Plan of ApproachWorkshop 1 - Project theme 1 - IBMS

In the project of theme 1 it’s your task In the first semester:

- To make an export plan (marketing plan, entry plan)- For a company that you have chosen yourself- By researching the market attractivity of a number of

markets- And to do it in cooperation with your team members

Coordinator of theme 1 is Mrs Monique Sijgers

Guidelines PoA

Your marketing teacher is also- Your project supervisor to help you accomplish your tasks- Each Wednesday your team has a meeting with the project supervisor- Each team has to send the agenda of the meeting to the attendants- Each team has a chairman and a secretary who will make notes (which

we call the minutes)

- Your workshop leader (in three workshops) to help you deal with specific problems:

• WS 1, Plan of Approach: how and where to start with the assignment

• WS 2, information skills: how to find the information you need• WS 3, APA referencing: how to report where you have found the

information

Why is a Plan of Approach neccessary?

A Plan of Approach is a plan of future actions, a road map, and it describes:

•What you want to know: (which is the information need of the researcher)

-in theme 1: which country offers the best conditions for the chosen company to export to?

-in a research setting: researchers always formulate what they need to know in the form of research questions: Central Research Question+ sub-questions. In fact also in private life we use questions to describe which information need we have. For example: the questions you can ask yourself after you have lost your key-ring.

•Why the researcher wants to know this. (the reason why)-in theme 1: because we ask you to do it. -in a research setting: because the client or principal has a certain (information-) problemFor example: company X is making a loss on its current markets and the management wants to know if exporting to other countries might be profitable.

•Where and How you plan to find the necessary information to answer the research questions

Why is a Plan of Approach neccessary? continued

A Plan of Approach is a plan of future actions, a road map, and it describes:• What you want to know. See previous slide

• Why you want to know this. See previous slide

• Where and How you plan to find the necessary information to answer the research questionsWhere concerns the subject about which you search for information - In theme 1: the company + 4 countries and their markets

How is about the methods you want to use to find the information- In theme 1 these can be company papers (on Internet) and country

information from databanks, Internet or own experience.- Workshop 2 (week 1.3) deals with how to find information

research questions

objective of assignment

subject of research

research method

why

what

where

howmeans

aim

plan

Plan of Approach

Figure: Parts of the Plan of Approach (Verschuren, 2011, p. 19)

• On Blackboard (IBMS theme 1/ project) you will find guidelines about how to draw up a Plan of Approach for your assignment

see the document called:“instructions Plan of Approach IBMS”

In-Class Assignment 1 (20 min.)

• This assignment is to be made by your project group,so please sit together with your team.

• Discuss which company to choose for the project-assignment.See the guidelines in the project manual

• Provide a situation description:– Describe the company and the product(s) your group has chosen

and the market to which the product belongs– Try to find two EU and two non-EU countries to which the product

is not exported (yet)

Class-Assignment 1 (Related to assignment 2 in the project, POA)

In-Class Assignment 1 Class discussion

Class discussion about the assignment and the difficulties you have experienced in executing it.

• How did your team discuss about which company to choose?

• did a certain team member take the lead?• how did other members react?

• How did your team make the decision about the company?• did you vote for it?• did one of the team members convince the others? How?

• How did your team decide about the 4 countries to choose?• Which lessons to learn from this assignment for making your

POA?

Sections of the PoA report

Title page1. Introduction (why of the principal)2. Objective of the assignment (why, where of the assignment)3. Central research question and sub-questions (what) 4. Method (how)5. Project organization 6. Preliminary table of contents of report 7. References

Introduction

Ad 1.The purpose of the introduction isto give relevant information to an outsider who wants to understand why and where your assignment is carried out; You provide a situation description.

Objective of the assignment

Ad 2.In the introduction part the reason why the principal wants you to research has been described. The why and the where.

From the several problems the principal may have, a choice has to be made which problem will be researched. For example: Company X is making a loss. A particular research is about finding new market opportunities. The reasons why the company is making a loss will not be researched.

The objective of the assignment states which product you will deliver to the principal. Most of the times a report with description of the research done and with an advice how the company can act to overcome the problem.

Objective of the assignment

“Why you want to investigate” It is the aim of the objective of the assignment:

• To indicate what the researcher hopes to achieve with the assignment and what he will provide the principal with.

• Also to make clear to the reader why it is important that this particular assignment is carried out.

WHY, the Objective of the assignment of the project IBMS1. (In order to let students learn about exporting, doing market research and working in teams: the why of the principal) the project designers ask you to:Do research and write an advisory report in order to “Find the best potential market for the company chosen and determine how to penetrate this market”This so-called country analysis can form the basis of defining and evaluating an export marketing strategy.

Research questions (1)

“What you want to investigate” The purpose of the Central Research Question (CRQ) is to make clear what information you need, to be able to respond to the objective of the assignment. Thus, the central research question clarifies what you will research and thereby what you won’t research.From the CRQ several sub-questions need to be derived in order to be able to answer it. (the workshop leader will explain this with an example)

Central research question of the project assignment IBMS1:“What is the best potential market out of the two EU and two non-EU countries for the company chosen, taking into account the macro-, meso-, and micro-environment of the countries and the company itself and which export-plan serves the company’s objectives best in entering this market?”

Research questions (2)Sub-questions

The What consists of CRQ + sub-questions

The purpose of sub-questions is to help you gather exactly the information you need in order to be able to provide an answer to the central research question. The central research question is often too abstract and unspecific to be answered with one answer only. That is why it has to be subdivided into an number of sub-questions.

In-Class Assignment 2(20 min.)

• Execute this assignment within your project group• Use the project description to determine what

assignments there are and what kind of sub-questions are related to these assignments.

• Think of a number of sub-questions which could be the base for each assignment in the project

• Determine what sub-questions are relevant for the trade you have chosen

Method (1)

“Where and how you want to investigate”The purpose of the research method is to indicate where and how you think you are going to find the answers to your central research question and sub-questions and why you are going to do it in this way.

Method of the IBMS1 assignment: Desk researchThis means that you will search for information which is already available from several sources.Your task is to find these sources, to find the information and manipulate it in such a way that it’s useful in answering the research questions.

Method (2)

What is desk research?Desk Research is gathering and analyzing information, already available in print or digitally on the internet, in books and professional magazines or in the company itself.

The information we collect with desk research is called secondary information because it has been collected for another purpose than your assignment. (It is second hand information)

Information you collect yourself by field research (doing interviews, observations or experiments, is called primary information.

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The market research process is as follows:Defining the problem and resarch objectives

Collecting secondary data

Exploratory research

Collecting primary data

questioning observation experiments

Report on the results

In-class Assignment 3 (15 min.)

• Execute this assignment within your project group• Think of where you plan to gather your data.

Describe the (possible) databases and websites you plan to use. Also indicate why you think these sources are the most suitable sources for your project.

• In the workshops ‘smarter internet searches’, WS2, and ‘information literacy skills’ , WS3, you will learn more about this subject.

Note for the teachers:

In-class assignment 3 and 4 cannot be made yet, because the workshop 2 and 3 have not taken place yet.It’s advisable to do these assignments later.

That’s why slides20-24 are hidden in the presentation mode.

Conclusion

• Deadline for handing in the PoA is…..• Hand in the PoA via Blackboard in the

indicated folder• Soon it will be possible to have a group

account in BlackBoard. You may also use Facebook or else.

Please send your concept of the cooperation agreement to your supervisor via email before (next) Wednesday.Indicate clearly in the name of the (WORD)file who is the sender and what is the subject.For example: ET3_Coop_vs1Which means class E, team 3, cooperation agreement version 1.In this way you help your supervisor a lot with recognising and archiving

• Any questions?