Team Project Assignment (30%)

Summary

•    This assignment is to be undertaken in groups of 5-6 students as a group assignment

•    Team formation method: Self-selection group formation on Moodle.

•    Team members must belong to the same tutorial

•    This assignment is graded upon 30 marks (i.e., 30% of the course total marks)

•    The mark awarded will be assigned to all team members, but individual marks may be moderated if the peer assessment and subsequent investigation identified an uneven  contribution and effort across the group members.

Please refer to Appendix 1 for further information about the responsibilities of the group leader and the group members

Important dates

•    Team formation: Sunday 25th February 2024 5:00pm.

•    Final submission (30%): Week 9 Friday, 12th April 2024 5:00pm.

*All dates are set inAustralian Eastern Standard/Daylight Time (AEST/AEDT). If you are located in a different time-zone, you can use atime and date converter.

Expected Learning

•    Critically analyse a real-life business problem related to social media strategy

•    Design a successful social media strategy to regain customers’ trust and boost the engagement of key social media influencers.

•    Develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

•    Work effectively in a friendly and collaborative environment.

•    Get exposed and work on a real-life business problem from industry with support of academic mentors (LIC and tutors).

Case study: Social Media Strategy to address Product Safety Failure Problem.

o Volkswagen's deliberate installation of "defeat devices" software in its diesel vehicles.

o Boeing 737 Max crisis involving the grounding of fleets and safety scrutiny following fatal crashes attributed to software defects.

In a groundbreaking revelation that shook the automotive industry, Volkswagen became the subject of criticism for its involvement in the Dieselgate scandal, marking a significant case of misconduct.

On September 18, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States announced that Volkswagen had violated the Clean Air Act by installing illegal software, known as a defeat device,  in  their diesel vehicles. This software  enabled the vehicles to  pass  emissions tests  in controlled laboratory settings while emitting pollutants, such as nitrogen oxide, far above regulatory standards in real-world conditions. The environmental impact of the emissions cheating scandal was severe, with millions of vehicles worldwide emitting excessive pollutants. Volkswagen initiated one of the largest automotive recalls in history to address the affected vehicles, including 2.8 million vehicles in Germany, 1.2 million in the UK, and significant numbers in other countries.

The recall process incurred significant financial losses, leading to a significant drop in Volkswagen's stock price. Additionally, the company faced significant fines and penalties from regulatory authorities in various countries. For instance, in Australia, Volkswagen was fined $ 125,000,000 for making false and misleading representations about compliance with Australian diesel emissions standards. In the United States, the EPA levied fines totalling billions of dollars against Volkswagen for violations of the Clean Air Act. On 21 September 2015 the EPA announced that should the allegations be proven; Volkswagen Group could face fines of up to US$37,500 per vehicle (about US$18 billion in total) for environmental  mitigation  and  clean-emissions  infrastructure.  Similar  fines  and  penalties  were imposed by regulatory agencies in other countries where Volkswagen vehicles were sold. On 29 March   2016,    Volkswagen   was    additionally    sued    by   the    United    States Federal   Trade Commissionforfalse advertisingdue to fraudulent claims made by the company in its promotion of the affected models, which touted the "environmental and economic advantages" of diesel engines and contained claims of low emissions output. In April 2017, a US federal judge ordered Volkswagen to  pay a $2.8  billion criminal fine for "rigging diesel-powered vehicles to cheat on government emissions tests.

The scandal had far-reaching consequences, highlighting the importance of corporate responsibility and ethical conduct in the automotive industry.

The Boeing 737 MAX Crisis refers to a series of events surrounding the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, culminating in the grounding of the entire fleet worldwide. The crisis stemmed from two fatal crashes— Lion Air Flight 610 on 29th  of October 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on 10th  of March 2019— both  involving  the  Boeing  737  Max  aircraft.   Investigations  revealed  that  a  flaw  in  the  aircraft's Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), designed to prevent stalls, played a role in both accidents. This prompted safety concerns and scrutiny over Boeing's certification process, software development, and pilot training. In November 2018, after the Lion Air accident, Boeing instructed pilots to take corrective action in case of a malfunction, when the airplane would enter a series of automated nosedives. Boeing avoided revealing MCAS until pilots requested further explanation. In December 2018, the FAA privately predicted that MCAS could cause 15 crashes over 30 years. In April 2019, the Ethiopian preliminary report stated that the crew had attempted the recovery procedure, and Boeing confirmed that MCAS had activated in both accidents.

As a result, the two incidents due to product safety failures went viral on social media and the social media  pages of the two companies  (Boeing and Volkswagen)  have  been  inundated with  negative messages conveying complaints, disappointment and frustration from unhappy customers which created a cascade of negative word of mouth. The two product safety failures have also caused a severe damage to the companies’ online reputations, engender customer churn and a loss estimated to billions of dollars. Boeing alone has seen significant financial losses estimated to $20 billion in fines, compensation, and legal fees, with indirect losses of more than $60 billion from 1,200 cancelled orders, disruptions in airline operations,  and  a  protracted  effort  to  address  safety  concerns  and  regain  trust  in  the  aircraft's airworthiness.

Part 1: Project Requirements

This assessment requires you to:

•    Critically analyse the current social media strategy of your client (Boeing) and compare it with the social media strategy of Volkswagen on how to deal with unhappy customers and regain their trust.

•    Critically analyse customers’ engagement of Boeing and Volkswagen on Twitter pages.

•    Design  a  new  social  media  strategy  for  your  client  (Boeing)  to  boost  their  customers’  positive engagement on Twitter page.

The following are the requirements for the Team Assignment. Please read these requirements carefully before you commence your assignment and then again when you have completed your assignment to ensure that it meets the requirements.

In a hypothetical scenario, your team is approached by Boeing to analyse their current social media strategy, compare it with the current social media strategy implemented by Volkswagen, and suggest a set of actionable recommendations for improvement based on the lessons learned from both companies’ strategies. Overall, your client Boeing seeks your help to design a new effective social media strategy to recover from the damage caused by the 737 Max aircraft's product safety failure, highlighting the serious repercussions of compromised engineering and oversight, regain their customers’ trust and boost their customer’s positive engagement on Twitter.

Typically, creative content would engage customers through "posting more appealing, interactive, and vivid content that captures and holds consumers'attention." (Dhaoui & Webster, 2021). But in a situation of brand crisis,  brand  responsiveness on social  media  is  crucial  (Schultz,  Utz,  &  Goritz,  2011). A significant appeal of social media during brand crisis is its cost-effectiveness as conduit for displaying content that reflects brand voice, providing clarity about the situation and resonating with the audience. Social media is also a fast channel to reach the wide public before a negativity spiral lead to an online firestorm.

Your Lecturer-in-Charge and tutors will assume the role of your direct managers/mentors. Throughout the term, you will work closely with your team members to analyse Boeing and Volkswagen engagement on Twitter and design a successful social media strategy that could help your client (Boeing) thrive on social media even during a situation of brand crisis. To help your team achieve the objectives of this team assignment, four Excel files are made available on Moodle for your team to analyse.

•    Brand engagement (Tweets, Retweets, Replies) made by Boeing (Brand_Tweets_Boeing.xlsx) over the period between 29th  July 2018 and 10th  June 2019, and Volkswagen

(Brand_Tweets_Volkswagen.xlsx) over the period between 18th  June 2015 and 17th  December 2015.

•    Customer  engagement  (Tweets,   Retweets,  Replies)  made  by  Boeing  customers/audience (Customer_Tweets_Boeing.xlsx) over the period between 29th July 2018 and 10th June 2019, and Volkswagen customers/audience (Customer_Tweets_Volkswagen.xlsx) over the period between 18th June 2015 and 17th  December 2015.

For both companies, the data includes brand and customer engagement starting 3 months prior to the incident and ending 3 months after the incident. In the case of Boeing, data includes 3 months prior to the Lion Air crash and 3 months after the Ethiopian Airlines crash. In the case of Volkswagen, data includes 3 months prior and 3 months after the EAP announced that Volkswagen had violated the Clean Air Act.

The aim is to analyse these datasets to evaluate both brand and customer engagement before and after the crisis for Boeing and Volkswagen, discuss what makes an engaging brand post on Twitter based on the data, explain which of the two companies do you think has an overall superior social media strategy, and identify the gaps to design a new successful social media strategy for your client.

Your Team Report must include the following sections:

A. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

A.1. Critical Analysis of the current social media strategy of Boeing and Volkswagen.

Critically analyse the brand engagement of Boeing and Volkswagen on Twitter over the period of time covered in the datasets. What about the type of posts, the themes/topics conveyed in the posts,  the  frequency  of  posting  the  content,  the  format  used  to  convey  the  content,  the scheduling, etc.? What makes the brand content posted appealing, unique, original, creative to engage customers? Any differences before and after the product safety failure?

A.2. Critical Analysis of customer engagement on Twitter (Boeing and Volkswagen)

A.2.1 Critically analyse customers engagement on Twitter. What is the type of engagement performed by customers on Twitter? Do they engage the same way with the brand posts (from Boeing and Volkswagen) on Twitter regardless of the type of content? - What type of content do they like, retweet, and reply to? Any differences before and after the product safety failure crisis?

A.2.2 Analyse the sentiment conveyed in customers’ tweets, for Boeing and Volkswagen, and discuss the insights you could unveil from the sentiment analysis. We strongly encourage you to use the software R to conduct the sentiment analysis. Please provide evidence in the form of screenshots taken from your analysis to illustrate your work (R code and the outcomes of your analysis).

A.2.3 Conduct a social network analysis, using NodeXL, to identify the key influencers among customers who are actively engaged on Twitter, for Boeing and Volkswagen. Explain how the social network analysis helped you identify those influencers. Then, investigate how did Boeing and  Volkswagen  engage  with  those  influencers.   Please  provide  evidence  in  the  form  of screenshots taken from your social network analysis to illustrate your work.

A.3. Based on your findings in the previous sections, critically compare the social media strategy of Boeing and Volkswagen and explain which of the two companies do you think has an overall superior social media strategy and why?

B. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY DESIGN

B.1. Propose THREE (3) design considerations for a new social media strategy for Boeing (e.g., type of engagement, topics of the content, frequency of posting, etc) to boost positive customer  engagement during a period of brand crisis. Explain how they are critical for the success of Boeing’s social media strategy.

B.2 Draft a social media strategy for Boeing, based on the proposed design considerations, and your evaluation of both Boeing’s and Volkswagen’s performance in Part A. Suggestions must be justified and aligned with your findings in the previous sections on social media audit and your team’s discussion.

NB. Throughout the report, your arguments should be justified and supported with academic references and relevant examples.

Part 2. Project Deliverables

2.1 Project expectations

To  succeed  in  this  project,  you  will  need  to  manage  your  learning  process  carefully  -  including demonstrating agency in performing self-directed learning, conducting research, taking initiative, and more. These tasks are expected to take an average of 12- 15 hours (per week) of your time.

2.2 Project deliverables (30%)

山  All  deliverables will  need to be  uploaded to Moodle course site by the deadline. Submission instructions will be provided on Moodle.

In this assignment you are required to submit three files: Team Report + Team Presentation

Slides + Team Video on Moodle by the Team Leader.

In the case of equal contribution:

The team leader should submit on behalf of the group the following:

•    Peer Assessment - The team leader is requested to complete and submit a peer assessment via email (to the Lecturer-in-Charge) on behalf of the group. The peer Assessment should include the names of all group members, the distribution of the work done by each member (in %) and a brief explanation in comments demonstrating that all group members have contributed equally to the team project.

•    Please refer to the deadline of submission in the peer assessment form provided on Moodle.

•    Where no peer assessment is received it will be assumed that you consider the work to have been evenly and equitably distributed across all team members.

•    No diary is requested in the case of equal contribution.

In the case of unequal contribution:

EACH team member must submit the following:

•    Peer Assessment - EACH team member is requested to complete and submit a peer assessment via email (to the Lecturer-in-Charge).

•    Please refer to the deadline of submission in the peer assessment form provided on Moodle.

•    Individual diary - Each group member is required to submit an individual diary of the tasks done on the team project. The diary should describe the activities undertaken by the group member (date, time, description of the work done in the report, in the video and in the slides). The individual diary is necessary to assess the work done by everyone and assign different marks to the group members.

2.2.1 Report

Word Limit

The maximum word length of the report is 4,000 words. There is a (+10%) leeway.

•    Please note that the Table of Contents, Executive Summary, References and Appendices are excluded from the word count.

•    You should be mindful of the marks awarded to each part (as per the marking criteria below) when allocated the number of words spend on each part.

•    Please note that material presented in excess of the word limit will not be considered when grading the assignment.

Formatting

The proposal should be in ‘business report’ style (but includes academic references where appropriate)

Feel free to make whatever use of tables, figures, and diagrams that you believe appropriate and relevant to support your work.

An Executive Summary is required.

Specific requirements:

•    Arial 12-point font

•    1.5 spacing

•    Page numbers on each page

The document you upload should include:

•    A suitable frontpage that will impress the client

•    Coversheet signed by all team members

•    The report

•    A full set of references included to justify your arguments in the report.

Lodgement

Upload your Team Report document (in Word format) on Moodle.

•    You can only upload one report document.

•    Only ONE submission from each group is required.

•    You are advised to keep a copy of your submission.

Originality Checks

The originality of the submission will be checked using Turnitin. Please check the originality report generated by Turnitin during the submission process.

2.2.2 Presentation and Video

Purpose

The purpose of the presentation is for your team to showcase and effectively communicate the key findings of your analysis and the actionable recommendations/solutions to help your client thrive on social media.

Time limit

Each presentation is to be no longer than 15 minutes. Failure to complete the presentation with the allotted time will impact on the marks the group receives for the presentation.

Who is required to present?

All members of your group must participate in the presentation.

You are expected to coordinate the work assignment before the presentation, e.g., how a member’s absence from presentation will be compensated with his/her other work allocation in the project. Absence from  presentation  will  not  be  taken  into  consideration  in  the  peer  assessment,  unless  in  special circumstances in which explanation must be provided.

The mark award to the proposal will be applied to all group members, but individual marks may be moderated if the peer assessment and subsequent investigation identified an uneven contribution and effort across the group members.

Slides and video

You are expected to prepare the slides and produce a team video.

•    Technological failure because of poor website performance etc. will reflect poorly on the group and will impact on the mark the presentation receives.

•    Slides are expected to be of a high quality and appealing.

•    Each group is required to prepare a 15-minute video (3 minutes for each team member).

Please ensure that you show your face in the video while you are presenting your slides (facial expressions are very important during the presentation).

Lodgement

Upload your Team Presentation slides (in PowerPoint format) on Moodle

Upload your Team Video on Moodle (15 minutes long)

Other Compulsory Requirements

Late Lodgement & Extensions:

Late assignments (without approved extensions) will attract a penalty of 5% of the available marks per day of lateness (including weekends and public holidays). The penalty will be deducted from the mark your assignment  is  awarded.  General  information  on  special  consideration  for  undergraduate  and postgraduate courses can be found in the Assessment  Implementation Procedure and the Current Students page. Please note:

•    Extensions are only granted in exceptional circumstances. You will be required to substantiate your application with appropriate documentary evidence such as medical certificates, accident reports etc.

•    You should note that extensions are not usually granted for computer-related problems or heavy workloads (at either your job or University).

•    Students are expected to manage their time to meet deadlines and to request extensions as early as possible before the deadline.

References

It  is  expected that your  report  will  make  use  of at  least  ten  recent  academic journal  articles and practitioner articles.

A list of references must be included at the end of the report. The reference list should only list documents / websites that are actually cited in the assignment (references in text).

Your  bibliography and  in text citations  must  be formatted as  per the  requirements  of the  Harvard referencing style.

For information on how to acknowledge your sources and reference correctly, see:

https://student.unsw.edu.au/referencing

https://student.unsw.edu.au/harvard-referencing

Penalties

Penalties will apply in the following circumstances:

•    The assignment contains spelling and grammatical mistakes.

•    The submission requirements have not been adhered to.

•    Failure to use the Harvard referencing style.

•    The assignment is submitted late (5% marks penalty per day of lateness).

•    The assignment contains material which is not properly cited in accordance with university policy.

•    You should also note that plagiarism or other academic misconduct will not be tolerated, and all instances found will be pursued. At a minimum this typically entails the student being award zero (0) marks the plagiarize assignment.

Appendix 1 – Working in Teams

Group Responsibilities

When working in a group you are expected to:

•    Make an equitable contribution to the completion of the assignment

•    Complete your work in a professional and timely manner

•    Maintain proper academic standards

•    Behave in a professional and decorous manner and treat your fellow teammates with dignity and respect

To ensure fair and equitable distribution of the work effort across the group, each group is required to keep a diary of its activities. Each group member is also required to keep a diary of the activities they undertake on the assignment. This diary is only to be submitted if requested by the lecturer (in case of unequal contribution) along with an individual confidential peer assessment.

Distribution and quality of work

Your group must plan and schedule its activities. It must meet on regular basis while the assignment is being undertaken and ensure that every group member is involved in the completion of the assignment. The work in the assignment is to be divided among the group members on an equitable basis. You are expected to complete your assigned tasks in a professional and diligent manner. You are also expected to contribute in a useful and constructive way to group activities.

It is very important that your group establish its expectations regarding quality, timeliness, and level of effort at the very beginning of the assignment to ensure that you complete your team project, and you submit it on time. Most problems that arise in groups related to differences in these expectations. Being clear about what  is  expected  at  the start  of the  assignment  allows  group  members  to  clarify the contribution of everyone and organise better the work.

If problems emerge in your group over the distribution of the work or its competent and timely completion you should, in the first instance, bring your concerns to the attention of the group. If this fails to remedy the situation then you should bring it to the attention of the lecturer in charge.

The lecturer in charge will, as a matter of course, call a meeting of the group. At that meeting each group member will be asked to describe in detail their input  into the assignment and provide supporting documentation of this effort (i.e. the individual diaries). Where group members are found to be making inadequate effort or delivering a poor-quality product then they will be counselled to improve their effort. If sufficient improvement is not made to the satisfaction of the group, then the mark awarded to the group members may be moderated to reflect the relative input into the assignment.

Proper academic standards

All assignments are subject to the University’s guidelines regarding academic misconduct and as such plagiarism is as unacceptable in this group assignment as it is in other assignment. If plagiarism is found in your assignment it will be fully pursed asper the University (seehttps://student.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism for details).

If your group suspects that one of your group member’s work contains plagiarism, then you should raise this with the group member concerned and seek to have the problem rectified. All instances of at plagiarism are considered poor behaviour.

Behaviour in groups

You are expected to treat your fellow group members with dignity and respect. Group meetings and group communications are expected to be conducted in a decorous and professional manner. Poor or inappropriate behaviour in groups will not be tolerated. A group has the right to ask the lecturer to expel a poorly behaved individual from their group. If a group wishes to pursue this action, they must arrange a meeting with the lecturer to discuss the problem. The lecturer will take action as appropriate.

You also have the right to ask the lecturer to remove you from a group if the behaviour of your fellow group members is inappropriate. If you wish to pursue this course of action you must arrange a meeting with the lecturer to discuss the problem. The lecturer will take action as appropriate. Please note that if you are expelled from a group for poor or inappropriate behaviour you are expected to complete the assignment in full and no allowance made when marking assignment for the fact that it is a solo effort.