Description:
Please compare Sainsbury's with that of Waitrose.
Formal Report:
The individual report should consist of 5,000 words and be submitted in the format of a management report. There should be a clear structure with an executive summary giving an indication of what the report contains, a main body with clearly defined sections/topics addressing relevant strategic and operational considerations, and a conclusion /recommendation summing up what has been presented and outlining the specific recommendation(s) being made to the organisation. Please pay particular attention to the coherence of the report (does it make sense?), and the presentation; grammar, spelling, punctuation, paragraphing etc. Also ensure that relevant theoretical concepts are appropriately integrated into the write-up.
WORD COUNT:
Students need to state the word count at the end of the assignment. 10% over the stated word count is permitted without penalty. If students go beyond this, then there is a penalty of 5 marks for every additional 10% beyond the word count with a maximum of a 15 mark penalty reduction. The word count includes the Abstract or Executive Summary and all in-text citations. The word count excludes the Bibliography and Appendices. Please note that Appendices should only include supplementary information. There is no specific penalty for submitting a piece which is below the word count, but please note that shorter submissions are likely to attract poorer grades, particularly where they lack the necessary depth of analysis.
The university subscribes to Turnitin Software. This is an online plagiarism detection service that enables electronic comparison of students’ work against Internet sources and other students’ work held on the Turnitin UK database. It is available to both staff and students via Moodle. Students can access it as a learning tool via the Moodle Student Support site. More details can be found on the “Academic Skills Development” module on Moodle.
Please be aware that every submission will be scanned for plagiarism using this software, so ensure that you are aware of what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it. If you are in any doubt about submission requirements or whether your work could be considered as plagiarised, please contact your module tutor before the hand-in date for clarification.
READING LIST:
Core Texts:
Johnson, G., Whittington, R. and Scholes, K. (2011) Exploring Corporate Strategy: Texts and Cases 9th Ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Essential Texts:
Davies, W. (2009), Reinventing the Firm (London: Demos).
Parkin, S. (2010), The Positive Deviant: Sustainability Leadership in a Perverse World (London: Earthscan).
Ridley-Duff, R. and Bull, M. (2011), Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory and Practice (London: Sage).
Background Texts:
Cumbers, A. (2012), ‘Making Space for Economic Democracy: Decentred Public Ownership and the Danish Wind Power Revolution’ from Reclaiming Public Ownership (London: Zed).
Finlay, P. (2000) Strategic management: an introduction to business and corporate strategy. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Hill, C.W. and Jones, G.R. (2009) Theory of strategic management with cases 8th Ed. Scarborough, ON: Cengage.
Lynch, R. (2000) Corporate Strategy 2nd Ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Thompson, J. and Martin, F. (2005) Strategic management: awareness and change 5th ed. London: Thomson.
Journal papers (suggested background reading):
Mintzberg, H. and Waters, J. A. (1985), ‘Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent’, Strategic Management Journal, 6/3: 257-272.
Porter, M. E. (1996), ‘What is Strategy?’, Harvard Business Review, Nov.-Dec.
Porter, M. E. and Kramer, M. (2011), ‘Creating Shared Value’, Harvard Business Review, 89/1-2: 62-77.
Sargut, G. and McGrath, R. (2011), ‘Learning to Live with Complexity’, Harvard Business Review, September.
Walker, D. H. T., Bourne, L. M., and Shelley, A. (2008), ‘Influence, Stakeholder Mapping and Visualization’, Construction Management and Economic, 26: 645–658