Coursework 2, CW2 – Feasibility Study, Weeks 8-9 (E-learning submission by Week 9, Friday, 5pm).

Business Research Report (30% of total grade)

• Goal: justification of Business Idea

• Volume: 1’000 words of main written text per individual group

member on average, except for cover page, bibliography and

appendices

• Formatting: Formatting of the main text: police Times New

Roman 12 pt, interline – 1.5 pt, Justified alignment, page number in upper right corner; Referencing: Harvard style

Please justify your group business idea by doing the following brief literature review, based on related secondary publications, theoretical research articles and/or applied sources relevant for your product/service mix, target market, technology, location, or other core aspects of your strategic positioning:

– Find a research article related to your Feasibility Study on the Web and read it.

Assessment 2: Individual business research report (30%

written research report and 10% presentation, totalling

40% of the grade) 7

– Find and read the findings from 3 other literature sources on the topic of your article that would allow you to evaluate its credibility (any source type can be used).

– Write a report containing approximately the wordcount indicated below (you can write more, but not less than total 800 words), with a grade weighted per section accordingly:

I) Cover Page, including individually submitting student name (if individual submission is made), project name, group members (leader’s name and student No.; members’ names and student No.)

Main text body:

– Topic importance (200 words): present business research topic

– Brief literature review (800 words), including points A to D

A) Description: summarize the main message/findings of your main source in your own words

???? Analysis: compare and contrast your main source’s main message/ findings with current practices in hospitality business that you know from your own experience and/or up to maximum of 3 other literature sources you have read on your research article topic. Better comparisons with greater number of sources lead to higher grades.

C) Evaluation: Assess the research credibility of your source

Describe the selected research strategy by giving its name and definition, research sample, and how the data was analysed; otherwise, indicate how the information reported in the paper was obtained by the author(s). If the information source is not clearly stated, please indicate so and explain what does it mean int terms of the source credibility. Evaluate credibility of these research findings, using the 4 criteria of credibility and possibly referring to your 2 other literature sources or your own industry experience.

D) Conclusion: Provide an overall conclusion, whether hospitality managers could use the findings of research described in your article to make decisions about business innovation.

II) Bibliography: references are formatted in Harvard style (to facilitate the referencing, groups may use Harvard References in reference management software). All the 4 sources should be referenced in the bibliography/in-text.

III) Appendix: it contains information that is relevant for the study, but not easily included in the main written text (if any).

The grade will be penalized in case of substantial misunderstanding or lack of familiarization with the topic content resulting from misuse of literature sources, such as (but not limited to):

1. systematic or major lack of originality in analysis (10 points), synthesis of key findings from the source (10 points), and conclusion development (10 points) (30 points in total);

2. systematic or major evidence of familiarization with the content of findings with one specific source (10 points);

3. systematic or major mismatch between the actual and reported source content (10 points);

4. systematic or major mismatch between the sources referenced and used in the bibliography (10 points).

Specific grading criteria for Assessment (10% each):

• use of topic relevant for the proposed business planning concept (topic importance)

• links among business practice and concepts (topic importance)

• analysis (of literature sources)

• synthesis (of literature sources)

• evaluation-level thinking (conclusions)

• development of a logical and well-ordered argument (specific theory use or concept description)

• Harvard style use (academic sources, reference list, citations, quotations)

• organization: paragraphs, transition of words and phrases

• clarity of expression

• spelling and grammar