is academic fraud and will result in a report of Academic MisconductIt is always essential that academic integrity is upheld. Don’t take a chance!]
10. Append a statement indicating ‘who wrote which sections of this report’
HI6008 Assignment 2 – Literature Review - Marking Rubric
Excellent
5 marks Very Good
4 marks Good
3 marks Questionable
2 marks Unsatisfactory
0-1 mark
Identification of Body of Knowledge appropriate to specified RP and RQ
[Max 5 marks] Cited sources are all current and relevant Cited sources are mostly current and relevant Cited sources are somewhat current and relevant Cited sources are only marginally current and relevant Irrelevant or poorly-selected sources
Depth of literature search and evidence of competence in searching for current and relevant academic literature
[Max 5 marks] The sources provide an excellent depth of contextual understanding The sources provide a very good depth of contextual understanding The sources provide a good depth of contextual understanding The sources provide some contextual understanding Insufficient depth
Quality of Literature Cited
[Max 5 marks]
At least 12 additional sources of excellent quality At least 12 additional sources of very high quality At least 10 additional sources of high quality Less than 10 additional sources of questionable quality Low quality literature, lack of sufficient academic sources, or too few relevant sources
Structure of the Literature Review
[max 5 marks]
The literature review is extremely well-structured, with sub-sections and logical paragraphing The literature review is very well-structured, with sub-sections and logical paragraphing The literature review is well-structured, with sub-sections and logical paragraphing The literature review is poorly structured, i.t.o. sub-sections and logical paragraphing Little or no logical structure
Design, content and flow of discussions or arguments
[Max 5 marks]
The literature review is exceptionally well-designed, with interesting and well-formulated discussion or argument that makes for compelling reading The literature review is very well-designed, with interesting and well-formulated discussion or argument that makes for very good reading The literature review is well-designed, with interesting discussion or argument that makes for good reading The literature review is questionably designed, with discussion or argument difficult to read in parts Difficult to make sense of what is written; significant grammatical or spelling mistakes. Not of a sufficiently high standard for an MBA Capstone Project.
Convergence around RQ
[Max 5 marks] Excellent – the literature review is totally focused on the RQ Very good convergence around RQ Good context, although not totally focused on RQ Questionable context or focus Unsatisfactory in relation to RQ
Less Penalties Late submission: …………. Days @ -5% per day = ………………….
No cover sheet / incorrect / inaccurate / not single document @-10%
Non-compliant referencing @-10%
No appendix indicating who wrote what -10% (unless SOLO)
/30
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