STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

SPECIFICATION

PART A: ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Faculty Faculty of Business

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT (MBOC/MBC
Module code and name 7023)
Semester/ Year FEBRUARY 2021

Assignment mode Individual

Student Name and Matric Number
Name of Lecturer SHARMILA SETHU

Name of Internal Moderator DR ISMAIL NIZAM

Contribution to Overall Module Assessment (%) 100%

Assignment No 1
Submission Deadline FEBRUARY 2024
LO1 - Contribute effectively to strategic analysis
to problems of organizational growth and
sustainability within and across mature and
transaction economies.

LO 2: Evaluate critically real-life company

situations and develop creative solutions, using a
Learning Outcomes Tested (From Module strategic management perspective.
Implementation Plan)
LO 3: Develop and apply strategic models and
frameworks to organizations

LO 4: Balance different stakeholder interests in

designing, financing, evaluating and
implementing

1. The ability to identify strategic issues

issues and critically draw from the
theories and practice of strategy
2. Demonstrate systematic understanding of
the concepts of strategic management
Assessment Criteria: To achieve each outcome, student and critical awareness of factors which
must demonstrate the ability to give rise strategy in organisations.
3. draw appropriate conclusions to issues in a
creative manner;
4. use the Harvard system to cite and
reference academic sources.

Referencing:
In the main body of your submission you must give credit to authors on whose research your work is based.
Append to your submission references/bibliography that indicates the books, articles, etc. that you have read
or quoted in order to complete this assignment (e.g. for books: surname of author and initials, year of
publication, title of book, edition, publisher: place of publication).

Turnitin: Yes / No
Lecturer to tick to indicate if an electronic version of the assignment must be submitted to
Turnitin.
 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT
SPECIFICATION

Note: the Turnitin version is the primary submission and acts as a receipt for the student. Both electronic and
paper versions MUST be submitted by the same deadline. No marks will be released until both submissions
are received. Late submission of either the electronic or paper version will result in a late penalty mark.
Penalties for late submission: Up to one week late, maximum mark of 40%. Over one week late, Refer. Only
the Extenuating Circumstances Board may grant an extension.
Disclosure:
I declare that this assignment is all my own work and that I have acknowledged all materials used from the
published or unpublished works of other people. All references have been duly cited.

Student’s signature and Date:

Note: Assignments will not be accepted without a signature here

PART B: GUIDANCE FOR STUDENTS

NOTE: The guidance offered below is linked to the five common assessment criteria
overleaf.

1. Research-informed Literature
Your work must be informed and supported by scholarly material that is relevant to and
focused on the task(s) set. You should provide evidence that you have accessed a wide
range of sources, which may be academic, governmental and industrial; these sources may
include academic journal articles, textbooks, current news articles, organisational documents,
and websites. You should consider the credibility of your sources; academic journals are
normally highly credible sources while websites require careful consideration/selection and
should be used sparingly. Any sources you use should be current and up-to-date, mostly
published within the last five years or so, though seminal/important works in the field may be
older. You must provide evidence of your research/own reading throughout your work, using
in-text citations in the main body of your work and a reference list that is alphabetical at the
end of your work. Please use the Harvard referencing system.

2. Knowledge and Understanding of Subject

Your work must demonstrate the growing extent of your knowledge and understanding of
concepts and underlying principles associated with the subject area. Knowledge relates to the
facts, information and skills you have acquired through your learning. You demonstrate your
understanding by interpreting the meaning of the facts and information (knowledge). This
means that you need to select and include in your work the concepts, techniques, models,
theories, etc. appropriate to the task(s) set. You should be able to explain the theories,
concepts, etc. meaningfully to show your understanding. Your mark/grade will also depend
upon the extent to which you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding; ideally each
should be complete and detailed, with comprehensive coverage.

3. Analysis
Your work must contain evidence of logical, analytical thinking, evaluation and synthesis.
For example, to examine and break information down into parts, make inferences, compile,
compare and contrast information. This means not just describing What! but also justifying:
Why? How? When? Who? Where? At all times, you must provide justification for your
arguments and judgements. Evidence that you have reflected upon the ideas of others within
the subject area is crucial to you providing a reasoned and informed debate within your work.
 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT
SPECIFICATION

Furthermore, you should provide evidence that you are able to make sound judgements and
convincing arguments using data and concepts.

Sound, valid conclusions are necessary and must be derived from the content of your work.
There should be no new information presented within your conclusion. Where relevant,
alternative solutions and recommendations may be proposed.

4. Practical Application and Deployment

You should be able to demonstrate how the subject-related concepts and ideas relate to real
world situations or a particular context. How do they work in practice? You will deploy
models, methods, techniques, and/or theories, in that context, to assess current situations,
perhaps to formulate plans or solutions to solve problems, some of which may be innovative
and creative. This is likely to involve, for instance, the use of real world examples and cases,
the application of a model within an organisation and/or benchmarking one organisation
against others based on stated criteria. You should show awareness of the limitations of
concepts and theories when applied in particular contexts.

5. Skills for Professional Practice

Your work must provide evidence of the attributes expected in professional practice. This
includes demonstrating your individual initiative and/or collaborative working. You must
communicate effectively in a suitable format, which may be written and/or oral, for example,
essay, management report, presentation. Work should be coherent and well-structured in
presentation and organisation.
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SPECIFICATION

Assessment Requirements:

Shein Marketing Strategy: What’s Contributing to its Global Success?

……..Shein is not your typical fast fashion brand. They’ve zeroed in on a specific target
market – Gen Z consumers and it’s working wonders for their branding strategy. The onset
of the COVID-19 pandemic only boosted their online shopping platform as retail stores
around closed down.

Are you even on TikTok if you haven’t heard about Shein? Their presence here, among
other digital platforms like YouTube has skyrocketed their popularity immensely. Celebrity
endorsements also played key roles but none more so than influencers who have created
niche markets that they effectively dominate.

A user-friendly website combined with competitive pricing techniques keeps people clicking.
Photos are crucial to successful marketing and Shein knows this all too well; they focus
heavily on creating appealing photos that attract price-driven customers who are looking
into buying affordable Shein……”

The following article can be obtained from:

https://marketingtochina.com/shein-strategy/

Requirement:-
You are require to write a strategic management essay; evaluating technology strategies
that allowed to expediate the digital transformation in the firm/industry of choice.

You have two options regarding your company choice: (1) you approach a company
(probably in the region) and gather information/data through direct interactions with the
company as well as from secondary sources,
OR
(2) you choose a company and do research on its strategic issues with information/data only
from secondary sources

Your assignment consist of two parts being

Part A – 1500 words (+/-10%) – 30% marks
Part B – 3500 words (+/- 10%) – 70% marks
 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT
SPECIFICATION

For Part A you are required to prepare a report on

a. The company of choice
b. The industry and the CSF of the industry using technology as a competitive advantage
like Shein
c. The marco environment of which it should state the opportunities and threats of the
industry

For Part B you are required to prepare a report on

a. The internal analysis for your company of choice

b. TOWS Matrix and THREE Strategic Objectives
c. Models and theories to justify the THREE strategic objectives
d. Chooing only ONE Strategic Objective develop an implementation plan

Written report submission

For both Part A and B- the individual report should be type written, 1.5 line-spaced, using
12-point size font, and should not exceed 25 pages (excluding cover page, tables, figures,
appendices, references, and endnotes).

PART A -30% (1500 words) SUBMISSION DATE MARCH 23rd 2024

The report should contain the following:
(1) Company of choice /Industry and CSF
(2) External Analysis
(3) Opportunities and Threats in the macro environment
(4) List of References;
(5) Appendices (extra tables & charts not in main body).
WORD COUNT to be put in BEFORE the List of reference

PART B -70% (3500 words) SUBMISSION DATE - TBA

2. The report should contain the following:

(1) Internal Analysis using the RBV model and the competitive advantage
(2) TOWS matrix and the three strategic objectives
(3) Alternative strategic options models/theories
(4) Implementation of one strategic objective;
(5) List of References;
(6) Appendices (extra tables & charts not in main body).
(7)
WORD COUNT to be put in BEFORE the List of reference

This assignment is 100% of your total assignment mark.

State the number of words used at the end of the assignment.
You may include diagrams, figures, appendices etc. without word penalty. A sliding scale of
penalties for excess length will be imposed.
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SPECIFICATION

The penalties will be as follows:

Up to 10% excess words: no penalty
11-20% excess words: - 5% penalty
21-30% excess words: -10% penalty
31% plus excess words: cannot achieve more than a pass grade (50%).

SIMILARITY INDEX IS 24% AND IF IT IS ABOVE THIS MARKS WOULD BE

DEDUCTED
YOU ARE RECOMMENDED NOT TO USE GENERATIVE AI

Attention will be paid to:

 Critical evaluation and discussion. Issues will be dealt with deeper and on an analytical
plane, based on good research - with industry examples, data projections and
commentaries.
 Balanced researched materials. Appropriate and different sources which must include
sufficient academic research, not just secondary research from URLs or Wikipedia.
 Proper referencing and citation. Harvard Referencing is a must. Citation must include,
apart from the normal details, the page number of the where issue for discussion has been
taken from.
Formatting guideline
You must clearly cite your sources.
Make sure your report is articulate and well structured. A good strategy to follow is to keep
your paragraphs short and clear. The report should have a consistent style, as if it was written
by one author.
You are encouraged to use figure/table etc. Always plan ahead and leave time for editing and
proofreading. Make sure your report does not contain typos and careless errors.
 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT
SPECIFICATION

YOUR TURNITIN LINK FOR SUBMISSION IS AS BELOW

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SPECIFICATION

STUDENT FEEDBACK
FORM
This section details the extent to which the assessment criteria are demonstrated by you, which in
turn determines your mark. The marks available for each category of skill are shown. Lecturers will
use the space provided to comment on the achievement of the task(s), including those areas in which
you have performed well and areas that would benefit from development/improvement.

Marks
available Marks
Generic Assessment Criteria awarded

1. Engagement with Literature Skills

. 10

2. Knowledge and Understanding Skills

10

3. Cognitive and Intellectual Skills

35

4. Practical Application Skills

35

5. Transferable Skills for Life and Professional Practice

10
 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT
SPECIFICATION

Late Submission
Penalties (tick if
Assessment Mark (Assessment marks are subject to ratification at the Exam appropriate)
Board. These comments and marks are to give feedback on module work and are for Up to 1 week late (40% %
guidance only until they are confirmed. ) Max)

Over 1 week late (0%)

(Please see the attached document on the Assessment criteria)