Assessment Brief 2

(Resubmission)
Business Environment
LSBM103
Index
1. Module Details 2

2. Assessment Structure 2

3. Assessment 2 Details (Re-submission) Details 2

3.1 Task 2
3.2 Submission requirements 5

4. Learning Outcomes for the assessment 5

Appendix 1: Submission Checklist 6

Appendix 2: Declaration of Authorship 7

Appendix 3: Use of external editorial or proof-reading services 8

Appendix 4 9

Extensions and Mitigating Circumstances 9

Word Limits 9

Assessment Brief: LSBM103 - 2020-21 Page 1

1. Module Details
Module Name: Business Environment
Module Code: LSBM103
Level 4
Credit Value 30
Module Leader: Fiona Richardson
Academic Year 2020-21

2. Assessment Structure

Item of Assessment Portfolio

Weighting This assessment is worth 60%of the module grade

Quiz Resit period w/c 4 May 2020

Word Limit 2,000 words

Resubmission Date Friday 7 May 2021, 3pm

Acceptable Formats for

Microsoft Word
Submission
Feedback and Feedback and provisional grades will normally be due 20
Provisional Grade1 working days after the submission deadline

3. Assessment 2 Details (Re-submission) Details

Only use this brief if you received a G or a H grade for your first sit opportunity.

3.1 Task
This assessment is divided into two components:

a) two quizzes (to be completed in weeks 9 and 11 of the semester)

b) a 2,000-word essay (due by the end of the semester).

Part A: quizzes

• The quizzes will assess your understanding of the macro- and micro-environmental
influences that affect business organisations today. They will help you reflect on the
theory of how forces in the macro-environment shape business performance.

1 The grade is provisional until confirmed by the relevant assessment board(s). Your work will be marked in grades
rather than percentages. This is considered to deliver the most accurate and fair outcomes for students. Each
assessment that you undertake will be assessed using the common grading system. Information about the grading
system can be found in your Student Handbook, Section 10.

The Grade Criteria can be found in Appendix C of your Student Handbook.

Assessment Brief: LSBM103 - 2020-21 Page 2

 • You will need to complete 2 online quizzes on Canvas in weeks 9 and 11 of the
semester.

• You will only be able to attempt each quiz once.

• You will need to respond to all the questions in the quiz within 90 minutes.

• Quizzes can be accessed from the Assessment area of the module’s Canvas site.

• Each quiz contains a combination of multiple-choice and open-ended questions.

• The questions cover the topics discussed in class in the earlier weeks of the term.

• You will be informed about the deadlines through emails and the Canvas VLE.

• The quiz component is worth 30% of the overall grade for AS2.

The details of the quizzes are as follows:

Available on Submission
Quiz Title Details
Canvas by due by
Understanding macro- 7 questions about the PESTEL Friday 3 pm. of
Monday of
1 factors and the structure model, firm’s legal structures and the
Week 8 Week 9
of firms circular flow of the economy.
Reflection on micro- 10 questions for reflection on the use Friday 3 pm. of
Monday of
2 factors and Porter’s 5 of Porter’s 5 Forces model and
Week 10 Week 11
forces market mechanisms

End of part A

Part B: essay

Write a 2,000-word essay with the title: Business Environment Analysis.

Complete the following tasks about a business of your choice in a subsector you know about:

1. Choose a business in a subsector you know about in the UK. Describe what is does to make
money in the UK. (Approximately 300 words)

2. Use the Value Chain model to examine the internal environment of the business. Focus on
only the relevant primary and/or supporting activities of this business.
(Approximately 900 words)

3. Explain any micro-environmental forces that can affect the key activities of the business.
(Approximately 300 words)

4. Reflect on the usefulness of one academic model in your understanding of the internal
business environment. (Approximately 300 words)

Assessment Brief: LSBM103 - 2020-21 Page 3

Structure

Your essay should have the following structure (additional guidance in brackets):

• Cover page.

• Introduction (the aims of the essay and a brief overview of the content).
(Approximately 100 words).

• Company (the material you discussed in Task 1).

The heading should be the name of the company that you will be describing.
(Approximately 300 words)

• An examination of the internal environment (the material you discussed in Task 2).
You may add subsections. (Approximately 900 words)

• An explanation of the microenvironmental forces (the material you discussed in

Task 3). You may add subsections. (Approximately 300 words)

• Reflection on one academic model (the material you discussed in Task 4).
(Approximately 300 words)

• Conclusion. (Approximately 100 words)

• References.

Additional guidance

• Follow the structure outlined above. You may change the wording of the headings
and add sub-sections to your report.

• Refer to the recommended sources of information in your course materials and to

other sources.

• Apply the Harvard referencing style.

• You may use bullet points, graphs, charts and similar visual representations in the
essay.

• Submit the essay as a Microsoft Word file.

References

Porter, M.E. (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York:
Free Press.

End of part B

Assessment Brief: LSBM103 - 2020-21 Page 4

3.2 Submission requirements
You must submit your assignment by using the Turnitin gateway in the module’s Canvas site.

Please Note: When you submit you will be asked to confirm you have referred to the Submission
Checklist (see Appendix 1) and the act of submitting your work electronically will be taken as an
acceptance of the Declaration of Authorship (see Appendix 2).

4. Learning Outcomes for the assessment

This item of assessment covers the following learning outcomes. For the full list of learning outcomes
for the module, please refer to the Module Study Guide.

• Explain how microeconomic forces shape the competitive landscape of the business
environment.

• Reflect on the usefulness of strategic tools for the analysis of the internal business
environment.

• Communicate central ideas effectively.

• Self-management and self-reflection.

Assessment Brief: LSBM103 - 2020-21 Page 5

Appendix 1: Submission Checklist
1. Have you checked Canvas messages/announcements for any additional/final details of
the assessment?

2. Are you submitting in the correct submission area e.g. if it is a resubmission of your
second assignment it should be ‘AS2R’?

3. Make sure you are submitting the correct final version of your work.

4. Have you kept to the word limit? Remember, anything greater than 10% above the word
count will not be marked.

5. Have you addressed the assessment requirements as outlined in the Assessment Brief?

6. Have you spell checked and proofread your work?

7. Is your work formatted correctly and consistently?

8. Are you submitting a document in the correct format?

9. Is your work written in an appropriate academic style?

10. Have you checked your citations and Reference List/Bibliography?

11. Have you submitted your work to get a similarity report to check you have paraphrased
where required?

12. Have you read the Declaration of Authorship (Appendix 2)?

Assessment Brief: LSBM103 - 2020-21 Page 6

Appendix 2: Declaration of Authorship
By submitting this work electronically to Bloomsbury Institute and the University of Northampton, I/we confirm that
I/we have read and understood the Declaration and Definitions below:

Declaration of Authorship:

1. I hold a copy of this assignment which can be produced if the original is lost/damaged.

2. This assignment is my original work and no part of it has been copied from any other student’s work or
from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made.

3. No part of this assignment has been written for me by any other person except where such collaboration
has been authorised and as detailed in the Assessment Brief.

4. I have not previously submitted this work for any other course/module.

5. Where applicable, I have included a declaration confirming external editorial or proof-reading services
(see Appendix 3).
Definitions

I understand that:

1. Plagiarism is the presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person as though it is one’s own.
It is a form of cheating and is a serious academic offence which may lead to expulsion. Plagiarised
material can be drawn from, and presented in, written, graphic and visual form, including electronic data,
and oral presentations. Plagiarism occurs when the origin of the material used is not appropriately cited.

2. Collusion is working with someone else on an assessment task which is intended to be wholly your own
work.

3. Contract cheating/Commissioning is where you contract out an academic assessment to writers and
purchase back the finished work and submit it as your own.

4. Duplication/Replication is submitting the same material more than once for the purposes of obtaining
academic credit.

5. Fabrication refers specifically to the falsification of data, information or citations in an academic exercise,
typically an assignment. This includes false excuses for missing deadlines and false claims to have
submitted work. It may be specifically referred to as falsification.

6. My completed assignment is submitted and checked for plagiarism through the use of plagiarism detection
software called Turnitin.

Please note: Submitting work which is not your own and/or cheating in exams can be considered as fraud2 and
handled in accordance with the University of Northampton’s Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy. Penalties
can include:

• Reduction in grade for assignment.

• Grade for module reduced to AG [fail for academic misconduct] and right to repeat module
withdrawn.

• Termination from studies.

Further information on plagiarism can be found in your Student Handbook, Section 10.

2 If a student is suspected of commissioning (e.g. paying someone to write an assignment for them), this could be
classed as fraud under student disciplinary procedures, separate to academic misconduct procedures. If proven,
the consequences would be severe, including removal from their course of study.

Assessment Brief: LSBM103 - 2020-21 Page 7

Appendix 3: Use of external editorial or proof-reading
services
The University of Northampton’s Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy (Sections 4.10 – 4.14)
provides clear guidance on the use of proof-readers to check your work.

What you need to know:

1. You can ask your tutors or our Learning Enhancement and Employability (LEE) Team
(lee@bil.ac.uk) for advice and support on how to proof your work.

2. Proof-readers should not make live changes to your work. They should only indicate where
possible changes could be made.

3. A proof-reader should not change the meaning of your work in any way.

4. If a proof-reader’s comments or amendments do change the meaning of your work, this may
be deemed as academic misconduct.

5. If you do use a proof-reader you must declare this clearly when you submit your work. The
declaration should be on the first page (cover page) of your assignment.

Example declaration:

“A proof-reader has helped me with this assignment. The proof-reader was my

friend/name of proof-reading service/a family member/other. I have kept a copy of
my original work with comments from the proof-reader.”

For more information please go to the policy itself, which is available in the Quality Enhancement
Manual on our website.

Assessment Brief: LSBM103 - 2020-21 Page 8

Appendix 4
Extensions and Mitigating Circumstances
Extensions cannot be granted at the resubmission opportunity.

Information on Mitigating Circumstances can be found in the Student Handbook, Section 10.

Applications for Mitigating Circumstances, with supporting evidence (such as medical certificates)
should be made through the Student Self-service Portal (SSP).

The University of Northampton’s Mitigating Circumstances Policy document can be accessed through
our Quality and Enhancement Manual: QEM Section 3: All Policies and Procedures.

Word Limits
All written assignments include clear guidance on the maximum amount that should be written in order
to address the requirements of the assessment task (a ‘word limit’).

If the submission exceeds the word limit by more than 10%, the submission will only be marked up to
and including the additional 10%. Anything over this will not be included in the final grade for the
item of assessment.

Abstracts, reference lists, indented quotations, and footnotes are excluded from any word limit
requirements.

In-text citations, embedded quotations, and all headings and titles are included in the word limit.

Where a submission is notably under the word limit, the full submission will be marked on the extent to
which the requirements of the assessment task have been met. Generally speaking, submissions under
the word limit fall short of the requirements of the assessment task.

Assessment Brief: LSBM103 - 2020-21 Page 9