How to Structure Your Business Management IA

Source: IBMastery.com

The internal assessment is a written commentary. Students need to demonstrate the application of business
and management tools, techniques and theories to a real business issue or problem.

Students must select a real issue or problem, not a fictional one, and must produce a commentary with a
title presented as a question. The commentary must refer directly to a single business organisation, but may
consider industry-wide issues that impact on that organization.

The IA is very superficial writing and should not be judged negatively for lack of depth of explanation and
analysis.

Order of IA Components
The following order of pages for the Internal Assessment must come in the following order EXACTLY. If these items are
not present, or are out of order, marks are lost.

IA COMPONENT COMPONENT DESCRIPTION

1. Title Page ¨ This is the only item on one sheet of paper.
¨ Not included in word count.
¨ Make this look professional.
¨ 1. Standard Level Internal Assessment – Business Management
¨ 2. The IB Number (sth in the format “abc123”)
¨ 3. Session (e.g. May 2021)
¨ 4. Research Question (see IA Component – Research Question)
mentioning which concept has been chosen as conceptual lens for the IA.
¨ 5. Intended Audience: “To the Marketing Manager of…” (example)
¨ 6. IA Word count
¨ 7. Statement of authentication: “I declare that… (note: if this not included it will
not penalize the student)
2. Table of Contents ¨ This is the only item on one sheet of paper.
¨ Not included in word count.
¨ Leave this until the end and ensure you keep it updated.
¨ Do not include any of the previous headings/materials in your Contents Page or
page numbers (your Table of Contents should start with the Introduction).
¨ Page numbers are included (from Table of Contents onwards).
3. Introduction ¨ 200-250 words
¨ Must set the scene – give some background knowledge about the organisation.
¨ Give a clear outline of the issue or problem under investigation.
¨ Explain methodology used to investigate the issue or problem.
¨ Make sure your research question is shown here (written as a forward (or
backward) thinking question – specific issue, focused, measurable).
¨ Explain why this topic (your research question) is important for the company to
understand.
¨ List (for example with bullet points) the 5 supporting documents used for the
commentary.
4. Findings ¨ 250 words
¨ Explain what the supporting documents say about the company.
¨ Explain how your sources give a range of viewpoints/perspectives, which aided
 your analysis.
¨ Mention the parts of the course (chapters and tools) that you're going to use to
explore the issue and why you chose these.
¨ Explain some of the sources of information you used and why you chose them
(i.e. what data they provided).
¨ Explain how valid and reliable your data collection was. We actually want to see
you noting some potential weaknesses here. For example, how there may have
been room for bias or a limited scope to your research.
¨ Mention at least one change made to your IA approach (i.e. a change of tool,
source, or question) as the work progressed. Ideally there would be several.
¨ All financial calculations should take place in the Appendices with only
explanation taking place in the body of the work.
5. Analysis, ¨ 900-1000 words (approx. 300 words per tool)
Discussion and ¨ 3-4 tools/techniques are chosen for analysis.
Evaluation ¨ Chosen business tools, techniques and theories are relevant to answering the
research question (use the J.A.M. structure).
¨ At least one financial tool is included and placed after the qualitative tools (which
set the scene).
¨ One paragraph should be dedicated to each of the three business analytical tools
used.
¨ The paragraphs explain why each tool was selected.
¨ The paragraphs explain what the results show – findings are interpreted.
¨ Include as much of your information as possible within the tools (rather than in
paragraph form).
¨ Make sure that you’ve used data from all of your sources in your tools and cited
the sources properly (even if they are also included in the Appendix).
¨ As you write, comment on the reliability of your sources.
¨ The paragraphs explain (evaluate) the positives and negatives of the use of each
tool (what were the tool’s limitations and benefits) – You will get points (in
Criterion E) for these insights.
¨ A concluding phrase at the end of each paragraph should be present which
states the value (or lack thereof) of the tool used (example: what are the
strengths/weaknesses of the various positions on the issue and what are their
implications?).
¨ Try to do some synthesis as you go – linking the insights of this tool with the
insights of the tools that have preceded it. Make it really clear how the insights
of your tool have been helpful (or not) in answering your research question.
¨ As much as possible, try to use key words from the course in the main body.
6. Conclusion ¨ 250-300 words
¨ Conclusion should summarize the analysis and evaluations of each tool
used. No new information should be presented here.
¨ Mini-conclusions are pulled together and some interesting insights are made
based on them (example: pros and cons, short-term vs long-term effects,
possible stakeholder conflicts).
¨ If this area is inconclusive, show areas for further study.
¨ Identify and explain limitations. There needs to be at least one, probably two.
Show you have really reflected on your work.
¨ RESTATE THE RESEARCH QUESTION AND ANSWER THE RESEARCH QUESTION
HERE.
1800 words for the Written Commentary (show the count at the bottom of this section)
7. Bibliography ¨ This is the only item on one sheet of paper.
¨ Not included in word count.
¨ Include the sources of all of the 5 supporting document (do this, even though
you’ve attached the sources in your appendix).
 ¨ Must follow a recommended format (MLA 8).
¨ References must be listed in alphabetical order.
¨ Include only sources that were actually consulted.
¨ Include at least 1 source which shows your willingness to work hard and go
beyond the minimum requirements (example: trade journal, an advanced
academic paper, an interview with a competitor).
8. Appendices ¨ Must have five supporting documents.
¨ Supporting documents are clearly labelled “Supporting document 1”, and so on.
¨ Documents come from different sources.
¨ Sources are varied.
¨ Each of the documents selected should be no more than two years old from the
time the IA is written.
¨ Sources show a balance of view (example: 3 of the documents are “pro.”, the
remaining 2 documents are “con.”).
¨ Relevant sections in the supporting documents are highlighted.
¨ SWOT/STEEPLE, financial documents of relevance can be considered to be both
supporting documents and business analysis tools.