8.2.1 Assignment - 50%

One assignment with five parts is due throughout the program.

You are required to read each of the set case studies, or journal articles in the teaching schedule and answer each set question in paragraph form. Your focus should be primarily on the marketing theory you are being asked to discuss. You must source a minimum of one additional journal article from the Journal of Services Marketing or the Journal of Services Research which relates to topics discussed in your readings for the tutorial. Information from the journal article should be used to support your solution and you must correctly reference the article both in-text as an in-text citation using the Harvard author date method, as well as at the end of your solution by including a full reference to the article.

Submissions are to be formatted as follows; one single A4 page (strict page limit), size 11 times new roman font, single line spacing, registered student name, and student ID number printed at top of page along with topic title of submission. Each topic should amount to 500 words each, and a total of 2500 for all five combined. They are to be submitted to your tutor before your tutorial. Please bring a duplicate print out copy of your solution to class in preparation for class discussion and presentation. You will be split in to groups for discussion. The weekly set questions are outlined in the Teaching schedule table.

Note: Each submission will only be considered for the maximum 10% mark per piece if the student attends the duration of the tutorial in which he/she is submitting his/her submission. If a student does not attend the class, or arrives late/leaves early, the submission will not be accepted or marked. Late submissions are not accepted and will be graded as a zero. Exceeding the page limit will lead to a 2 mark reduction out of 10 marks in the final mark. Incorrect referencing in-text or in the reference list will lead to a deduction of 2 of the 10 possible marks. Failure to use one journal article to support your solutions will lead to a deduction of 2 of the possible 10 marks.

Aside from analysis of the case material, students are expected to actively engage with their class audience in order to generate meaningful class discussion and active class debate. Involvement in this discussion, analysis, presentation and debate process will contribute strongly to each students semester participation mark. From time to time you will be called on by the tutor to verbally present your analysis. Those students who have not prepared prior to class will be asked to leave the class.

Students will be placed into groups in Teaching week 2. Groups can choose to study one of the following sectors:

·           Hotels, travel, airlines, banking, retail (not online retail),

The major objectives are:

1.    To demonstrate an excellent understanding of key services marketing concepts presented throughout the course

2.    To strongly support your understanding of these concepts using current journal article research (literature review)

3.    To identify the relevance of this material to your chosen service sector

4.    To critically evaluate the service provided within your chosen sector using qualitative methods including;

a.    in depth interviews (minimum of 8 x 30 minute to 1hr) OR

b.    focus group research (maximum of 2 groups, 5-8 participants per group)

c.    OR a mixture of both interviews and focus groups

NB. Your sample must be current users of services within the service category you have selected. You must develop an interview guide and transcripts must be included in your appendix

5.    To develop managerial implications based on your theoretical and strategic critical analysis to improve service performance for providers within your chosen sector.

Content  of report – ROUGH GUIDE & INITIAL THOUGHT STARTERS

Service Marketing Theory – The big questions

ü  Why is understanding service management and marketing important?

ü  What are the benefits if service provision is done well eg. Loyalty, retention, satisfaction, word of mouth recommendation?

ü  Select one of the following focal theoretical aspects of service marketing:

Managing customer complaints & service recovery

Managing customer service & relationships

ü  Why is this aspect important and what needs to be understood about it?

ü  Provide a literature review of services marketing theory in this focal area

ü  What does the literature say about this area, definitions, what has been investigated, what are the challenges, what are the opportunities, what needs to be better understood?

ü  What does the literature say about your focal theoretical aspect relative to your chosen sector/industry

ü  What are the unique service challenges that it faces (i.e. contextualise the study)

ü  What are you going to therefore focus your qualitative research on in this report?

ü  What do you wish to investigate and how?

Analysis  & Discussion

• Context – category; who, what, where, why, how?
• Key service issues defined, described, and their importance outlined
• Methodology – how did you collect your sample, table summary of their characteristics, demographics etc, how did you thematically analyse the material
• Discussion of findings in detail grouped around key themes identified by your research and linked back to the services marketing theory and/or theoretical framework you have presented
• Critical and integrated use of qualitative verbatim excerpts to illustrate your points – remember your task is to ‘tell the story’ of your participants and present rich, insightful analysis
• Critical evaluation of service challenges and major issues of concern highlighted

Recommendations & Managerial Implications

• Detailed recommendations developed for the category relative to your theoretical and practical findings – so what should firms in your sector do or focus on etc?
• Recommendations linked to critical evaluation of theory and data

Report is due to be submitted in your week 13 tutorial class and should be handed directly to your tutor.

The report should be no more than 3,500 words (excluding reference list, appendices, tables, figures, and abstract/executive summary but including in text references). Reports should be submitted in hardcopy (double-spaced; 12 pt). A copy of the final report should also be emailed to the tutor. A turnitin report outlining the similarity index should also be included with your submission. Referencing should be based on the Harvard Author-Date convention. Appendix should contain ALL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS as well as INTERVIEW GUIDE. NB. The report is subject to peer review and therefore will be marked on an individual basis. Late submissions will not be accepted and will receive a zero. Failure to include a complete appendix with transcripts of focus groups and interviews will lead to an automatic deduction of 10 of the total 30 marks available. Exceeding the word limit will lead to a deduction of 10 of the total 30 marks available.

In week 8 and 9 students will be expected to present the theoretical aspects of their group report including their journal article based literature review and the broad application of this literature to their industry sector.

The presenting group is expected to creatively and actively involve the audience in some aspect of their presentation. Not all members of the group need to present. All members should be involved in development of the presentation and content. Presentations will be marked on an individual basis through the use of peer review. The time limit is strict and exceeding it will lead to a deduction of a total of 1 of the 5 marks allocated. The presentation should be a maximum of 10 minutes in length. It should cover the following;

The presenting group will cover the following aspects;

1.            Introduce the group and the topic angle.

2.            Provide a detailed presentation of the theoretical topic drawing on research based evidence and insights from journal article and industry research.

3.            Provide an example of how the theory may operate when applied to a specific industry sector based on your journal research

4.            Class activity

5.            Summarise the key take outs from the presentation topic on one slide and conclude

Multiple choice test consisting of 50 multiple choice questions conducted over 30 minutes on the Friday of week 6 between 5am and midnight that day. This test assesses your knowledge of the chapters covered to date. Late attempts will receive a zero score. Quiz available via iLearn.