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 realorganisationfor this, not a fictional one, and the
issue or decision under investigation must also be real.

TheCommentary

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 onsecondarydata,selected for its

suitability, depth and breadth.

Your commentary must not exceed more than 1,500words.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 threetofivesupporting documents from which the

majority of the information for the commentary has been obtained. All
supportingdocumentsandadditionalsourcesmustbefullyreferencedand
includedinbibliography.
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