Primark and Consumer Responses to Ethical Fashion Retailing

Objectives/ Learning Outcomes

The coursework assessment enables you to partially demonstrate the learning outcomes required for the successful completion of the module, particularly:

·         Evaluating secondary data sources such as market research reports and academic literature to frame a research question

·         Demonstrating understanding of development, conduct, analysis and interpretation of market, business and academic research to propose a research plan

·         Working creatively with quantitative and qualitative (and potentially alternative) research methods

·         Understanding of ethical issues in market, business and academic research that apply to your proposal

·         Producing a succinct, well-argued and well-presented research proposal.

This element of the coursework prepares you for final year project, in terms of content, structure and word count. It also prepares you for commissioning, using and developing marketing research in future careers. For more details see module specification and module booklet.

The Research Proposal

The Research Proposal is an outline of a proposed mixed methods research design for a topic chosen from the list of the 9 provided (see Appendix A). This is the kind of document that a market research agency would present to a client to pitch for, win and guide a large market research project. Examples are provided in tutorials, on Blackboard and in the recommended text books. No primary data collection is required.

Although practically-focused, this assessment requires an academic slant to justify your choices. You are expected to integrate academic concepts and theories from throughout the module, and your own reading, to underpin your work and justify the choices you are making. In this regard it is essential that you properly reference all books, academic articles, websites and other reference sources used in your report.

The research proposal follows the same overall structure as the module lectures and tutorials, taking you through the 4Ps of a market research plan:

·         Purpose: analysing existing academic/practitioner literature to develop a research aim and objectives, and to identify appropriate methods for your own proposal.

·         Population: identifying and justifying the sample size, type and recruitment methods, and ensuring participants are accessible, for each stage of the proposed research.

·         Procedures: outlining your proposed qualitative AND quantitative data collection methods, ensuring they would gather robust data, and how you will combine these methodologies, justifying your choices.

·         Publication: ensuring that resulting research would be robust, valid, and appropriate for your research aim, satisfying your client and other researchers in the area.

More specifically, the following word counts and content should be considered, with weightings for marking each section indicated accordingly:

Introduction and literature review: 20%

These consist of:

·         Executive summary (c.100 words)

·         Introduction summarizing and justifying the need for research, and signposting content of the proposal (c.200 words)

·         Literature review – a short review of key academic theories (8-10 papers) and practice relevant to the topic, also reviewing/critiquing research methods used by academics and practitioners in the field (c.900 words)

Aims and objectives: 10% (c.75 words)

• Clearly defined overall research aim derived from literature review.
• Objectives (as bullets) suitable for each research approach i.e. qualitative and quantitative, that will achieve your aim

The following methodology sections MUST link to what you found in your literature review, and achieve your aim and objectives. The qualitative section usually goes before the quantitative section, however as long as you use an integrated mixed methods approach, which you justify, this can be adapted to suit your own plan, but there must a section for each methodology. A brief introduction to how you plan to integrate the two methodologies is advised.

Qualitative methodology: 25%

This section requires:

·         Clear sampling plan, including population, sampling frame, sample size, intended recruitment methods/issues with access and any requirements for incentives (c.150 words)

·         Outline of qualitative data collection method(s), and commentary on how these will be carried out to ensure robust data is gathered. This should describe how you would prepare materials such as moderator’s guides (though no actual moderator’s guide is required) and details about conducting the research (where/when/how) (c.760 words)

·         Plans for data presentation, coding, analysis and interpretation suitable for qualitative research (c.150 words).

Quantitative methodology: 25%

This section usually goes after the qualitative section and requires:

·         Clear sampling plan, including population, sampling frame, sample size, intended recruitment methods/issues with access and any requirements for incentives (c.150 words)

·         Outline of quantitative data collection method(s), and commentary on how these will be carried out to ensure robust data is gathered. This should describe how you would prepare materials such as a questionnaire (though no actual questionnaire is required) and details about conducting the research (where/when/how) to maximize generalizability and reliability (c.760 words)

·         Plans for data presentation, coding, analysis and interpretation suitable for quantitative research (c.150 words).

Ethics, Limitations, Timings: 10%

·         Outline of ethical issues arising through the research and how these would be  addressed (c.150 words)

·         Description of any unavoidable limitations of the research that threaten robustness of the study, measures taken to reduce them (c.150 words)

·         Proposed time frame for the research, ideally using Gantt chart (c.50 words)

·         Brief closing summary (c.100 words)

Overall presentation: 10%

10% of the marks available will be used to assess the degree to which you:

• Develop an effective structure for addressing all the tasks
• Maintain a succinct and compelling style throughout
• Provide accurate references for all researched or quoted material (including background information on organisations)
• Use grammatically correct English without spelling errors
• Provide a professional format for a document being used to ‘pitch’ for a valuable marketing research opportunity

Overall, we are looking for cohesive and logical research methods that build upon each other to achieve your research aim and objectives. The marking criteria have been split between the key sections of the assignment, and reflect the content and quality of each section and the proposal as a whole. See the marking grid below for how this is applied at each grade level.

A marking grid is used to calculate your mark for each of the sections identified above. Sections are weighted as outlined above. Word counts reflect this weighting.

All work should be word processed in 12 point font Times New Roman or Arial and double spaced.

All work must be submitted as a Word document (either with a .doc or a .docx extension)

Please ensure that you provide the following details on the first page of your coursework:

• Student Number (but not your name)
• Module Name and Number
• Word Count
• Coursework topic (from list in Appendix A)

We encourage you to present your work as a professional document as would be presented in a real-world pitch situation, in order to win an account worth £10,000-100,000 i.e. with a front cover, contents, page numbers, suitable headings and subheadings and attention to detail. Bullets, tables, diagrams and succinct writing are encouraged.

The word limit for this coursework is 4000 words

• Word count includes everything in the main body of the text (including headings, tables, citations, quotes, lists, etc.).
• The references are NOT included in the word count.
• There is no direct penalty for exceeding the word count but the marker WILL stop reading once the word limit has been reached and nothing further will be taken into account in the allocation of marks.

You can view the UWE word count policy here: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/aboutus/policies

Please ensure you adhere to the principles of good academic practice and ensure you use the UWE Harvard system to reference your work. Failure to properly reference your work to original source material can be grounds for the assessment offence of plagiarism and may result in failure of the assessment or have more serious implications.

For further guidance on correct referencing go to:

http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/studysupport/studyskills/referencing.aspx

Details of what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it can be found here:

http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/studysupport/studyskills/readingandwriting/plagiarism.aspx

For general guidance on how to avoid assessment offences see:

http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/academicadvice/assessments/assessmentoffences.aspx

You must submit your assignment before the stated deadline by electronic submission through Blackboard. Notification that the electronic submission portal is open for your assignment is displayed (usually two weeks before the submission date) in the Coursework tab in myUWE, the Assignments tab in Blackboard and via an announcement in the Blackboard course.

Please ensure you allow sufficient time to upload your script, noting that the system becomes busier and slower as the deadline approaches. Only your final upload will be counted. Ensure all your information is submitted at one attempt to avoid ‘overwriting’ your intended submission. Always check and retain your receipts.

Late submission in the 24 hours following the deadline will be accepted but the assignment mark will be capped at 40%. Submissions after 24 hours will not be accepted. For full guidance on online submission through Blackboard, see:

http://info.uwe.ac.uk/online/Blackboard/students/guides/assignments/default.asp

Submissions of coursework by any other method (including a paper copy, on disc, by email or by fax) are NOT permissible for this module unless specifically agreed in advance of the submission date.

Before submitting your work, please ensure the following:

• That you have proof read your work thoroughly to ensure your work is presented appropriately
• That you have addressed all the required elements of the assessment
• That you have referenced in accordance with the guidance provided
• That you have addressed each of the marking criterion
• That the submission is in the correct format

Please note feedback can take many forms and can be summative (provided for work completed) or formative (provided for on-going work or activities i.e. final year projects).

Feedback on this module is provided as

·         Tutorials that cover similar examples, where you receive feedback to apply to the topic of your assignment

·         Workshops devoted to formative feedback on the structure and style of your work so far

·         Café MET drop-in to provide to formative feedback on the structure and style of your work so far

·         Written comments on individual written assessment submissions.

For further guidance on feedback, please refer to the module handbook.

Guidance on study skills: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/studysupport/studyskills.aspx

Support from the FBL Academic Success Centre (2B076):

http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/bl/bbs/aboutus/studentexperience/academicsupportcentre.aspx

Guidance on UWE assessment regulations and terminology: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/academicadvice/assessments/assessmentsguide.aspx

Guidance on using the library: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/library/usingthelibrary.aspx

Appointments with a student adviser can be made via an Information Point or online at:

http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/academicadvice/studentadvisers.aspx

The Student Support Adviser will advise as to your options, how to proceed and what evidence is required to support the application.

Further details can be found here:

http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/academicadvice/additionalassessmentsupport.aspx