IB

Business and Management

A Guide for the IA-HL & SL
New Syllabus
























Purpose of Internal Assessment
The IA enables students to demonstrate the application of their skills
and knowledge, and to pursue their personal interests, without the time
limitations and other constraints that are associated with written
examinations.

SL- Written Commentary
HL-Research project


Background

Your IA is a written commentary. You will need to demonstrate the

application of business and management tools, techniques and theories to a
real business issue or problem.

You must select a real organisation for this, not a fictional one, and the
issue or decision under investigation must also be real.
The Commentary

You must produce a commentary with a title presented as a question. Your

commentary must refer directly to a single business organization, but you
may consider industry-wide issues that impact on that organization.

Your commentary must be based on secondary data, selected for its

suitability, depth and breadth.

Your commentary must not exceed more than 1,500 words. A word count
must be included as part of the commentary.

The commentary requires analysis and evaluation of the business

issue/problem. Judgements can be made throughout the commentary, but
are essential within the conclusion.

You must attach three to five supporting documents from which the
majority of the information for the commentary has been obtained. All
supporting documents and additional sources must be fully referenced and
included in bibliography.

Requirements-SL

Select a real business issue or problem for a written commentary but it
must relate to the SL syllabus.
Refer directly to a single business organization but may consider
industry wide impact.
Written commentary based on secondary research but can use primary
research as support.
Provide a title that gives focus and direction must be framed as a
question
Written commentary doesnt exceed 1500 words
Attach 3-5 supporting documents from which the majority of your
information has been gained.
Fully reference all supporting documents and additional sources and
include them in a Bibliography

Examples of appropriate questions:
Can Airline X successfully target segment Y?-uses market
segmentation, consumer profiling, promotion and measure of financial
success
Should company Y outsource its manufacturing uses operations
management and human resources

Supporting documents:
Should represent a range of views and ideas for example a selection of
3-5 documents published by a single company or 3-5 surveys of similar
populations would not provide balance or objectivity.
Supporting documents must be within a maxiumum of 3 years prior to
the submission of the IA. A maximum of one of the supporting
documents may be the transcript of a video/audio file. The transcript
must be of the relevant parts only. Only video from a reliable
organization should be used.
The commentary must be based on secondary sources and may include
primary data.
Secondary sources:
Articles
Business accounts
Business Plans
Extracts from websites
 TRanspripts from video
Financial reports
Government or other statistics
Journal publications
Market Research publications
Mission Statements
Web based surveys
Primary sources:
Responses to questionaires (include a blank copy of the
questionnaire and a tally of responses)
Results of survey
Transcript of interviews/discussions with focus groups

Students must select their own source material

Students must highlight any part of the supporting documents that
relate directly to their commentary.
Students should label each supporting document Supporting Document
1


Format:

1. Introduction-set the scene
2. Presentation of data
3. Analysis of data
4. Discussion of findings
5. Conclusion that answers the commentary question

Presentation:
1. Title page
2. Table of contents
3. Appropriate headings and sub headings
4. Consistent referencing
5. Complete bibliography
6. Numbered pages

INTRODUCTION
Provide a brief background information about the business, give a clear
outline of the problem or issue and explain the methodology used to
investigate the issue or problem.

COMMENTARY
Findings from supporting documents should be presented and analysed
with the help of relevant business tools, techniques and theories. The
findings should also be interpreted: What main themes emerge from the
analysis of the supporting documents, and why and how are they
helpful or not in answering the commentary question?
An evaluative approach to this discussion of findings should be pursued:
for example what are the strengths and weaknesses of the various
positions on the issue or problem and what are the implications?

CONCLUSION
In the Conclusion the commentary question should be explicitly
answered. There should not be facts or arguments included that have
not been already covered in earlier parts of the commentary. Evaluate
what parts of the commentary that it would be good to investigate
further.

WORD COUNT:
Must not exceed 1500 words-if the word limit is exceeded it will be
marked based on the first 1500 words.
Not included in the word count:
Acknowledgements
Contents page
Tables of statistical data
Diagrams or figures
Equations/formulae/calculations
Citations (must be in body of commentary)
References (if used must be in footnotes or endnotes)
Bibliography

CRITERIA:
A: supporting documents
B: choice and application of business tools, techniques and
theories
C: choice and analysis of data and integration of ideas
 D: conclusions
E: Evaluation
F: Structure
G: Presentation


HL:
Introduction:
The HL researah project is designed to allow students to demonstrate
their application of skills and knowledge to business issues or decision
making.

Requirements:
Design and undertake research that either addresses an issue facing a
business or a range of organisations or analyses a decision to be made
by a business organization or a range of organisations.

Select a real business and a real decision or issue.

Base all research on primary research gathered from the organization
investigated. Secondary research may be used for support.

Provide a title for the project that gives it focus and direction and it
must be framed as a question.

Produce a research proposal of maximum 500 words, including an
action plan to be used as the primary planning document.

Produce a written report that doesnt exceed 500 words
Write the report in a style of a useful document for management.

CHOICE OF TOPIC
Students should chose their own topic/organization.
Research question should be forward looking targeted at an issue still
relevant for the business and should require the student to make
recommendations for further action.
Confirm before starting that they will be able to obtain the necessary
data from the chosen organization.
Be aware of ethical issues especially those surrounding confidentiality.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research question
Methodology-rationale, areas of syllabus covered, possible
sources of information, organisations and individuals to be
contacted, methods to be used to collect primary data and the
reasons for choosing them, Order of activities and timescale of
project, Anticipated difficulties, action plan.
The proposal should be a planning document and should be regularly
reviewed/modified.

WRITTEN REPORT
Title page
Acknowledgements
Contents page
Execuitive abstract-max length 200 words
Introduction-background knowledge of company, outline of issue
or decision
Research question
Methodology employed-any changes made should be explained.
Main results and findings-clarify raw data has revealed-summary
of data and of findings made and should be supported by tables,
graphs and statistics.
Analysis and discussion-results interpreted with use of tools,
techniques and theories. What are the main issues that emerge?
And how/why are ethey helpful or not to answering the research
question? An evaluative approach to the discussion should be
pursued-strengths and weakneses of various postions on the issue
or decision and what are their implications.
Conclusion and recommendation-no new facts/ideas should be
presented. Recommendations should be precise, answer the
question and be practical for action. If the results are inconclusive,
further research should be recommended.

WORD COUNT:
2000 words maximum-examiner will stop marking after 2000 words.



CRITERIA:
A: research proposal
B: Sources and data
C: use of tools, techniques and theories
D: Analysis and evaluation
E: conclusions
F: Recommendations
G: Structure
H: Presentation
I: Reflective thinking