Assignment 2: The Case Study

Weighting 25%

Each student is required to prepare an analysis of a venture launched by an entrepreneur.

Ideally you should select an organisation where you are able to include primary research and interview the entrepreneur that founded the organisation. Alternatively, you can undertake secondary research and analyse a venture using information in the public domain.

You should try to select a venture which in some way relates to one or more of the potential business concepts/ideas which are being considered by your group. For example, you could select a venture that operates in the same or similar market, or adopts a similar business model, or uses similar technologies to the ventures that you are considering.

There are four questions we would like you to address are:

  1. 1. Analyse the venture at the point it was first launched. Briefly summarise the key historical facts that led up to the launch. Describe key factors such as product or service, target market, USP, ownership, human resources, funding and any other factors that your analysis shows to have been critical to the subsequent success or failure of the venture. (Guideline is 20% of marks).
  2. Analyse the key strategic decisions made by the venture/entrepreneur in its early years using theories and concepts presented on the module (Guideline is 35% of marks). It is important that you focus on strategic decisions such as target market, needs fulfilled, brand management, pricing strategy, route to market insource vs. outsource, e-strategy, funding or whatever else was critical to the success or failure of the venture.
  3. Evaluate those decisions and reflect on what they tell you about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, linking your comments to theories and concepts presented on the module and derived from your wider reading (Guideline is 35% of marks).
  4. In conclusion, show how your findings can help the development of your concept and/or that of your group (Guideline is 10% of the marks).

You must use academic theories in your analysis. The report should be clearly presented and formatted as a professional business report with appropriate use of headings and sections.

The report is to be a maximum of 2,000 words (including in-text references but excluding a reference list and title page). There is no 10% allowance, and there are to be no appendices. There is no need for an Executive Summary.

The report must be submitted to the Turnitin drop-box on the Moodle site by 1:00pm Thursday 10th December.

NOTE: You must provide your seminar leader/consultant with a draft plan (maximum of 1 page) for this assignment, including the name of the venture that will be analysed so that he or she may provide feed forward and approve your choice of organisation

Assignment Format

Assignment reports must be presented in the following format:

  • Word-processed in a format suitable for a business report with appropriate headings and structure.
    • The assignment must have a front cover stating: o Module number
    • o Module name
    • o Title of the assignment
    • o Submission date.
    • o Word count
    • An Executive Summary is not required.
    • Be submitted within the stated word count, which does not include title or contents pages or reference list. There should be no appendices.
    • For academic purposes ALL secondary research material must be carefully referenced using the Harvard Standard.

Assignment reports not complying with this format may be left unmarked. If in any doubt you should post questions on the relevant forum on the Moodle site before submission.