ASSESSMENT GUIDE
COMM1180
Value Creation
Term 2, 2024
Course Learning Outcomes (CLO)
CLO1: Apply critical thinking and ethical decision making, to define and measure value from different perspectives to know when value is (and is not) created.
CLO2: Compare basic strategies to create value for and from customers, and a recognition that such value can be financial and non-financial.
CLO3: Collaborate effectively in a team to address business problems, incorporate different perspectives, produce quality work according to agreed plan, and provide constructive feedback.
CLO4: Explain how to value financial assets and measure the value created or destroyed by investment decisions.
CLO5: Explain how information systems enable strategies to drive value creation for organisations by transforming people, processes, and technology.
Assessment Details
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Due Date Weighting Format Length/Duration Submission
Turnitin
Turnitin is an originality checking and plagiarism prevention tool that enables checking of submitted written work for improper citation or misappropriated content. Each Turnitin assignment is checked against other students' work, the Internet and key resources selected by your Course Coordinator.
If you are instructed to submit your assessment via Turnitin, you will find the link to the Turnitin submission in your Moodle course site. You can submit your assessment well before the deadline and use the Similarity Report to improve your academic writing skills before submitting your final version.
You can find out more information in the Turnitin information site for students.
Late Submissions
The parameters for late submissions are outlined in the UNSW Assessment Implementation Procedure. If you submit your assessments after the due date, you will incur penalties for late submission unless you have Special Consideration (see below). Late submission is 5% per day (including weekends), calculated from the marks allocated to that assessment (not your grade). Assessments will not be accepted more than 5 days late.
Extensions
You are expected to manage your time to meet assessment due dates. If you do require an extension to your assessment, please make a request as early as possible before the due date via the special consideration portal on myUNSW. You can find more information on Special Consideration and the application process below. The Teaching Team do not have the ability to grant extensions.
Special Consideration
Special consideration is the process for assessing the impact of short-term events beyond your control (exceptional circumstances), on your performance in a specific assessment task. There are exceptional circumstances or situations that may:
• Prevent you from completing a course requirement,
• Keep you from attending an assessment,
• Stop you from submitting an assessment,
• Significantly affect your assessment performance.
Available here is a list of circumstances that may be beyond your control. This is only a list of examples, and your exact circumstances may not be listed.
You can find more detail and the application form. on the Special Consideration site, or in the UNSW Special Consideration Application and Assessment Information for Students.
Assessment 1: Weekly Checkpoint Questions
Description of assessment task
Short weekly checkpoint questions have been placed at the end of the pre-lecture modules in the form. of online Moodle quizzes.
Approach to the assessment task
The Weekly Checkpoint Questions are meant as an open-book learning activity, not a "closed-book" summative assessment under time pressure. Thus, you will be allowed to refer to the pre-lecture learning materials to double-check your responses before submission.
Depending on the week, the number of Weekly Checkpoint Questions may differ. Before you can access any Weekly Checkpoint Questions, you will need to complete the corresponding pre-lecture module under the relevant section on Moodle. You will have up to two attempts for each Moodle Quiz and the best attempt will count as your grade for that week. Out of a total of nine weekly Moodle Quizzes (no Quiz during Week 6 Flexibility Week), the best eight will count for your final grade for this assessment task (at 2% each Quiz).
Structure
Moodle Quiz with up to two attempts allowed for each weekly quiz.
Assessment 2A: Individual Milestone
Description of assessment task
You are a consultant who has been appointed by a publicly listed company to work on a specific project. You have been tasked by the company’s strategic team to gather information about the organisation and assess its value creation mechanisms.
Your task is to investigate the operations of this publicly listed company, analyse its corporate identity, mission and purpose, examine its alignment with its stated objectives, identify target stakeholder groups, and assess key stakeholders using relevant frameworks.
Approach to the assessment task
1. Company Selection
Select a publicly listed company that meets the following criteria:
• is listed on a major stock exchange (ASX, NYSE, NASDAQ, Euronext and SSE)
• company name starts with a letter from Q through to Z
• has published a detailed annual report in English within the last 12 months that covers both the company’s actions and values
Post your selected company to the Discussion Forum on Moodle. You are not allowed to analyse a company that has already been chosen by another student. Thus, each student must select a different company – first come, first served.
2. Research Task
Write complete but succinct answers to the questions below using clear, professional language. You should refer to what you have learnt about these key concepts during the lectures and tutorials.
• Introduce your choice of company [100-150 suggested word count]
o Provide a high-level description of the company’s public profile.
o Provide a short justification for your choice.
• Analyse and evaluate the company’s corporate identity [250-400 suggested word count]
o Identify the company’s mission/purpose. (Typically, an annual report and/or website will include a mission statement or highlight their values, aims or purpose using similar language in a prominent place. Mission statements are condensed and short. They require interpretation and context, often by citing additional evidence.)
o Identify the company’s “why” (in the sense of Edmans and Sinek.) Why does this company exist?
o How specific is the company’s purpose? What makes it specific (or not) to your company? In other words, could a different company use the same language?
o Compare the corporate identity to the concrete actions taken by the company. Can you find evidence that their words correspond to their recent concrete actions? Provide evidence to support your assessment.
o Pay special attention to the corporate actions you choose to discuss. They should be relevant and somewhat representative (i.e. not the one outlier action among 99 other actions that the company has taken).
• Analyse the stakeholder group you think is being addressed in the annual report
[300-350 suggested word count]
o Define the stakeholder group. Who are they? Has their relationship to the company changed over time or stayed stable? How has this happened?
o Assess how the company creates (or destroys) value for this stakeholder group in the normal course of business. Would the same activities affect another stakeholder in the opposite direction?
• Assess the corporate actions under the three frameworks [400-450 suggested word count]
o Identify an action that the company has taken (or is taking)
o Analyse this action and judge whether it is supported or rejected by the following frameworks:
▪ Shareholder Primacy
▪ Corporate Social Responsibility
▪ Grow the Pie/Pieconomics
o Compare whether the framework supports or rejects this action being taken.
o Be sure to address all aspects of the frameworks and make sure you convey to the reader that you understand the “mindset” of the frameworks, rather than mechanically listing criteria.
• Conclusion [100-150 suggested word count]
o Write a brief conclusion to summarise the main points, findings, and arguments presented in this report.
Assessment writing guidance
Use appropriate headings and avoid writing using bullet points for a professional report.
Choose appropriate headers that allow readers to anticipate the content of the next segment.
Paragraphs should not be too short (1-2 sentences) and not too long (10+ sentences) as they form. logical units to advance an argument. Typically, a new paragraph starts a different argument or thought. Similarly, sentences should not be too short and disjointed but also not extend over entire paragraphs.
Do not repeat questions or tasks from the project guide.
Avoid generalities and superficialities. Be as specific as possible by providing relevant information and detail. Do not add unnecessary fillers to make up the word count.
No executive summary, abstract or table of contents need to be included for this report.
All references used need to be cited following the Harvard referencing style. The Harvard style. requires two elements: in-text citations throughout your report and a list of references at the end. You can find out more on the Harvard Referencing site, including how to cite different kinds of sources.
The main body of the report needs to be in Calibri or Aptos font size 12 with 1.5 line spacing and normal sized (2.54cm) margins all around. The footer must have your zID and page numbers clearly indicated.
Generative AI
The use of generative AI in creating or translating your work is NOT permitted for Assessment 2A (Individual Milestone). This includes ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Grammarly, Google Translate and similar apps/programs.
The purpose of this course and your UNSW degree is to demonstrate your understanding, knowledge and skills in the completion of the Course Learning Outcomes and the Program Learning Outcomes. This means using your own words to express your ideas, analysis, and comprehension of course concepts.
The Teaching Team reserves the right to ask students to show cause and meet with students to discuss about specific aspects of their reports when there are hints that AI tools have been used to produce any portion of the final submission.
Regardless of AI use, the Teaching Team will be on the lookout for general, superficial statements that could apply to any company at any time and will penalise the lack of specificity in the responses. Where possible, focus on and analyse those aspects that are unique to your chosen company.
To emphasise that you have done your own research, you must make use of in-text citations that directly correlate to the point at which you place them. Where you refer to the company’s annual report, you must provide a page reference. Try to find recent news articles from reputable sources (Wikipedia or Investopedia etc. are not admissible references). Note that fake references generated with or without AI assistance will result in an automatic FAIL for this assessment task.
Assessment 2A: Individual Milestone submission checklist
Please check that you have done the following before submitting your Individual Milestone to Turnitin via the Moodle course site:
Selected a company that meets all the specified criteria
Posted your selected company on the correct Moodle Discussion Forum
Attended the Library Research Skills Session (optional but strongly encouraged for all students; available online in Week 3)
Attended Q&A drop-in sessions with the Teaching Team in Weeks 3 and 4 (optional if you require further support)
Submitted a draft to Studiosity (optional if you want early feedback on your written work)
Proofread your written work for grammatical and spelling mistakes as well as correct referencing style.
Confirmed that no questions or instructions from Assessment 2A are included in your finalised report
Ensured that it is the final version submitted to Turnitin that you would like graded by the Teaching Team
Assessment 2B: Group Report
Description of assessment task
Following on from Assessment 2A: Individual Milestone, imagine now that you (as a consultant) are contracted to form. a group with other experienced consultants to prepare a report on the value creation activities of a selected publicly listed company.
Approach to the assessment task
1. Group Formation and Company Selection
Form. a group of 4-5 consultants with your classmates in the same tutorial group. Submit the details of your group members on Moodle. The group selection link opens on Monday 24th June (Week 5) and closes on Friday 12th July (Week 7).
As a group, select ONE of the companies that was analysed by a group member for Assessment 2A: Individual Milestone. Post your group’s selected company on Moodle in the same group selection link.
Record the selected company and group member details in a Team Charter and have all group members sign to acknowledge the group formation. A template will be provided to all groups to complete and will be available on the Moodle course site. Your group will need to include the completed and signed Team Charter as an Appendix in your final report submission.
2. Research Task
As a group, prepare a formal and professional report that will be presented to the senior management team of your selected company.
• Introduce your choice of company [100-150 suggested word count]
o Provide a high-level description of the company’s public profile.
• Core customers [300-400 suggested word count]
o Identify the core customer of the company.
o How well does the mission statement of the company define and/or relate to the core customer of the company?
o How does this compare with how the mission statements of the other organisations studied by your group members define and/or relate to their core customers?
• Persona and VP Canvas [250-350 suggested word count + VP Canvas in Appendix]
o Identify one customer segment for the company and outline a persona for that segment. What is the basis (or bases) of segmentation which define(s) this segment? Justify your choice of segmentation basis (or bases).
o Using the Value Proposition Canvas, identify the jobs-to-be-done, gains and pains for the customer segment, the company’s products, gain creators and pain relievers specifically for the chosen persona/customer segment.
o Discuss briefly, by providing a few examples, how the Value Proposition Canvas your group has developed for this persona/segment may differ from the Value Proposition for the core customer of the company.
o Submit the Value Proposition Canvas for the chosen persona/segment as part of your final report (in the Appendix).
• New VP and revenue streams [500-600 suggested word count]
o Discuss how the company can apply an already existing or emerging technology (e.g., VR/AR, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Blockchain, Internet of Things, 3D Printing …) to transform. its business model in terms of value proposition and revenue streams.
o Suggest a consumer application of the already existing or emerging technology that has the potential of transforming the company’s value proposition and revenue streams.
o Explain how the application can reshape the value proposition, from simply enhancing the current value in terms of the pains and gains (as described in your Persona and VP Canvas above) to introducing a novel value that is not currently covered in your report.
o Describe the current revenue streams of the company. Explain how the application can revolutionise the revenue streams, from simply optimising the current revenue stream(s) to generating new revenue stream(s).
• Pricing and value [200-300 suggested word count]
o Identify the main pricing objective of the company and justify your choice.
o What benefits and costs make up the customers’ perceived value of this company’s overall products/services?
• Investment decisions [400-500 suggested word count]
o Based on what has been discussed so far, identify and discuss three related investment projects that the company would have to make (or have made) along the way (as part of delivering on its value propositions and/or enhancing revenue streams).
o Evaluate and justify which investment evaluation technique(s) (NPV, IRR, PI, PP, EAA) the company would have likely applied to assess each of the three different investment projects.
• Conclusion [100-150 suggested word count]
o Write a brief conclusion to summarise the main points, findings, and arguments presented in this report.
3. Feedback from Studiosity
Access Studiosity via the Assessment 2 section in the Moodle course site. Each group will need to upload a draft of their Group Report into Studiosity by Monday 22nd July (Week 9) at the latest. Depending on demand, it can sometimes take several hours to a day to receive feedback from Studiosity.
Submit your initial draft and the individualised feedback you received from Studiosity via the submission link in Moodle by Wednesday 24th July (Week 9) 12pm AEST.
Studiosity is a service made available at UNSW to deliver online writing support to all students. The service is available 24/7. Students receive formative feedback on their written drafts on various aspects of writing, including grammar, vocabulary, structure and use of sources, by subject specialists. The feedback is personalised, ethical and quick, as students receive it typically within 24 hours of submission. Other features include personalised referrals to UNSW services, a range of learning resources and early alerts.
4. Team Meeting Notes and Minutes
A template will be provided to all groups on the Moodle course site as a guide to record the key issues discussed and any decisions made during team meetings.
Do not forget to record the date, time and names of group members attending. Write down each item or topic as it comes up in the meeting. It is important to keep these items brief but clear. Ensure to note any tasks or actions that are assigned during the meeting, along with who is responsible for each task (and any deadlines). Also, document any items that need to be discussed further (or require additional action before the next meeting).
At least TWO team meeting notes/minutes need to be included into the Appendix of the Group Report. The Teaching Team is not grading for the accuracy of the content but a decent attempt must be made to record the discussion undertaken during the meeting and to capture action items. This will be used to demonstrate evidence of PLO4: Teamwork (BCom students will receive myBCom course points for PLO4).
Assessment writing guidance
The report must be written in full paragraphs. Bullet points are inappropriate in almost all instances.
Be succinct in conveying the main point(s) of arguments. The Teaching Team will be on the lookout for general, superficial statements that could apply to any company at any time and will penalise the lack of specificity in your answers. Where possible, focus on and analyse those aspects that are unique to your selected company.
Choose meaningful headings to provide the reader with some structure to the report.
Do not repeat questions or tasks from the project guide.
Your final submission must include a title page indicating the selected company being analysed, group members’ names and zIDs, an introduction, body, conclusion, reference list, and appendix
No executive summary, abstract or table of contents need to be included for this report.
All references used need to be cited following the Harvard referencing style. The Harvard style. requires two elements: in-text citations throughout your report and a list of references at the end. You can find out more on the Harvard Referencing site, including how to cite different kinds of sources.
The main body of the report needs to be in Calibri or Aptos font size 12 with 1.5 line spacing and normal sized (2.54cm) margins all around. The footer must have the page numbers clearly indicated.
For additional report writing support, please refer to the following resources:
• UNSW Business School Academic Communication Essentials:
https://www.unsw.edu.au/business/student-life/study-support/learning-support-tools/academic-communication-essentials
• UNSW Writing Skills Support: https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/writing
Generative AI
The use of an AI tool, such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, is allowed for Assessment 2B (Group Project) for the purposes of planning or creative processes, generating initial drafts or ideas, and the general structure. However, in the later writing stages of this report, your group must then develop or edit the AI-generated ideas to such a significant extent that what is submitted is your own work (i.e. what is generated by the software should not be a part of your final submission).
The Teaching Team reserves the right to meet with students (individuals or groups) to ask about specific aspects of their reports when there are hints that AI tools have been used to produce any portion of the final submission that has not been re-developed or edited.
Your submission will be passed through multiple AI-text detection tools. If the Teaching Team has concerns that your answer contains passages of AI-generated text that have not been sufficiently modified you may be asked to explain your work, but we recognise that you are permitted to use AI generated text as a starting point and some traces may remain.
Where your group chooses to use AI tools at any time, you must include copies or screenshots of your prompts/conversation/outputs with the AI tools in the Appendix. You must also keep copies of your initial drafts to show the Teaching Team, if there is any uncertainty about the originality of your work.
Your Week 9 draft report and feedback from Studiosity will serve as further evidence of organic growth and development in your report. If you are unable to satisfactorily demonstrate your understanding of your submission, you may be referred to the UNSW Conduct & Integrity Office for investigation for academic misconduct and possible penalties.
Before you engage with any AI tools, please review these guides:
• Responsible Use of Generative AI Tools for UNSW students
• Use of AI for assessments
• How to Cite, Reference or Acknowledge Use of AI Tools in Your Work
Referencing
To emphasise that you have done your own research, you must make use of in-text citations that directly correlate to the point at which you place them. You need to provide a reference whenever you draw on someone else's words, ideas or research.
Search for proper references and citations that are of high quality, relevant and representative of the wider pool of information available. Evidence is especially important when you are justifying, aligning, or contrasting the company’s words and actions.
Where you refer to the company’s annual report, you must provide a page reference. For news articles and web sources, a proper URL is required (ensure any Google search strings are removed). Use reputable sources to find recent news articles. The UNSW Library subscribes to many electronic information resources in order to provide access for all students, including full-text journals, newspapers, market research and company information.
Note that fake references generated with or without AI assistance will result in an automatic FAIL for this assessment task.
Academic Integrity
As a student at UNSW, you are expected to display academic integrity in your work and interactions. Where a student breaches the UNSW Student Code with respect to academic integrity, the University may take disciplinary action under the Student Misconduct Procedure.
To assist you in understanding what academic integrity means, and how to ensure that you do comply with the UNSW Student Code, it is recommended that you complete the Working with Academic Integrity module before submitting your assessment task. It is a free, online self-paced Moodle module that should take less than an hour to complete.
Assessment 2B: Group Report submission checklist
Please check that your group has done the following before submitting their Group Report to Turnitin via the Moodle course site:
Formed a group of 4-5 students from the same tutorial class
Posted your group members and selected company on the correct group selection link on Moodle by the end of Week 7
With your group, completed a Team Charter with all team members signing for acknowledgement
Attended Q&A drop-in sessions with the Teaching Team in Weeks 8 and 9 (optional if you require further support)
Submitted the initial draft to Studiosity by Monday 22nd July (Week 9) at the latest
Submitted the initial draft and the feedback you received from Studiosity via the submission link in Moodle by Wednesday 24th July (Week 9) 12pm AEST
Incorporated the appropriate feedback and suggestions from Studiosity into the final Group Report
Proofread your written work for grammatical and spelling mistakes as well as correct referencing style.
Confirmed that no questions or instructions from Assessment 2B are included in your finalised report
Ensured the Appendix contains the VP Canvas, Team Charter, meeting notes/minutes (at least two need to be included), and all copies or screenshots of your prompts/conversation/outputs from AI tools
Checked that it is the final version submitted to Turnitin that your group would like graded by the Teaching Team
Assessment 3: Final Exam
Description of assessment task
The Final Exam consists of two parts separated by a break. It will assess all the course content covered during the teaching term. Students are expected to apply the ideas and concepts of this course into practical settings.
Approach to the assessment task
One part will be administered as a quiz within Moodle. The other part will be conducted under an invigilated environment. Additional information about the Final Exam will be provided over the course of the term.