This Course Guide has been taken from the most recent presentation of the course. It would be useful for reference purposes but please note that there may be updates for the following presentation.
BUS B859
Applied Business Project
BUS B859 Applied Business Project is a 20-credit, four-term postgraduate-level course for students in the Master's programmes offered by the Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration. This course is different from other courses in that it is a project-based course and there are no course materials for this course. Instead, specific training and consultation sessions are provided to assist you in developing an individual applied business project. You are therefore expected to work relatively independently and are advised to plan your study carefully to ensure that you have sufficient time to complete the continuous assessments in the middle of the course and to submit a final project report towards the end of the course. Please also note that you are required to deliver an individual oral presentation of your project.
There will be a total of 12 hours of day schools (in person) and 15 hours of live online tutorials to help you complete the assignments and the final project report. Live online tutorials will be led by an assigned tutor who will offer you consultations throughout the entire process of completing your project report. Usually the tutorial group discussions, student presentations and individual consultations are the major means to help you achieve the learning outcomes. You can also access as appropriate the Online Learning Environment (OLE) which contains handouts, PowerPoint files and other relevant resources. The online Discussion Board offers an additional means for you to communicate with your peers, the tutor and the course coordinator. You are highly encouraged to keep close contact with and seek advice from your assigned tutor outside class time when you are preparing your assessments and your final project report.
This Course Guide aims to provide you with suggestions about the steps in preparing an individual applied business project.
The course aims to further enhance students' ability to fully engage with business and management theories and their applications in a real-world context. By working independently on an applied business project, students will be able to show their ability to integrate knowledge and skills from what they have learned from the post-graduate programme and past learning experience to address a specific managerial problem or business opportunity in a real-world context. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate creative and innovative skills in the investigation of business and management issues.
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
This course lasts for four terms to help you go through the process of completing your individual applied business project. Please refer to the Presentation Schedule on the OLE for details of the live online tutorial sessions. Please also pay attention to the assignment due dates on the Presentation Schedule. In order to assist you in preparing your assignments and the final project report, four discussion topics have been organized at different stages in your studies as shown below:
Topics
Topic 1 Identifying an idea for a business project: How to get started?
This topic helps you to explore and define a concrete managerial problem or opportunity on which a management initiative can then be developed to resolve the problem or exploit the opportunity in an organization or an industry. You will also learn the basic steps in constructing a useful and meaningful management initiative.
Topic 2 Business analysis tools and practice
This topic recaps and critically reviews important business or management theories or concepts you have learned in your previous studies, which may be useful for analysing the identified managerial problem or opportunity and framing the corresponding management initiative.
Topic 3 Evidence collection and investigation plan
This topic discusses the potential methods used for collecting and analysing useful evidence for your project. In addition, it directs your attention to other perspectives related to evidence collection, such as tapping into reliable evidence sources, avoiding biases in the evidence provided and some ethical concerns. It also discusses the corresponding techniques that can be used to analyse the evidence collected.
This topic also takes you through the steps in developing a detailed plan to conduct an empirical investigation on the managerial problem or opportunity identified. This may involve the strategy for gaining access to information sources, as well as planning the time and resources necessary for the collection and analysis of useful evidence.
Topic 4 Action plan, ethical issues and business report
This final topic takes you through the steps in developing an action plan to implement the management initiative(s) you have suggested. It also investigates the issues related to ethics that may emerge both during and after the implementation of the management initiative. The topic further brings in a stakeholder perspective to analysing the impact of the management initiative on different stakeholders including primarily, but not limited to, an organization's investors, employees, customers, suppliers and the community in which the organization is located.
This topic also guides you to complete what you have done so far into a nicely written project report. It also offers some hints on how to make a professional oral presentation of your project report.
The above topics contribute to the course learning outcomes as follows:
| Learning outcomes | Topic |
| Learning outcome 1 | Topics 1 and 2 |
| Learning outcome 2 | Topics 1 and 2 |
| Learning outcome 3 | Topics 3 and 4 |
| Learning outcome 4 | Topic 3 |
| Learning outcome 5 | Topic 4 |
Course assessment includes only continuous assessment, which consists of four individual assignments and an oral presentation.
Assignment 1 (weighting 15%)
In this assignment, students are required to propose a managerial problem or a business opportunity in an organization or an industry to be investigated in your applied business project. You have to develop an evidence-based proposal for the managerial problem or business opportunity by providing the background of the chosen organization or industry and a critical review of the problem or opportunity with the support of concrete evidence. This assignment is used mainly to assess Learning outcome 1.
Assignment 2 (weighting 15%)
In this assignment, students are required to propose management initiative(s) that can tackle the problem or seize the opportunity identified in Assignment 1. Students also have to provide a critical review of theory and develop an evidence-based proposal for the management initiative(s) that they would take forward in their study of the course. The proposal should include the ideas and plans for evidence collection in studying the feasibility of the proposed management initiative and also the ethical issues that would arise regarding evidence collection. This assignment is used mainly to assess Learning outcomes 2 to 4.
Assignment 3 (weighting 10%)
This assignment is a review of the progress made on the management initiative(s). Students have to demonstrate that they have engaged in a number of cycles of inquiry and to evaluate the changes made to their proposal based on the feedback received. They are also required to provide a preliminary analysis of collected evidence for the management initiative(s). This assignment is used mainly to assess Learning outcomes 3 and 4.
Assignment 4 (weighting 40%)
This assignment requires students to prepare a comprehensive applied business project report for their management initiative(s). Specifically, students have to write a report that covers the background and objectives of the management initiative(s), how the key stakeholders shaped the plan for the initiative(s), the methods proposed for implementing the initiative(s), and the possible impact of the initiative(s) on the organization. Students are also required to make critical reflections on the application of theory to practice as well as on their learning over the course. This assignment is used to assess all learning outcomes.
Oral presentation (weighting 20%)
The oral presentation is deemed to be the compulsory assignment of the course. Each student will be allocated 25 minutes to present his/her final report. The presentation will not be more than 15 minutes and the remaining time will be used for questions and answers. The oral presentation will be conducted in English. This assignment is used mainly to assess Learning outcome 5.
The pass mark for each assignment is 40. To pass this course, you must pass the overall continuous assessment.
There is no set textbook for this course. However, to support and facilitate your learning, selected readings which include book chapters and journal articles will be recommended to you for different study topics. The following books, available in the HKMU Library, may provide you with good references for completing the course:
Babbie, E R (2016) The Practice of Social Research (14th edn), Boston: Cengage Learning.
Collis, J and Hussey, R (2009) Business Research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
The roles and key responsibilities of the student, the tutor and the information providers are described below.
Role of the student
You are expected to identify a real managerial problem or explore a feasible business opportunity that needs to be addressed, or is worth addressing, in an organization or an industry. Before you begin writing your project proposal, you are required to consult your tutor about the suitability of the problem or opportunity chosen as the target of your study. Your key commitments and responsibilities thus include the following:
Role of the tutor
The tutor will guide students through the different stages of the project and completing the final project report by going through the set study topics. He/She will also monitor and evaluate the progress of the students and mark all the continuous assessments including the final project report and the oral presentation. Students are advised to arrange meetings, in addition to the live online tutorial sessions, with their tutor to discuss the progress and process of the project. It must be emphasized that this is a student-dominated individual project. The tutor should provide students with a framework for conducting the project, but within the framework students have the freedom to make decisions and choices.
Role of the information providers
The information providers should be free to participate in the study and in principle terminate their participation at any time during the study. The student must communicate well with the information providers about how their identities and their information provided will be used and protected appropriately.
The continuous assessments and the final project report will be confidential, meaning that no one will have access to them other than the student and the appropriate parties within the Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration. The School will not allow outsiders to have access to sensitive business information and raw data reported in the projects. You may need to sign individual confidentiality agreements with an organization if requested by the organization's representative.
The information providers should be informed about the background and purpose of the study and the procedures for information collection, information analysis and information usage (i.e. purely for research purpose). Confidentiality and voluntary participation should be clearly indicated in the invitation. As far as possible, you should ask the information providers to sign a consent form to indicate their agreement to participate.
You are advised to write not more than a total of 2,000 words (excluding the title, table of contents, references and appendices) for this assignment.
(Please download the Assignment 1 template from the OLE and use it for completing your work.)
Assignment 1 requires you to propose a managerial problem or a business opportunity in your chosen organization or industry as the focus of your study. You should start thinking about the target organization or industry and the associated managerial problem or business opportunity after the lecture sessions when you have received some preliminary instructions from your lecturer. You are encouraged to discuss your choice with your assigned tutor during the consultation meetings and are required to obtain approval from your tutor on your choice. Then you should start composing the assignment in the form of a proposal. The proposal should clearly state the ideas and plans of your applied business project, including the background of the chosen organization or industry, the nature and importance of the managerial problem or business opportunity you want to examine, and a detailed time schedule or action plan for completing the project in the four terms.
Your proposal shouldcontain the following sections:
You are advised to write 2,000 to 3,000 words (excluding the title, table of contents, references and appendices) for this assignment.
(Please download the Assignment 2 template from the OLE and use it for completing your work.)
Assignment 2 requires you to address the comments received from your tutor regarding Assignment 1 and propose management initiative(s) with the support of appropriate theories and concepts. You are encouraged to discuss your choice with your assigned tutor during the consultation meetings and start composing Assignment 2 after receiving his/her feedback. In this assignment, you should particularly state the design and processes of evidence collection from the target organization and industry and the relevant ethical concerns during evidence collection. A revised time schedule or action plan for completing the applied business project in four terms should also be provided.
Overall, your Assignment 2 should contain the following sections:
Evidence collection methods
It is worth mentioning some common information collection methods here and reminding you about some of the issues that may arise associated with the different methods. The basic methods of information collection for the current type of applied business project include personal interviews, focus group interviews, questionnaire surveys and company or industry records or documents.
Personal interviews are almost always necessary when you are trying to identify the managerial problem or business opportunity in an organization or an industry. It is typical of students to have brief chats with one or two key informants (organizational representatives or industry experts) to understand the different problems or opportunities an organization or an industry is facing. Generally speaking, personal interviews can be conducted face-to-face, via telephone or via Internet chats, but the face-to-face form of interview is usually adopted in the initial encounter with the interviewee to show your sincerity. Moreover, personal interviews are usually conducted in a semi-structured manner so that, on the one hand, you are following the objectives of your study and, on the other hand, you are allowing room for the interviewee to raise any comments or issues that may be unexpected but helpful for the project. If voice recording is needed in the interview, prior consent must be obtained from the interviewee, and the interviewee should be guaranteed that the voice recording will only be used for academic purposes.
Focus group interviews are similar to personal interviews in terms of interview procedures but they are conducted with small groups of interviewees who are representatives of some target interviewees relevant to your project. Focus groups may be useful for gathering opinions from a layer of the hierarchy or a work team in which individual members should share similar thoughts or feelings. It is important too to obtain prior consent from the focus group if voice recording is used during the interview.
Questionnaire surveys are used when you want to collect opinions from a large number of respondents. Questionnaires are also necessary if the proposed management initiative needs statistical tests as its evidence. Usually, before you distribute questionnaires to respondents, you will need to develop some hypotheses that you want to test via the questionnaire. Questions in the questionnaire normally — but not always — ask for attitudinal measures from the respondents instead of asking open-ended questions. You have to make sure that the questions are both reliable and valid, and that they contribute to finding answers to your hypotheses. You may also want to consider the statistical tests to use for analysing the collected data before distributing the questionnaires. Questionnaires can be distributed in paper form (in person or by mail) or electronic form. In order to ensure the reliability of the collected data (i.e. avoiding biases from the respondents), the questionnaires should be returned to you anonymously and such anonymity should be clearly articulated to the respondents before they start filling in the questionnaires.
Company or industry records or documents are considered as secondary information sources. They are useful in helping you examine the background or context of the managerial problem or business opportunity you want to study. Past annual reports, press releases or industrial data are the common sources of information you can gather. However, it is of utmost importance that you check the reliability of such information, especially in this information-flooded age.
Please note that you must obtain approval from your tutor on your information collection method(s) and material(s) before you actually begin the collection process. This is to avoid any ethical issues that may arise, and any wasting of time and resources in collecting impractical information. If deemed necessary, you may choose more than one information collection method, but you must consider the cost-effectiveness of the combined method and the time allowed for you to adopt it.
You are advised to write not more than a total of 2,000 words (excluding the title, table of contents, references and appendices) for this assignment.
(Please download the Assignment 3 template from the OLE and use it for completing your work.)
This assignment is a review of the progress made on the management initiative(s). In this assignment, you have to demonstrate that you have engaged in a number of cycles of inquiry and to report any changes made to your previous proposal. Specifically, you are required to provide a critical analysis of the different sources of evidence gathered for evaluating the implementation of your proposed management initiative(s).
Assignment 3 requires you to address the comments received from your tutor regarding Assignments 1 and 2, and provide an intermediate progress report about the evidence collection relevant to the implementation of the proposed management initiative(s). You should particularly state the preliminary findings from the analysis of the evidence collected. Overall, your progress report should contain the following sections:
You are advised to write 6,000 to 7,000 words (excluding the title, table of contents, references and appendices) for this assignment.
(Please download the Assignment 4 template from the OLE and use it for completing your work.)
In this assignment, you have to prepare a comprehensive applied business project report for your management initiative(s). Specifically, you have to write a report that covers the background of the problem or opportunity under investigation and the details of the proposed management initiative(s), the collection and analysis of evidence for evaluating the suggested management initiative(s), the possible impact of the management initiative(s), and the ultimate recommendations. You are also required to make critical reflections on the application of theory to practice as well as your learning over the course.
Assignment 4 requires you to integrate the materials in Assignments 1 to 3 and address the comments received from your tutor to compile a comprehensive applied business project report. At this stage, all information collection and analysis should have been completed. You should be able to report on the processes of coming up with the management initiative(s) as well as how it has differed from your original proposal, and why. The final project report should therefore contain the following sections:
The final project report must be well-organized, easily accessed through the table of contents, and crafted in clear and simple language. The readers should be able to track the line of argument from facts to analyses, and to the proposed management initiative(s), without difficulty. The report should be a complete demonstration of what you have achieved that can be understood by someone unfamiliar with the problem or opportunity under study. The report should also be written in an objective manner — that is, it should give the impression that the conclusions and recommendations are based on sound evidence obtained from your research effort, and that you have given fair consideration to all sides of any issue in interpreting the information gathered.
The tutor will hold the oral presentation. You will be given approximately 15 minutes to orally report on your applied business project, plus ten minutes for questions and answers. The date and time of the oral presentation will be announced once confirmed.
You should approach the oral presentation as an opportunity to elaborate on the findings of your project and receive feedback and comments from the audience on your work. In other words, you should see the oral presentation as a celebration and showcase of your effort over the past year.
The oral presentation must be conducted in English. Having a good sense at the outset of what messages you want to deliver to the audience, the agenda from start to finish, the use of any presentation tools and your presentation style are important elements to consider when preparing the oral presentation. You should also plan for responses to questions that may emerge following your presentation.
Note: To complete the course, you must submit all assignments and obtain a passing grade. You must also participate and pass the oral presentation on the specified date. The oral report does not accept extension applications. If you are absent from the oral report, you will automatically fail the course. Furthermore, appeal against the oral presentation result will not be accepted.
The originality of the project is important. You may wish to quote a specific idea or argument from other sources, in which case appropriate acknowledgment and referencing are required. The purpose of an accurate citation is to give readers access to the materials you have drawn on. They are then able to form their own views, if they wish to, on the use you have made of the work and the inferences you have drawn from it. For your own benefit, accurate citations allow you to identify and access work that you have found useful during your studies. Correct citation is therefore an issue of good practice in academic writing, and failure to provide correct references will lead you to lose marks. If you are found to have committed plagiarism, you will definitely fail the project and thus the course.
Please refer to 'Academic writing: Acknowledging your sources' on the OLE for details of and instructions for providing accurate citations and references.
You must submit your assignments online through the Online Learning Environment (OLE). In the Assignments component on the OLE, you will see the following sub-components:
To familiarise yourself with the online submission procedure before you submit your first assignment, you should practise submitting the Sample Assignment. The sample assignment is not for assessment. It is only for practising the online assignment submission process.
If you have difficulty submitting your assignments online, please consult your Course Coordinator immediately.
How to prepare your assignments electronically
You are expected to prepare clear, accurate, well-structured, grammatically correct work that does not contain spelling errors. Markers have been instructed to take these factors into account when marking all forms of assessment.
File name of your assignment
It is important that you name your file as follows: course code + “_s” + the first eight digits of your student number + the assignment number (a1, a2, etc.). For projects, use the project number (p1, p2, etc.).
For example, if your student number is 12345678, and you are submitting Assignment 1 for BUS B859, your file name should be:
busb859_s12345678a1
If you have more than one file for an assignment, you should type the file name (as above) followed by an underscore (use the shift key and the hyphen key) and then add “a”, “b”, “c” and so on.
busb859_s12345678a1_a for the first file
busb859_s12345678a1_b for the second file
Suggested layout of your assignment
| Normal text: Header: Footer: | 12pt Times New Roman, justified Student name and number Assignment number and page number |
Page format
| Paper size: Left margin: Right margin: Top margin: Bottom margin: | A4 Use the default margin size Use the default margin size 2cm 2cm |
Content style
| Lists: Footnotes: Tables: | Use bullet points Do not use the Word Footnote feature Use the Word Table feature to prepare tables |
Acknowledging the use of Generative AI
Prior to submitting your assignments on the OLE, you will be prompted to acknowledge your use of Generative AI in the process of preparing your assignments. Be sure to specify the ways in which Generative AI was used in the process, if applicable.
Checking your assignment submission status
After you have submitted your assignment on the OLE, you should go to the “Assignment Status” page. You should see the word “Submitted” in the “Answer Sheet Status” column for your assignment.
The assignment policy of the University as stated in the Student Handbook should be observed. You are required to submit assignments for this course in accordance with the dates communicated by your Course Coordinator. You may apply for a submission extension on the grounds of illness, accident, disability, bereavement or other compassionate circumstances.
Applications for extensions must be submitted online via the OLE. Please note the following:
After an assignment is submitted via the OLE, it is your responsibility to check that the assignment has been successfully submitted. Extension applications due to any problem with uploading will not be accepted. The University cannot accept any responsibility for assignments that are not received by your tutor due to any problem with submission via the OLE. As a precaution, you are advised to keep a copy of each assignment you submit.
According to the University's policy, no extension of the due date will be allowed for the final assignment. This policy will be strictly enforced. Any late submission of the final assignment will result in the score of the assignment being adjusted to zero.
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