- Make sure that you yourself understand the differences between HL IA and EE, especially in terms of requirements. Because their timing may overlap, students often get confused, mix the two and end up producing, instead of an EE, “a glorified HLIA”. This is the most common problem with EEs in Business Management, it is the reason why many students may underperform (even very good ones) and get a disappointing mark, much below what the supervisor predicted. As supervisors, you need to understand the differences yourself, so that, in turn, you can help your students distinguish between them.
- The EE is an academic investigation (think “University type of work”), it is not about recommendations and practical value to management e.g. to help business managers make a decision: that would be an HLIA. As a consequence, recommendations have no place at the end of an EE. Unlike the HLIA, the student is not acting as a “mini-consultant” for a business, but as a researcher.
- For their EE, students must carry out substantial secondary academic research, for example in specialised literature or academic journals. It is not enough to work from the generic Business Management textbook used in class. The EE is a form of specialisation in a domain, so advanced research is necessary. For example, a student writing an EE about online marketing would need to read specifically on this topic, engaging with textbooks used at University as part of a degree covering online marketing. An alternative is to use academic journals; many are freely available online. You may want to work with your librarian on this. Because their location enables it, some EE supervisors work with the nearby University, so that EE students can access some resources there; is this possible for you?
- If the student’s methodology includes interviews or questionnaires, they are likely to be on the wrong track: they run the risk of writing a second HLIA… Of course primary research is possible for an EE, as long as it is not the main source of information. The EE is a scholarly piece of work; quotes from interviews could be integrated in the analysis, but the focus must be secondary research. Personally, I would advise against the use of primary research whenever possible (which also avoids a waste of time). This is assessed under criterion A.
- The EE needs theoretical underpinning, i.e. a coherent academic framework which must be presented in Introduction. Just listing a series of business models (PEST followed by SWOT followed by Ansoff matrix followed by 4Ps followed by BCG matrix etc) is not a good approach – this approach is more likely to lead to a fragmented, disjointed analysis, than to a coherent one, with a clear focus. This is assessed through criterion B.
- A Business Management student may be very keen to base their EE on the family business; is it a good idea? Ask them “how likely are you to find secondary research on this?” Note: in this context, documents such as financial data from the company are all primary: secondary research refers here to external publications, books, academic articles etc. Of course it is still possible to use a family business, for example if they want to adopt a franchise – the secondary research would then be on the topic of franchising. Wrong approaches here could lead to lower marks for (the new) criterion C.
- Some teachers have told me that, as the Business Management Guide has 6 concepts at the centre of the Subject (culture, change, ethics, innovation, globalisation, strategy), they ask all EEs to have at least one of the concepts in the research question. I personally like this idea very much. It is not an IB requirement – but it presents many advantages, starting with the fact that it will make students explore that concept in more depth. In turn, this will help prepare the extended responses in SLP2 and HLP2, where conceptual knowledge and understanding is assessed. It will also make students reflect at a more advanced, more abstract cognitive level, which is also assessed through criterion C. It will make students engage with secondary literature, it will make them read about topics such as ethics, globalisation, culture etc. Again, it is not a requirement, but you may want to consider it.
- The last report on the EE in Business Management is worth reading, even though it refers to “the old Guide” (all the comments still apply e.g. about the demands of the task, as this is not changing). After May 18, there will be a new report that refers to the new criteria; this will be a very important doc.
- Make sure that your students understand the criteria esp. criterion E and the RPPF. Even weaker students (whose research and analysis may be limited) can score 6 marks for (the new) criterion E, if they reflect well on their work and write the RPPF well. You may want to provide students with a checklist or specific recommendations about how to write the three sections of their RPPF.
- The new EE website is very rich and covers a lot; it is worth exploring (incl. with students); it has some examples of EE (with/without marks and comments) incl. for the RPPF, though not for Business Management yet; after May 18, the IB will hopefully share Business Management EEs too.
Loykie LOMINE
Version May 2018
IB Exemplar 1
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IB Exemplar 2
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ASW Student Exemplar 1
Moderated Score: A |
ASW Student Exemplar 2
Moderated Score: A |
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ASW Student Exemplar 3
Moderated Score: A |
ASW Student Exemplar 4
Moderated Score: A |
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