BUSI4P060: Strategic Business Project (EBS)

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• To provide students with the opportunity to conduct an in-depth investigation at an advanced level of an issue which is applicable and relevant to business and/or management. The positioning at the end of the programme is intended to promote integration of material covered in the core and elective modules.
• To equip students with the appropriate research methods knowledge and skills to enable them to undertake a research project at Masters level.
• To enable students to develop a theoretically underpinned analysis based upon empirical research.

• Understanding what makes a good strategic business project.
• The Strategic Business Project is an extended, research-based piece of work that may be undertaken in many forms, including a critical review of the literature combined with empirical work, case study, or other scholarly research.
• The project may cover a wide range of issues, topics or concepts. It normally involves the systematic study of an issue in a particular locality or organisational setting. Students may undertake their Strategic Business Project by working with a host organisation, or by undertaking an issue-led investigation that examines a specific management issue and is not focused on a single organisation.
• The project can be based on a variety of organisation types, including profit-seeking companies in the manufacturing or service sector; global multinationals; small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), owner-managed firms, nationalised industries; public agencies and local authorities, or non-profit organisations.
• The proposed project is formally approved by the Programme Director on behalf of the Chair of the Board of Examiners to ensure that the topic is suitable for in-depth investigation before the student commences with the detailed work.
• The nature of the Strategic Business Project.
• Identifying a suitable research topic and formulating research questions.
• Using databases to identify relevant, important literature.
• Writing an evaluative literature review.
• Introduction to types of research and research methods in the management context.
• Qualitative methods, quantitative methods, mixed methods.
• Understanding of ethical issues in business and management research.
• Managing a research project.
• Collecting research data.
• Analysing and discussing results.
• Writing up the work.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Upon successful completion of the business project, the students will have an advanced knowledge and critical appreciation of:
• how research is conducted in a business and management context;
• ethical issues in business and management research;
• how to critically analyse a specific issue or area of business or management in depth and to explore its significance in practice.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of the module students should:
• conduct advanced literature searches to identify important literature and research questions in business and management;
• write an evaluative review of the relevant literature;
• conduct a Masters-level research project from beginning to end, including the identification of an interesting and practical research question at an appropriate advanced level; selection of a method to answer the question; conducting of research, management of all aspects of the research project; interpretation of the results; ability to identify and manage any ethical issues that might arise.
• critically apply knowledge and different forms of reasoning to form a discriminating analysis of issues currently being experienced in specific organisational and business contexts;
• produce a substantial piece of written work demonstrating critical analysis of a specific issue.

Key Skills:

• Self-organisation, individual initiative and self-motivation, planning, organising, time and deadline management
• Problem solving and analysis
• Written communication
• Computer literacy

• Learning outcomes are met through classroom-based workshops, supported by online resources. The workshops consist of a combination of taught input, computer practical sessions, groupwork, case studies and discussion. Online resources provide preparatory material for the workshops, typically consisting of directed reading and video content.
• Additionally, students have individual meetings with their appointed supervisor, up to 8 but normally 5-6. These meetings enable the supervisor to monitor the student progress towards the achievement of the learning outcomes.
• Students will receive formative feedback on a draft of one chapter of the strategic business project.
• The summative assessment includes a 2500-word Research Proposal (20%), the purpose of which is to assist students in preparing for the Strategic Business Project (80%). This is a 15,000-word document that tests students' acquisition of relevant subject-specific knowledge and skills and their ability to apply these, and appropriate key skills, in the context of a Masters-level research project.

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