Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines

Trimester T1 2019
Unit Code HI5003
Unit Title Economics for Business
Assessment Type Written report
Assessment Title Group assignment
Purpose of the Students are required to work in groups to choose an industry then apply their
assessment (with knowledge in the unit to write an industry report (Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 5).
ULO Mapping) See Assignment Specifications for detailed requirements
Weight 30% of the total assessments
Total Marks 30
Word limit Not more than 2500 words
Due Date 5pm Friday of Week 10 for Normal Mode, of Week 6&10 for Block Mode 1&2,
respectively.
Submission  All work must be submitted on Blackboard by the due date along with a
Guidelines completed Assignment Cover Page.
 The assignment must be in MS Word format, single spacing, 12-pt Arial font
and 2 cm margins on all four sides of the page with appropriate section
headings and page numbers.
 Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed
appropriately at the end in a reference list using Harvard referencing style.

HI5003 Economics for Business

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Assignment Specifications
Purpose:
This assignment aims to enhance students’ research and analytical ability through the application of
their economic knowledge in the unit to compose a company report.

The recommended assignment structure is as follows:

Table of content
Executive Summary (Optional)
Introduction
Introduction to the company
Industry background
The market structure of the industry
Factors that influence demand for the company’s product(s)
Factors that influence supply of the company’s product(s)
Elasticity
Impacts of an event on the industry/company
Conclusion
List of References.

Detailed requirements of the assignment

Organize yourselves into groups of 4 or 5 students and give your group details to your lecturer(s) no
later than Week 6 (for Normal Mode) or Week 4 (For Block Mode 1) and Week 8 (for Block Mode 2).
Late submission of group member list may result in your being unable to submit the group
assignment.

You are a group of advisors to the Management Board in your company.

In determining the company’s strategy in the next 5 years, your managers have required you to
prepare a 2,500 word market report. The market report should, as a minimum, address the following
key issues:

1. A description of your company and the industry your company is in, including:
 An overview of the company.
 An overview of the industry (including some key statistics such as revenue,
employment, the industry’s contribution to national GDP, and industry growth rate).
2. An analysis of the market structure the industry is in, including:
 The type of market structure it is in and why (based on the characteristics of the
industry).
 The market leaders in the industry and some statistics about them.
3. A discussion about (i) two determinants of demand, and (ii) two determinants of supply for
your product(s) or service(s) that you consider to be the most influential.
4. A discussion about the demand elasticity for your product(s) or service(s) which answers the
following questions:
 Is your product(s) or service(s) elastic or inelastic? Why?
HI5003 Economics for Business
 Page 3 of 6
 What are two factors that you consider affect the elasticity of demand for your
product (or line of products) the most? Why so? (You can research for evidence to
justify your argument(s)).
5. An analysis of a recent event that has (or is likely to have) substantial impacts on your
industry. The analysis may include:
 A brief description about that event.
 How has that event affected (or is likely to affect) the market demand and/or supply?
 What is the likely effect of that event on the market price and quantity?
Note that relevant empirical evidence can be researched and provided to support your
arguments.

You may choose to do your research in one of the following industries: construction/housing/
property development, education, or mining.

Note: if your company has many products and/or services, you can select a representative
product/service to discuss for points (2); (3); (4); and (5).

This report should provide useful information for your company’s Management Board. It should use
a variety of resources, including the textbook, newspapers, industry reports, the ABS website, and
other sources. A list of several websites that may be useful to you is attached.

Your report should include a table of contents, an executive summary, and sub-headings. It needs to
be properly referenced using the Harvard style and at least 5 references. 


HI5003 Economics for Business

 Marking Rubric

Criteria Excellent (>=80%) Very good (70-79%) Good (60-69%) Satisfactory (50-59%) Unsatisfactory (<50%)
The degree of - Excellent understanding - Very good understanding - Good understanding about - Reasonable Poor understanding
understanding about the company/industry about the company/ the company/industry with understanding about about the industry and
and knowledge with comprehensive and industry with some few updated data. the company/industry completely wrong
about the updated data. updated data. - Correct identification of the with a limited amount identification of the
company and the - Correct identification of the - Correct identification of market structure, supported of information about market structure with
industry which is market structure, supported the market structure, by some evidence about the the company/industry. poor evidence to
shown in the by extensive evidence about supported by good approximate number of firms - Address the question support.
description of the approximate number of evidence about the in the market, market share, about market structure
the company & firms in the market, market approximate number of market leaders, product but mis-identify the
industry, and the share, market leaders, product firms in the market, homogeneity/heterogeneity, structure or correctly
analysis of homogeneity/heterogeneity, market share, market ect. identify the market
market structure ect. leaders, product structure but do not
(25 % of the homogeneity/heterogenei provide good evidence
total mark) ty, ect. to support.

The degree of - Excellent analysis about - Very good analysis about - Good analysis about - Reasonable analysis -Poor analysis about
analysis of demand and supply demand and supply demand and supply about demand and demand and supply
demand and determinant, supported by determinant, supported by determinant, supported by supply determinant, determinant, with no
supply excellent data or studies. very good data or studies. good data or studies. supported by limited supported discussion.
determinants; - Conclusion about elasticity is - Conclusion about - Conclusion about elasticity is data or studies. -Conclusion about
and the strongly supported with elasticity is supported with supported with limited - Conclusion about elasticity is not
discussion about excellent good discussions/argument. elasticity is not supported with
price elasticity of discussions/argument Or refer discussions/argument Or supported with discussions/argument.
demand to studies in the literature to refer to studies in the discussions/argument.
(25% of the total support the conclusion literature to support the
mark) conclusion

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Criteria Excellent (>=80%) Very good (70-79%) Good (60-69%) Satisfactory (50-59%) Unsatisfactory (<50%)
The analysis of a -Excellent description of the -Very good description of -Good description of the -Reasonable -Poor description the
recent event that event the event event description of the event
has some -Excellent discussion about the
-Very good discussion -Good discussion about the event -Poor discussion about
substantial likely impact of the event on about the likely impact of likely impact of the event on -Reasonable discussion the likely impact of the
impacts on the the market, supported by the event on the market, the market, supported by about the likely impact event on the market,
industry good evidence (statistics, supported by some good limited evidence (statistics, of the event on the not supported by any
(25% of the total studies or articles that discuss
evidence (statistics, studies or articles that discuss market, not supported evidence
mark) the actual or likely impacts).studies or articles that the actual or likely impacts) by good evidence
discuss the actual or likely
impacts).
The degree of - Evidence of comprehensive -Evidence of very good and -Evidence of good and -Evidence of -No good and relevant
research, the and relevant research with relevant research with relevant research with correct reasonable research research with many
format, correct referencing. correct referencing. referencing. with some mistakes in mistakes in
structure, - Meet format requirements to -Meet format -Meet format requirements referencing. referencing.
presentation, a high standard, including requirements to a very to a good standard, including -Meet format -May not have
and writing of clear structure, headings, good standard, including clear structure, headings, requirements to a followed key question
the report word count (close to clear structure, headings, word count (close to reasonable standard, selection guidance, or
(25 % of the approximation) and excellent word count (close to approximation) and good but could be improved may not meet format
total mark) presentation. approximation) and very presentation. with a clearer requirements, such as
good presentation. structure, headings, or clear discussions, titles
may have better met or headings, word
word count count, or poor
approximation) and presentation.
fair presentation.

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Some websites that may be useful for your assignment

Australia GDP and employment by sectors (the ABS website abs.gov.au)

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/8155.0Main+Features12016-
17?OpenDocument

Australian Industry Report (where you can find output and employment by industry and
industry competitiveness)
https://publications.industry.gov.au/publications/australianindustryreport2016/assets/Aust
ralian-Industry-Report-2016.pdf

Company report for any company listed on the ASX

https://www.asx.com.au/asx/research/listedCompanies.do
(Click on the name of the company, you will be directed to a page with information about
the company’s stock price. On the right hand side, under RESOURCES you can find the latest
company report).

Top 500 companies in Australia by the AFR

https://www.afr.com/leadership/afr-lists/top-500-private-companies/top-500-private-
companies-2018-the-full-list-20180903-h14w4v

Top 50 mining companies by revenue

http://www.mining.com/top-50-biggest-mining-companies/

Mining industry report.

https://www.pwc.com.au/eum/aussie-mine-2017-decisionsdecisions_nov17.pdf

Retail industry - The future of retail in Australia

https://business.nab.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/The-future-of-retail-September-
2017.pdf

2018 Real Estate Outlook by Deloitte

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Real%20Estate/deloitte-
au-dre-real-estate-outlook-2018-australian-perspective-150218.pdf

International Education Industry in Australia

file:///C:/Users/nxpham/Downloads/http___www.aphref.aph.gov.au_house_committee_ef
pa_services_report_chapter5.pdf

Education sector statistics by the ABS

https://www.abs.gov.au/Education

Large auditing companies such as Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PWC, or big banks may also have
industry report for various industries that you can find useful.

HI5003 Economics for Business