Students

BUS 303 – International Business Project

2019 – S2 Day

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor and Lecturer
Yue Wang
Contact via Email
Please view consultation hours via iLearn - https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/
Credit points Credit points
3
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Corequisites Corequisites
BUS301
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
This unit integrates the materials that are covered in BUS201, BUS202 and BUS301 and requires students (individually or in teams) to complete two major research projects in international business under the supervision of a faculty member. By the end of the unit students gain a sound understanding of how to research and analyse an international business or industry, as well as how the various concepts covered in previous units fit together.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Integrate academic knowledge and skills learned in previous IB units to identify, analyse and solve practical management problems
  • Apply your academic learning to reflect on real-world experience and contemporary business issues presented by speakers from a range of industries
  • Employ problem solving skills for a mini-consulting project to address the business problems and challenges identified by speakers from participating companies
  • Collaborate with a team to contribute to the development of a group project for client companies

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Individual project report 40% No Week 12
Group project presentation 40% No Week 7 - Week 13
Reflection and Participation 20% No Weekly

Individual project report

Due: Week 12
Weighting: 40%

Individual Project Report Assessment Summary Task Description Every student will need to work on a project assignment provided by participating companies' guest speakers and write a project report.  The assessment task requires students to conduct original research, which involves the collection and analysis of information from a range of sources and the recommendation of solutions for clients. Students should also try to use concepts, frameworks and theories learned from previous units (especially BUS201, BUS202, and BUS301) to address the problems and issues identified by industry speakers.   Type of Collaboration Individual Submission Please Submit Via Turnitin Link on iLearn Format Please refer to the iLearn Unit page  Length 3000 words (excluding bibliography) Inherent Task Requirements None Late Submission

Late assignments must also be submitted through Turnitin. No extensions will be granted. There will be a deduction of 10% made from the total available marks for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late (for example, 25 hours late in submission incurs a 20% deduction). Late submissions will be accepted up to 96 hours after the due date and time.

This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for Special Consideration is made and approved. Note: applications for Special Consideration Policy must be made within 5 (five) business days of the due date and time.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Integrate academic knowledge and skills learned in previous IB units to identify, analyse and solve practical management problems
  • Apply your academic learning to reflect on real-world experience and contemporary business issues presented by speakers from a range of industries
  • Employ problem solving skills for a mini-consulting project to address the business problems and challenges identified by speakers from participating companies

Group project presentation

Due: Week 7 - Week 13
Weighting: 40%

Group Project Presentation Assessment Summary Task Description

Group project encourages students to experience the partner organizations and the international business issues they face, and to assist the client companies in achieving the partner’s strategic purposes. Group members should work closely with each other to research, analyse, interpret and assess data and information from various sources, and to draw connections across fields of knowledge they learned in the university, in order to develop solutions and/or recommendations for the identified issues faced by client partners.

Your group project presentation is a formal and professional presentation that provides solutions or recommendations to the client partners on the issues defined by client partners’ speakers. Your presentation should built upon your creative and innovative application of knowledge and skills learned in the previous units. Students should apply critical and integrative thinking and innovation capabilities to develop appropriate and realistic business proposals or solutions in a professional fashion.

The assessment task requires students to work as a team to conduct original research, which involves the collection and analysis of information from a range of sources and the recommendation of solutions for clients. Students should also use concepts, frameworks and theories learned from previous units (especially BUS201, BUS202, and BUS301) to address the problems and issues identified by industry speakers.

This assessment task is composed of two parts: a group mark on group presentation performance (20%) and an individual mark on individual performance during the presentation (20%).

Type of Collaboration Group Submission Group Presentation (In class) Format Please refer to the iLearn Unit page  Length 45 minutes  Inherent Task Requirements Tutorial attendance is required to complete this task.  Late 

No extensions will be granted. Students who have not participated in the group project presentation or have not contributed to the preparation of the group presentation will be awarded a mark of zero for the task.

This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for Special Consideration is made and approved. Note: applications for Special Consideration Policy must be made within 5 (five) business days of the due date and time. 

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Integrate academic knowledge and skills learned in previous IB units to identify, analyse and solve practical management problems
  • Apply your academic learning to reflect on real-world experience and contemporary business issues presented by speakers from a range of industries
  • Employ problem solving skills for a mini-consulting project to address the business problems and challenges identified by speakers from participating companies
  • Collaborate with a team to contribute to the development of a group project for client companies

Reflection and Participation

Due: Weekly
Weighting: 20%

Reflection and Seminar participation Assessment Summary Task Description As a participation unit, the success of the course depends heavily on students' active participation in and critical reflection on the course topics. That's why we have designed a Seminar and Conference series (i.e. lectures) and a Mentoring and Reflection series (i.e. tutorials) to give students an opportunity to reflect regularly on their learning throughout the course. It is important that students take advantage of the opportunity to actively participate in the Seminar and Conference series (i.e. lectures) and reflect on their learning and contribute to the class discussion during the Mentoring and Reflection series (i.e. tutorials). Type of Collaboration Individual Submission

From week 2, during each week’s lecture, your lecturer will distribute a Seminar Participation and Reflection Sheet to the entire class. During each week’s tutorials, your tutor will collate every week’s Seminar Participation and Reflection Sheet for each student and give a mark at the end of the semester, based primarily on your participation record with consideration to the quality of your comments and reflections. Seminar Participation and Reflection Sheets are used for keeping a record of your participation in lectures and will not be returned to students

Format Please refer to the iLearn Unit page  Length   Inherent Task Requirements

Attendance for both Seminar and Conference series (i.e. lectures) and Mentoring and Reflection series (i.e. tutorials) is required to complete this task: 10% for your participation in lectures and 10% for your participation in tutorials.

Please, do NOT forget to return/submit the signed Seminar Participation and Reflection Sheet to your tutor in each week's tutorials, failing to do so will be treated as 'no show' in the seminars (i.e. lectures)

Late Submission

No extensions will be granted.

This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for Special Consideration is made and approved. Note: applications for Special Consideration Policy must be made within 5 (five) business days of the due date and time. 

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Integrate academic knowledge and skills learned in previous IB units to identify, analyse and solve practical management problems
  • Apply your academic learning to reflect on real-world experience and contemporary business issues presented by speakers from a range of industries

Delivery and Resources

Required text
  • There is no prescribed textbook for the unit, relevant readings and links to various learning resources will be uploaded to iLearn to help students develop their projects.
  • Throughout this course students are expected to relate the topics/issues/projects presented in Seminar and Conference series (i.e. lectures) to previous units' material (theories, models, concepts, readings etc.) for developing problem-solving skills.
  • Students need to creatively apply what they have learned in previous units into the development of projects as prescribed by client partners.
  • It is expected that students will be able to conduct independent and collaborative research to address the issues/challenges as presented by guest speakers from participating companies.
Unit web page The web page for this unit can be found at: https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/
Technology Used and Required Students will need to be familiar with a web browser to access the unit web page.
Delivery Format and Other Details
  • This unit includes an individual project and a group-based project as part of the PACE program. It requires students to integrate the materials covered in previous years' International Business units and apply them to international business problems as presented by the Client Partners. Its objectives are to investigate what kind of factors influence the international business strategies within an organisation to work towards achieving a competitive advantage.
  • The classes are conducted through a series of seminars (i.e. lectures) by industry speakers, mentoring and reflection workshops (i.e. tutorials) where students discuss and reflect upon what they have learned in the industry seminars, and mini-conferences where students showcase and present their projects around the Client Partners’ specified international business problem/s. Throughout the unit, the emphasis is on the analytical process: identifying information needs, acquiring the necessary information, interpreting it and using it as the basis for developing business recommendations or solutions for the Client Partners.
  • Number and length of classes: 1 x 2 hour Seminar and Conference series and 1 x 1 hour Mentoring and Reflection series - tutorial, i.e. 3 hours face to face per week unless indicated otherwise in the lecture schedule. Classes may vary due to public holiday(s)
  • In Seminar series, speakers from participating companies will deliver their talks and/or prescribe a set of real world business issues, problems and challenges for students to develop their group and individual research projects.

  • In Conference series, selected students (individual and/or group) will showcase their projects through in-lecture presentations (individual and/or group). Invited speakers will listen to students presentations and offer feedback and suggestions. These showcase presentations will allow client partners from diverse business sectors to converse with and engage specific students, and to potentially recruit them for either volunteer roles, mentoring programs, or formal employment. Students will benefit from building their collaborative relationships with client companies to gain further professional mentoring and to enhance their employment-seeking efforts.

    Mentoring and Reflection series (i.e. tutorials) is where students reflect on what they have learned in the Seminar and Conference series by linking guest speakers' talks with knowledge and skills learned in previous units

  • Tutorials will commence in Week 2
  • The timetable for classes can be found on the University web site at:  http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/
Recommended readings Please Refer to iLearn.

Unit Schedule

Week

Lecture Topic & Readings

Tutorial Topic

Week 1

Associate Professor Yue Wang

No Tutorials

Week 2

Brendon Cho, Exetel

Week 2 Reflection workshop:

Group and presentation allocation What did you learn from the industry speaker?

Additional online material: How a tiny country bordering Russia became one of the most tech-savvy societies in the world

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/08/how-estonia-became-a-digital-society.html

Week 3

Pradeep Khanna, Global Mindset

Week 3 Reflection workshop:

What did you learn from the industry speaker?

Additional online material: A tale of two toymakers: Mattel soars, Hasbro sinks, but there's more to the story

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/08/a-tale-of-two-toy-makers-mattel-soars-hasbro-sinks.html

Week 4

David Provest, IBM

Week 4 Reflection workshop:

What did you learn from the industry speaker?

Additional online material: How have Chinese firms evolved? Your grandfather's Buick is hot in China, but maybe not for long

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/07/why-china-is-so-important-to-buicks-survival.html

Week 5

Nick Polidoros, HIS Global

Week 5 Reflection workshop:

What did you learn from the industry speaker?

Additional online material: What are your thoughts on the dynamic auto industry changes towards sustainability?

GM is going 'all-electric,' but it doesn't expect to make money off battery-powered cars until early next decade

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/06/gm-doesnt-expect-to-make-money-off-electric-cars-until-ne xt-decade.html?recirc=taboolainternal

Week 6

Andrea Hoymann, Sinorbis

Week 6 Reflection workshop:

What did you learn from the industry speaker?

How to prepare for group project presentations?

Week 7

Jonty Ephron - Rabobank

Week 7: Group 1 Presentation

 

Mid Semester Break

 

Week 8

TBC

Week 8 Group 2 Presentation

Week 9

Public Holiday, no lecture

Week 9 Group 3 Presentation (no tutorials/presentations for Monday classes in this week)

Week 10

Dr. Partha Mukherjee, AIBC

Week 10 Group 4 Presentation

Week 11

Mike Boyle, HP

Week 11 Group 5 Presentation

Week 12

Student Showcase Presentations

Week 12 Group 6 Discussion

Week 13

Student Showcase Presentations

Week 13 Group 7 Presentation

The Unit Schedule is subject to change depending on participating companies' availability.

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Undergraduate students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/getting-started/student-conduct​

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

PACE-specific Policies

PACE prizes All PACE students are eligible to apply for the annual Professor Judyth Sachs PACE Prize.  This prestigious prize for outstanding achievement in a PACE activity is recorded on academic transcripts and the Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement  https://students.mq.edu.au/experience/practical-experience/pace-experience/apply-for-a-prize

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au

If you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Graduate Capabilities

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Integrate academic knowledge and skills learned in previous IB units to identify, analyse and solve practical management problems
  • Apply your academic learning to reflect on real-world experience and contemporary business issues presented by speakers from a range of industries
  • Employ problem solving skills for a mini-consulting project to address the business problems and challenges identified by speakers from participating companies
  • Collaborate with a team to contribute to the development of a group project for client companies

Assessment tasks

  • Individual project report
  • Group project presentation
  • Reflection and Participation

Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Integrate academic knowledge and skills learned in previous IB units to identify, analyse and solve practical management problems
  • Apply your academic learning to reflect on real-world experience and contemporary business issues presented by speakers from a range of industries
  • Employ problem solving skills for a mini-consulting project to address the business problems and challenges identified by speakers from participating companies
  • Collaborate with a team to contribute to the development of a group project for client companies

Assessment tasks

  • Individual project report
  • Group project presentation
  • Reflection and Participation

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Integrate academic knowledge and skills learned in previous IB units to identify, analyse and solve practical management problems
  • Apply your academic learning to reflect on real-world experience and contemporary business issues presented by speakers from a range of industries
  • Employ problem solving skills for a mini-consulting project to address the business problems and challenges identified by speakers from participating companies
  • Collaborate with a team to contribute to the development of a group project for client companies

Assessment tasks

  • Individual project report
  • Group project presentation
  • Reflection and Participation

Effective Communication

We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Integrate academic knowledge and skills learned in previous IB units to identify, analyse and solve practical management problems
  • Employ problem solving skills for a mini-consulting project to address the business problems and challenges identified by speakers from participating companies

Assessment tasks

  • Individual project report
  • Group project presentation
  • Reflection and Participation

Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens

As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Integrate academic knowledge and skills learned in previous IB units to identify, analyse and solve practical management problems
  • Apply your academic learning to reflect on real-world experience and contemporary business issues presented by speakers from a range of industries
  • Employ problem solving skills for a mini-consulting project to address the business problems and challenges identified by speakers from participating companies

Assessment tasks

  • Individual project report
  • Group project presentation

Changes from Previous Offering

Participating companies have changed and new industry projects are used for students assignments

Changes since First Published

Date Description
17/07/2019 Pace Prizes Added