UNIVERSITY OF SURREY
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Surrey Business School
Business Reporting Techniques (MANM373)
Report Brief
Introductory Points
You should write an analytical report concerning present or future international actions,
decisions or strategies of one chosen company from any industry in any region of the world.
Alternatively, you can write a critical report regarding attractions or difficulties of a country in
terms of international business such as opportunities for or barriers to Foreign Direct
Investment.
The chosen topic for the report must have an international dimension, otherwise it will
not be accepted.
The international dimension of the report can focus on any type of international strategy
or activities such as international marketing (only one aspect such as international
promotion), international HRM (only one aspect such as international recruitment),
international manufacturing, international investment or any other corporate-level,
business-level, or functional-level strategies or activities.
The report should be about the existing or potential international business activities of
a chosen multinational enterprise (MNE); or can focus on a company planning to
become international. Alternatively, you may analyse a country from the perspective of
international business.
Students can select any industry, company or country, so long as there is enough
publicly available information in English regarding this company, industry or country.
The chosen company can be active in one or more than one industry, however, focus
of the report should be only on one industry. The size and country of origin of the
company does not matter, and it can be well known or a hidden champion.
The final output can be either a Management Consultancy report or a Market Research
report only based on secondary data. The structure is similar, but emphasis on providing
practical recommendations for improvement is greater in a Management Consultancy
report.
Recommended Structure for the Report
The structure of your report has a mark. The following are the sections that shape the report:
Coversheet: Use the usual template for the assignment coversheet. This coversheet is
available in the Assessment folder on SurreyLearn.
Table of contents: Provide the list of headings and their page number in one separate page
from the cover sheet and the executive summary.
1. Executive Summary
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The executive summary is the section that should be written after finishing all other parts of the
report because it is simply a summary of the entire report. Use past tense in writing executive
summary.
All five main sections of the report should be summarised here, including ‘scope, aim
and topic of the report’, ‘background to chosen MNE/country’, ‘data collection sources
and analytical methods’, ‘findings’, and ‘recommendations’.
You may allocate one paragraph for a brief description of each of the five sections, so
your executive summary would have five paragraphs.
You might use five sub-headings, one for each of the five parts of your report.
The executive summary should be a one-page long (not just one or two paragraphs).
2. Scope, Aim and Topic of the Report
You need to talk about aim, scope and topic of your report here.
Scope of the report: You can either have a Firm-level /Industry-level discussion by
focusing only on one company in one industry or you may have a Country-level debate
(not necessary to talk about one specific company in that country). In defining the scope
of your report, you need to clarify four interrelated issues. The scope-related matters
are: A) the chosen international strategy or business activity (what international
business thematic or issue is the focus of your report Such as: Entry modes to a foreign
country International promotional mix International recruitment Foreign Direct
Investment ); B) the chosen industry (on which industry are you going to focus on );
You should focus on one industry only. If your selected company is active in more than
one industry, you need to concentrate only on one of these industries that you prefer.
C) the selected company (from which MNE will you collect data ); Any company from
the chosen industry can be the focus of your report. D) intended
country/countries/region (s) (in which geographies will you explore and analyse your
chosen company’s international business activities ) Your chosen company may have
activities in many countries and on different continents. You need to mention from where
precisely your information is derived.
Aim of the report: Briefly state your intention for writing this report. What do you want
to identify/assess by writing this report The aim should be in the form of a statement,
and not a question. The aim statement starts with ‘To…’. For example, ‘to determine
suitable modes of internationalisation in the fashion industry; the case of Zara’.
Topic of the report: The topic of your report should be: A) in the form of a statement;
B) directly connected to the ‘aim of the report’; and C) preferably start with a word in
‘ing’ format. For instance, ‘determining suitable modes of internationalisation in the
fashion industry; the case of Zara’. You also need to justify the rationale for selecting
such a topic for your report. Why is it important for managers or other stakeholders to
know more about your chosen report topic You may use a combination of literature
review and factual market data to support your decision to write about the topic.
3. Background to chosen MNE/Country
You can either have a Firm-level /Industry-level discussion by focusing only on one company
in one industry or you may have a Country-level debate. In one or two paragraphs, give some
short information about the company or country you selected for investigation in your report,
and its existing or intended internationalisation activities/opportunities.
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If you choose a company/industry, try to explain:
Say what your chosen company does. If your intended company does business in more
than one industry, introduce all of these businesses briefly.
Why did you select this company
You may provide some graphs or/and tables to show the company’s market share and
position among competitors in the same industry.
Indicate in how many countries this company does business.
If you can find them, you might write the company’s vision, mission, and objectives. Do
not worry if you cannot find these details.
Importance of the main industry that your chosen MNE is part of it. How influential is
this industry in a typical country Contribution to the economy of the country Number
of job creation by the industry in the country
If you choose a country as the focus of your report, you should briefly mention:
Economic situation of this country in terms of Gross Domestic Products (GDP), GDP
per capita, economic growth, and inflation
Political situation in terms of political stability, government support for international
business and investment
Anything special about this country such as skilful but affordable labour, high_xFFFE_technology, membership of an important regional economic integration such as EU
4. Data Collection Sources and Analytical Methods
The report is based on secondary data, the data that are collected originally by other people or
organisations than the student. The source of secondary data should be reliable. It means the
data are expected to be generated or collected either by academics, authorised staff in an
organisation regarding the organisation, official governmental bodies, professional data
collection or market research institutes, or international and unbiased organisations.
Students writing a project focused on Business Communication Techniques may also use
company adverts, marketing material and social media output (e.g., Twitter, Facebook).
In the analysis section of your report these issues should be covered:
The utilised sources of secondary data and their justification. It is crucial to
rely only on reliable sources of data in writing your report because reliability of your
report, its findings and recommendations depend on reliability of the sources used in
the report. Reliable sources for collecting secondary data are annual company reports,
the Office for National Statistics, professional databases, report by international
institutions such as UNCTAD, European Union, World Bank, World Trade Organization,
International Monetary Fund, or OECD. Do NOT use the CIA’s Factbook because of its
biased information about some countries. You can use any reliable databases to collect
data about the market or a particular company. Four recommended databases are
Mintel, Euromonitor Passport, Orbis, and Statista. All of these databases are available
via our online library. You need to justify selection of each of your sources of secondary
data. Why do you think your chosen sources of data are appropriate for your selected
report topic You might use a table with two columns one for the utilised sources of
secondary data and the other brief rationale for using each of the secondary sources.
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The employed analytical technique (s) and its/their justification. Your
analytical technique can be a theoretical framework or a non-theoretical framework.
The theoretical technique for analysis can be either a Firm-level or Industry-level
theoretical technique such as Porter’s five forces, Stakeholder analysis, Dunning’s
Eclectic Paradigm, the Uppsala internationalisation process model, or the Institutional
approach. Alternatively, the theoretical technique for analysis can be a Country-level
theoretical technique such as Theory of Absolut Advantage, Theory of Comparative
Advantage, Theory of Competitive Advantage (Porter’s Diamond Model), or FDI related
frameworks.
Students writing a project focused on Business Communication Techniques may draw
on any theoretical framework relevant to the analysis, e.g., genre analysis, social
presence, politeness theory, dimensions of cultural difference etc.
Mention weaknesses of your chosen theoretical framework (s). In this section, you
need only to describe and justify your selected theoretical framework but you should
not use the theoretical framework for analysis of the chosen MNE or the country in this
part. In the ‘Findings’ section (next section), you are required to collect secondary data
to support and apply your chosen theoretical framework. If your topic is about assessing
or suggesting strategies, you need to use a framework for analysis of the internal or
external environment. Then as
sess or suggest strategies based on results of this
analysis.
You may like to select an analytical technique that is a non-theoretical method,
including statistical formula (such as multiple regression analysis, correlation, chi square, or frequency) or qualitative data analysis methods (such as systematic
literature review, content analysis or thematic analysis). If you choose a ‘theoretical
framework’ for data analysis, you will not be required to use any statistical analysis
techniques if you do not want to do so. You should justify selection of your preferred
data analysis technique (s). Why do you think your chosen data analysis technique (s)
would be a suitable method for your report
5. Findings
This section is dedicated to the results of the analysis and interpretations of the findings.
Results of the analysis: When using a theoretical framework as your analytical
technique, your findings would be mainly in the form of discussions concerning each
aspect of the employed theoretical framework. For example, if you chose Porter’s Five
Forces as your analytical tool, you are expected to illustrate your findings for each of
the five parts of the model. If you relied on statistical formula for analysing your collected
data, you need to show outputs of the analysis (e.g. correlation table, frequency, pie chart, or time series analysis graph) in this section. If some of your findings are in the
form of graphs or tables, you are required to give separate number and headings for
each of the demonstrated graphs or tables. You should put all relevant graphs and
tables in this section. If you put tables or graphs in your appendices section, they will
not be considered in the marking your report.
Interpretations of the findings: Although illustrating your findings is important, it is not
enough. You must explain what each finding means and how each finding helps you to
understand the phenomena/topic you were examining in your report. You should also
say what would be the implications of each of your findings for your chosen company
or country. If you had a hypothesis or question in your report, you should debate whether
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or not your hypothesis was rejected or your findings gave you the satisfactory answer
to your question.
You do not have to have separate sections for ‘Results of the analysis’ and
‘Interpretation of the findings’. You can merge these two sections together and
provide your interpretation of the findings when you mention the results of your analysis.
6. Recommendations
In this part, you need to have some evidence-based suggestions to your chosen company/
industry or country to make some improvements on the chosen area of strategy, activity or
policy.
Recommendations must be based on the findings of the analysis. One of the possible
ways to show direct connectivity between your findings and your recommendations is
through using a table. It could be a table with two or more columns, where in one column
you put each of your main findings in a separate row of that column, and in the other
column for each of the mentioned findings, you recommend one or more improvement
in the company’s (or country’s) international strategies, actions, processes,
management or leadership roles and decisions.
In addition to (but not instead of) the findings you can utilise the relevant literature to
support your suggested improvements.
Your proposed enhancements should not be solely based on literature.
Try to have at least three relevant recommendations. Having more evidence-based
recommendations would increase your mark.
Reference List: It is mandatory to have a full list of all sources you used directly in your work.
Please do not mention the sources that you did not use directly in your work. Referencing
should follow the Harvard Referencing system only.
Appendices: It is better not to have any appendices. All necessary information and discussion
should be provided within the main text between the executive summary and the
recommendations sections. If you really need to have an appendix, remember that the contents
in appendix do not have any assigned marks.
Formatting Issues
1. It is recommended to use one of the readable and academic fonts such as Arial, Calibri,
or Times New Roman.
2. It is suggested to use fond size 11 for the general body of the text.
3. You might use font size 13 or 14 in bold for main headings.
4. Font size 11 in bold would be suitable for sub-headings.
5. Any default page margins (e.g. 2.54 for all sides or 2 for all sides) would be acceptable.
6. Try to have headings for every tables or graphs in your report. Put the heading above
the table or the graph.
7. It is recommended to number all table or graph headings.
8. Mention the source of your tables or graphs under the table or graph. If you developed
the table or graph just write ‘Source: Developed by the Author for this work’.
9. The recommended line spacing is either 1.2 or 1.5.
10. Submit your report in PDF format.
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Other Important Points
1. The deadline for the submission is 20
th July 2022 by 16:00 (UK time).
2. Only the electronic version of the report should be submitted via SurreyLearn. There is
no need for a hardcopy of the report.
3. You should avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else’s
work or ideas and passing them off as your own. You must acknowledge sources of any
information you take from anywhere, even if you took just a few words or numbers. If
you paraphrase (rewrite with your own words) the definitions, claims, or information you
borrowed from other sources, you are still required to mention these sources. Plagiarism
is a serious academic offence that can lead to the expulsion of the student who
plagiarised from the university.
4. The length of the report is 3000 words. You are not allowed to write even one
word more than 3000 words. The written words in the coversheet, table of contents,
references, and appendices would not be considered as part of the 3000 word limit.
5. Try to have at least one citation in every paragraph on average. For example: According
to Porter (1990) or the report by the World Bank (2021) indicates …
6. Having more than one citation in each paragraph would increase your mark.
7. Having relevant multiple citations would improve your mark because it is the indication
of your wide range of readings and knowledge. You can have multiple citations if only
one opinion or finding is supported or mentioned by more than one scholar (or co scholars in one publication). For example, if scholars of three separate publications
agree on internalisation strategies are being forms of the corporate-level strategies, you
can write something like this: Internationalisation can be considered as a corporate level strategy (Lynch, 2016; Smith, 2018; Zhong, 2013).
8. You are expected to use at least 15 different sources in writing your report. These
sources can be annual reports of the company, reports by international institutes or any
other academic or professional sources. To receive a top mark you should use at least
20 different sources.
9. Try to have citations from relevant papers from top academic journals such as Global
Strategy Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World
Business, Strategic Management Journal, or Long Range Planning. (Students of
communication can use Journal of Business Communication, or Journal of Pragmatics)
10. Use graphs and tables in your discussions. Tables are great tools to help you compare
two or more perspectives.
11. As the name of the module indicate, this is not a dissertation or business plan module
so you cannot submit a dissertation or a business plan as your report.
12. You have to use only Secondary data (the data or reports that published by
organisations, governments or other researchers). You will receive a FAIL grade if you
collect and use Primary data by using interview, questionnaire or observation.
13. This is not a dissertation, so there is not an exclusive section for comprehensive
literature review. However, it is expected that you will use a brief literature review as
part of three sections in your report: topic of the report, data analysis section and
recommendation section. A literature review is a great way to support the rationale for
choosing a particular topic for the report. In the data analysis section, literature can be
used to justify selection of a particular analytical technique and help interpret the
findings. Literature also can help to support the proposed recommendations to the
chosen company/industry or country regarding the selected topic.
14. Use the Harvard Referencing System correctly.
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Important note on penalties
You are required to submit your reports on time by the deadline, 20
th July 2022 at 16:00.
Late submission penalties will be strictly applied to the mark as follows:
Time of Submission Penalty
Up until 4pm on Day 1 –
Between 4.001pm on Day 1 and 4pm on Day 2 10 percentage marks
Between 4.001pm on Day 2 and 4pm on Day 3 20 percentage marks
Between 4.001pm on Day 3 and 4pm on Day 4 30 percentage marks
After 4pm on Day 4 Work not marked
Initial consequences of committing plagiarism
The amount of ‘similarity index’ in the Turnitin report of the submitted coursework would be
used to judge initial actions to deal with the plagiarised report. It is normal to have a few
percentage points of similarity (5-10%) in the report due to using a common coversheet and
statement of originality. These minor similarities are not considered as plagiarism.
If the similarity index in the Turnitin report is 20% or lower, there will be no penalty. It
is highly recommended to keep the similarity index of your work well below 20%.
If the Turnitin report shows a similarity index of 21 – 30%, the student will be required
to attend an interview and viva (oral examination), concerning the potentially plagiarised
work. In the interview the student would be asked to explain reasons for a relatively high
amount of unacknowledged borrowing from other sources. The students who are under
investigation would also need to verbally answer some examination questions to show
the written discussions in the submitted reports belong to them. There would be no
penalty if the student passes the viva and gives satisfactory responses to the questions.
Otherwise, the student may be introduced to the Academic Misconduct Panel to be
considered for a fail mark for the plagiarised work.
The student may be introduced to the Academic Misconduct Panel to be considered for
a fail mark for a submitted work that has a similarity index of 31% or higher.