CORP3543 Contemporary Business Issues 2023-2024

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CORP3543 Contemporary Business Issues

Academic Year: 2023-2024

1) Description of the course

Discusses how businesses respond to various global economic, political, ethical and other issues in contemporary constantly-changing world.

Designed to critically evaluate how current issues in business decisions are influenced by both economics and politics in a global context.

Strong emphasis is devoted to analysing the causes of major world events and examining how business managers confront the various challenges and scenarios that these might produce.

Objectives and Learning outcomes:

Critically evaluate different views and perspectives on current business issues and apply the appropriate theories to derive balanced and informed opinions.

Develop academic research techniques justifying research questions and reviewing literature from a variety of perspectives.

Carry out quality primary and secondary research as an independent learner.

Produce logical, well-presented and coherently argued analysis.

2) Teaching Team

3) Assessment Overview

Assessment 1                                                  Assessment 2

Type                    Individual Video Presentation + PowerPoint/PDF submission                Essay assignment

Length                                       10 minutes (+/- 10% allowed)                        2000 words (+/- 10% allowed)

Weighting                                                     40%                                                               60%

Deadline           03 May 2024 at 12:00pm (Noon) UK Time Zone (not midnight)     05 July 2024 at 12:00pm (Noon) UK Time Zone (not midnight)

Return date                                              28 May 2024                                                    26 July 2024

Assessment 1

Select any company from the real world and critically evaluate the impact of global economic and political challenges on the business activity of the chosen entity

Any company from any industry sector and of any size: small, medium or multinational enterprise

It can be a local business or an international organisation

Note:

Demonstrate the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to a chosen case of a specific company

Apart from discussing the practical aspect of the business case and proposing the solutions, students are expected to provide the academic debate on the chosen topic and apply the relevant theories accordingly.

The theme of the problem, as well as the theoretical discussion, must fit one of the lecture topics listed above in ‘Lecture Schedule’.

Assessment 1 cont.

How to…

Use any video recording device: smartphone, video camera, and/or laptop camera

…and software: Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, etc.

This is an individual assignment.

10-minute presentation with +/- 10% deviation. Hence, if your video is shorter than 9 minutes and longer than 11 minutes, your grade will be reduced accordingly.

You must submit your essay via Turnitin on or before Friday 03 May 2024, 12 noon UK Time (GMT)

Note: Please,see other files on the Learning Zone with detailed instructions on how to create and upload the videos to DMU Replay/Panopto

Assessment 1 - Structure (recommendation/guidance):

Slide 1: Title - Your name, student number, the title of the research project, etc.

Slides 2-3: Background of the study - Description of the chosen company, associated theme (Brexit, innovation management, digitalisation of the retail industry, etc.) and the relevance of the study/topic

Note: when you submit PDF or PPT file to Turnitin, you must paste the link to your video file in Panopto folder in the Slide 1 Title or Slide 2. If you do not do that and a member of the teaching staff cannot find your file, you will get zero/fail for this assessment.

Slide 4: Research aim and objectives/questions - Clarify the aim of your study (what are you trying to find and achieve); state your research objectives and questions.

Slides 5-6: Theoretical discussion - Generally, discuss relevant theoretical frameworks and models related to your case study problem (Porter’s Five Forces, Agency Theory, Liberalisation, etc.). This is some sort of ‘literature review’ section; hence, the use of academic sources is compulsory.

Slide 7: Resources used for data collection and analysis - Shortly describe the sources you used for this study. Apart from journal articles and books, you can mention the use ofsecondary statistical sources such as the World Bank, OECD, National Federal Statistics of any country, FAME database, etc.

Slides 8-10: Analysis and discussion of the findings

In this section, you can discuss the case study in full. You should demonstrate the figures and tables that prove that the problem takes place in a particular industry sector and applies to the chosen company. You are expected here to specifically utilise and connect your case study with the theoretical framework you have mentioned previously in slides 5-6. As a result of the theoretical debate and application as well as demonstration of the figures and tables, you are expected to propose solutions to the problem of your chosen company. Youmay also want to compare and mention other examples of similar companies in similar or even different industry sectors but with the same problem in order to enrich your findings and support the argument.

Slide 11: Conclusion and summary - List the key findings and points as the result of your work.

Slides 12-14: “Thank you for your attention” slide and bibliography list (Harvard referencing)

Assessment 2

This is an individual essay assignment worth 60%. The questions are based on the taught material throughout the academic year. Please follow all instructions carefully.

• You must choose only one question out of four.

• You must prepare your answer in a single word document so that it can be submitted as a single document via Turnitin.

• Word limit is 2000 words(+/- 10%) excluding references

• Please, name the document as “CORP3543 – Pnumber”

• You mustsubmit your essay via Turnitin on or before Friday 05 July 2024, 12 noon UK Time (GMT)

• You may submit your answers at any time up to the submission time, but you may not resubmit once your answers have been uploaded.

Assessment 2 - QUESTIONS

Question 1: What are the contemporary challenges and trends reshaping the retail industry?

Indicative Answer: Students are expected to explain the essence of retail, consumer behaviour, customer service and satisfaction, and some elements of marketing. They also need to clarify how digitalisation changes the shape of retail as well as consumer behaviour and expectations. Emphasis should be given to the discussion of contemporary customers’ expectations and link them to the theories of sharing economy and experience economics, which companies should take into account and adjust their business strategies accordingly. Students must provide a specific case study example(s) in their discussion: e.g., John Lewis, Thomas Cook, Deliveroo.

Question 2: Has the COVID19 pandemic disrupted the landscape of standard supply chain management concept and how?

Indicative Answer: Students must discuss the standard theories and models of the supply chain and lean management. They are also expected to examine how current pandemic challenges these existing models and debate whether businesses (and scholars) should rethink them. Specific emphasis should be given to a particular case study example of the industry sector: for instance, car manufacturing (e.g., VW, Toyota), clothing (textile) industry (e.g., Nike), technology production (e.g., HP), maritime transportation, etc. Students must demonstrate the ability to apply theories in their discussion of real-life examples.

Question 3: Mission impossible? What are the motivating factors and challenges to businesses being sustainable and how effective are contemporary sustainability strategies?

Indicative answer: Students must discuss some of the motivating factors to business being sustainable (such as consumer/NGO pressure, legislation, SDGs, climate change and threats to long-term business survival as a result of inaction) as well as the challenges to businesses being sustainable (e.g., cost, consumer apathy, shareholders, weak legislation, ‘unreachable’ parts of the supply chain etc.) Students must also discuss the effectiveness of sustainability strategies such as making changes to supply chain or manufacturing practices, adopting the SDGs or a certification system (such as ISO26000, Fairtrade etc.) and how effectiveness can be ascertained/measured. The analysis must include real-life case study examples and practical recommendations for businesses.

Question 4: Critically discussthe challenges and opportunitiesfor businesses within Industry 4.0.

Indicative Answer: Students must assess and debate the changing landscape of the world economies and the impact of technologies on the labour market. Good answers should include the critical discussion of how digitalisation has created new types of jobs and now requires new skills of potential employees. Students should also provide how digitalisation influenced other spheres of doing business and how technologies are being implemented there: supply-chain, sales, customers service, and public, private sectors, in general. Students must provide a specific case study example(s) in their discussion by examining a particular industry sector or a company: e.g., financial industry, deliveries (e.g., Deliveroo), or streaming services (Netflix vs Blockbuster).

Assessment 2 – Guidance structure for the exam essay

Title Page (not included in the word count)

1. Introduction (200-250 words)

• Introduction into the topic

• Problem statement / background of the problem / Relevance

• Research aim and objectives

2. Theoretical discussion of the topic (750-800 words)

Discuss relevant theoretical frameworks and models related to your case study problem: for example, retail, digitalisation, consumer behaviour, international trade theories, regional integration, agency theory, stakeholder theory, supply chain and lean management, etc. This is a literature review section; hence, the use of academic sources is compulsory.

3. Example / Case study (750-800 words)

Students must provide a specific case study example(s) in their discussion by examining a particular company or an industry sector. Students must demonstrate the ability to apply theories in their discussion of the real-life examples. Demonstration of the figures, graphs, and tables with secondary data will be beneficial.

4. Conclusion (200-250 words)

• Provide a summary of your work

• Cover the key findings and points asthe result of your work

Bibliography list (not included in the word count)

Logical development and clarity of argument Measured/critical analysis/synthesis

Level of research/theoretical application The professional appearance ofsubmission

Depth of content                                                      The use of charts, figures, and tables

Note: If you have severe circumstances that you feel may negatively impact your ability to submit the work according to the deadline, you must inform and apply the extension notice a week in advance. Last-minute notifications will not be considered because you are expected to start working on your assignment way in advance.

• It is your responsibility to submit the correct version of your work to Turnitin (or Panopto). Resubmissions after the deadline will not be possible. The submitted version of your work will be graded accordingly.

• Submission via email will not be accepted!

• We understand that you may not be happy with your grade, but you cannot resubmit the work just because you are not satisfied with it.

• You can retake any of the assessments only in case if you fail the entire module. The University will inform you about which assessment you must retake after the release of all the marks in July

4) Other Tips

Sources:

Academic journals

Books

Reputable non-academic sources: Financial times, Guardian, World Bank publications, PWC, etc.

No: Wikipedia, tutor2u, UK Essays, etc.

Plagiarism:

• You cannot copy and paste the text from the original sources

• You cannot copy and paste the text from your own work submitted previously at another institution

• You cannot copy and paste the text from your own work submitted previously in another institution in a different country

You must write/rewrite/rephrase everything in your own words using appropriate citations

You must reference most of the statements if they are taken from original sources

You must references tables and figures as well, unless they are created by you. At the same time, you must mention where you took the data from