Business Research Methods

Instructions for assessment       

Component                     Coursework  (multi-question assignment)

Individual or group work?  Individual

Word count  max. 3,500 words

%weighting  100%

Must attempt  Yes

Must pass  Yes

You are asked to produce a report, which consists of three activities:

Section 1. Please provide a detailed critique of at least two well-used research methodologies.
Section 2. Please construct a research instrument that could be used to collect data in your capstone project. You will not be collecting any data – just designing the tool.
Section 3. Please reflect upon the audience and critical aspects of research dissemination in the specific context of your potential research findings and outcomes from the developed instrument.

Should you fail the assessment at the first attempt and be referred to retake the coursework, only the failed individual elements will need to be reworked, with 10% of the re-sit mark awarded for an additional reflective statement demonstrating how you learnt from the feedback and what you did differently the second time.

The final report should be submitted via Moodle to a turn-it-in box and will be graded according to the following marking criteria (see more instructions of the writing of above sections outlined under “Structure and presentation” below):

Section 1 – Clarity and justification of research problem 10%
Section 1 – For the literature analysis, breadth and depth of explored research with a clear focus emerging 15%
Section 1 – Critique of two specific research methods 40%
Section 2 – Demonstration of the proposed research instrument’s potential for new knowledge generation and rigour in deduction of conclusions 10%
Section 3 – Comprehensive appraisal of research dissemination requirements 15%
All sections – Form and presentation 10%
(this section only for main submission) Applies to re-sit only – Reflective section 10%
marked instead of “Form and Presentation”

Additional instructions for re-sit

The same assignment task as for the main assignment period applies to the re-sit, with further instructions
see below.

Re-sit deadlines will be published via Moodle. Visit the module’s Moodle site and check your
Roehampton email account on a regular basis. The school is not obliged to check whether you have
noticed re-sit deadlines.

You are required to improve and resubmit your original work as well as adding a further reflective commentary
discussing what you have learned from the process. You must resubmit your work using the specific re-sit

Turnitin link on Moodle.
The original marking criteria will still apply (see marking weights provided above and marking grid
provided below) except that the 10% weighting for presentation will be awarded instead to your
reflective piece.

You should:

  • Review your previously submitted work and read carefully the feedback given by the marker.
  • Use this feedback to help you revisit and rewrite your work, improving it in the areas identified as weak in the original marking process
  • Include with your resubmission an additional reflective piece (400-700 words) on what you understand was weak, how you set about addressing this and what you have learned from this that may help you with further assignments. You should address the following specifically:
    o Identify tutor feedback points on your original work and identify where/how the resit work has changed (give page number) in response to feedback
    o Identify the lessons you have learnt from doing the resit o Reflect on how your feedback and this process will help you improve future assignments

If you did not submit work at the first opportunity, you cannot reflect on your feedback. However, you are still required to submit a reflective piece in which you identify your reasons for non-submission, the implications of non-submission for your future success and how you propose to address this in the future. If you have issues with confidentiality of your reasons for non-submission then you could reflect on how you have met the learning outcomes for the module, how you can use what you have done on the module to support your future career and what skills/employability attributes you feel the module has helped you to develop.

If you were deferred at the first assessment opportunity you do not need to include the reflective piece as this is a first submission at a later date, not a re-sit.

Structure and presentation

Any written work should be spell-checked, and a contents page should be included. Do not use various font sizes and colours. Black ink, Arial, size 11, 1.5 lines spaced is recommended. Use DIN A4 format and page margins of 2.5 cm or 1 inch

Your report should be presented in good academic style, having been formatted using the Harvard referencing system and proofread for grammatical errors. It should not exceed 3,500 words including tables and figures but excluding references.

Section 1: Comparing two research methodologies

Select a topic of interest or business problem relevant to your degree specialism, e.g. strategy, supply chain management, international business & economics, marketing, finance, or human resources. Choose one of these topics that motivates you and that you are likely to pursue for your Dissertation or Consultancy Project (you may change your mind later, but it will be to your advantage if you stick to it, so choose carefully). This will require some preliminary research into that specific area