Programme:

Business & Tourism Management

Level:

Level 5

Module Title:

Introduction to Research methods

Assignment No:

Choose an item.

Assignment Type:

Critical Review

Assignment weighting %:

100%

Assignment Word Count: (or equivalent)

4000 words

Summative Submission Due Date:

Monday 10 February 2025  14:00

BTM5IRM_JUN22: Critical Review – First Submission Inbox | Global Banking School

Penalties

All penalties that are listed at the end of this document in the Table of Penalties.

Assignment Guide – Critical Review

Overview

1. Students are required to develop a critical review of published studies business management or business-related topics in the tourism sector, either within the UK or the global tourism market
2. This Critical Review will be presented in a structured document using the tentative structure explained in detail in the Assignment Guide and be the equivalent of 4000 words, excluding the Table of contents, References and Appendices. Possible deviation for the word count is 10%, i.e. the minimum word count is 3600 words, and the maximum word count is 4400 words of the main text.
3. This assignment is designed to prepare students for conducting individual research at Level 6 and beyond in their careers. It aims to provide students with knowledge in business research,
4. Successful completion of this assignment will demonstrate student’s ability to understand and interpret information relevant to the research methodology and student’s practical skills for identifying research problems in the tourism field, critically evaluating previous studies and methodologies, and developing a critical literature review to inform their own research design.
5. Conducting a critical review of the literature in the selected field will equip students to undertake empirical research, identify research gaps, establish research aims and objectives.
6. Students will cultivate the skill of synthesizing diverse sources in business and management studies pertinent to their research field and will learn to choose appropriate methods based on the research question. These skills are crucial for employability.
7. Critical review of the research literature will be submitted on Moodle as a Word Document file in due date anonymously – without the assessment front sheet. Page 1 will start with the Research Title followed by the Table of Contents (see below).
8. You must NOT state your name or Student ID anywhere in the text.
9. You should NOT name the submitted file as your name or Student ID

Assignment task/s to be completed and presented in the written form

Assignment task/s to be completed and presented in the written form

a) Students are encouraged to investigate needs in the jobs they occupy if they are related to tourism or examine the current need for research in the sector in the UK or internationally, select related published resources and analyse them in the form of Critical review which can further be used to conduct research according to the identified research question.

b) Students will use the Critical review Template and follow the suggested structure and word count of each section.

c) Page 1 of the submitted Critical review will open with the Title of the research and will present its structure as follows:

Contents

1. Introduction (400 words)

1.1. Background and Context

1.2. Problem Statement

2. Literature Review (3300 words)

2.1. Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks of the Research (500 words)

2.2. Key Concepts, Theories and Studies (2650-2700 words)

2.2.1. Topic 1.

2.2.2. Topic 2.

2.2.3. Topic 3. (contextualising research)

2.2.4. Topic 4 (contextualising research)

2.3. Key Debates and Controversies (optional)

2.4. Gap(s) in Existing Knowledge (100-150 words)

3. Research Question, Research Aim and Research Objectives (150 words)

3.1. Research Question

3.2. Research Aim

3.3. Research Objectives

4. Implications and contributions to knowledge (150 words)

4.1. Practical Implications

4.2. Theoretical Implications

References

d) Students will need to explore the theoretical background of the research problem, review research literature and verify if the research question they ask was responded in the previous research, or, alternatively, there is a gap in the research and no solution has been found yet. In the latter case, students will set the research aim, objectives, and develop research methodology, including research design, research methods, research instruments, and a feasible timeline.  See details below.

The detailed structure of the Critical review

The detailed structure of the Critical Review

The detailed structure of the Critical Review

• Start your Critical Review with a strong title, which includes relevant key words, indicates your research approach and contains a research question.
• The title must be ONE PHRASE only.
• The word count in the following guidelines is given approximately to help students keep the proportions withing Critical Review volume. Each section divided into subsections might require different word count, however, the biggest section is the Literature Review, which will require elaborated approach and more specific details.

Follow the structure and suggestions in the Critical review Template:

1. Introduction (400 words) 

The introduction should draw from either industry or business reports or academic sources and include the following:

1.1. Background and Context.

Lead the reader into the topic and scope of your research, explain why this research has value and why it will be original, and why the research is required.

1.2. Problem Statement.

Describe the theoretical or practical research problem that you want to address.

What is already known about the problem? What is missing from current knowledge?

Briefly refer to 2-3 main policies/reports/frameworks that introduce the reader into the context and specify the contradiction/problem that still exists and needs a solution. Here you will use relevant terminology: relate to the key concepts, theories, and empirics (reports/statistics which reveal the problem)

1. Literature Review (3300 words)

The literature review summarises, compares and critiques the most relevant scholarly sources on the topic. There are many different ways to structure a literature review, but it should explore:

Students either divide the Literature review as suggested into subsections:

2.1. Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks of the Research (500 words)

Compare, contrast, and establish the theories and concepts that will be most important for your project. These should be divided into topics. You must provide evidence of using at least with 3-5 sources to outline your Theoretical framework, but will also incorporate some of the sources in literature review in your Conceptual Framework.

2.1.1. Theoretical Framework (300 words)

Name, cite and explain theories and their relevance to your research. How do these theories inform research methodology? Do not draw a Theoretical Framework in this section. Only describe it as suggested in the text.

2.1.2. Conceptual Framework (200 words)

Name, cite and explain concept and their relevance to your research. How do these theories inform research methodology? You may present a conceptual Framework based on cited sources. This figure must be Numbered, Titled and have notification of the authorship.

You are encouraged to use EBSCO Concept Map tool available o EBSCO website via GBS library. There is a video tutorial how to create your Conceptual Framework in the Critical Review Template.

2.2. Key Concepts, Theories and Studies (2650-2700 words).

There will be three main subtopics mentioned in the Literature Review, usually in the synthesised ways:

– Key Concepts, Theories and Studies (and include three topics there under headings).

– Key Debates and Controversies (optional for undergraduate research)

– Gap(s) in Existing Knowledge

Important: Students are free to organise their Literature review in one of two ways:

2.2.1. Topic 1.

2.2.2. Topic 2.

2.2.3. Topic 3.

2.2.4. Topic 4.

2.3. Key Debates and Controversies (optional for undergraduate research)

Identify points of conflict and situate your own position as for any controversies or conflict research/academic opinions you might find in the literature related to the research topic.

2.4. Gap(s) in Existing Knowledge (around 50 words within 800 of Literature review)

Show what is missing and how your project will fit in.

Alternatively, students may have four subsections, Topic 1; Topic 2; Topic 3, Topic 4 and include in each of them Key Concepts, Theories and Studies; Key Debates and Controversies (optional for undergraduate research) and Gap(s) in Existing Knowledge.

2.1. Topic 1 (including Key concepts, theories, debates, and a gap).

2.2. Topic 2 (including Key concepts, theories, debates, and a gap).

2.3. Topic 3 (including Key concepts, theories, debates, and a gap).

2.4. Topic 4 (including Key concepts, theories, debates, and a gap).

There must be at least three topics with 4-5 resources minimum for each of topic. The resources must be synthesised.  Topics present key theories and concepts definitions, reflect previous research and analysis.

Generally, in your Literature Review you will:

– Compare and contrast the main theories, methods, and analyse the debates and controversies;

– Critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches;

– Show how your research fits in with the previous research and/or the issues of the economic activities of the tourism enterprise, destination, etc. How will you build on, challenge or synthesise the work of others?

– Fill in a gap in the existing body of research and explain why you consider your research idea innovative.

1. Research Question, Research Aim and Research Objectives (150 words)

3.1. Research Question.

State the specific question that you aim to answer.

One research question is enough for the undergraduate degree. However, these may be two or more related questions. The more specific questions you ask, the wider the scope of the research will be, usually at higher levels of scientific research.

3.2. Research Aim.

Make it clear what new insights you will contribute.

Formulate a clear research aim in one line, e.g.

• The aim of this study is to determine…
• This research aims to explore…
• This research aims to investigate…

3.3. Research Objectives.

Define research objectives (at least three). Justify a major approach you will take (general methodology to achieve these aims). Your last research objective might be aimed at providing recommendations to resolve some issues.

Each objective will be formulated in one line.

Start using active verbs, e.g.

• To discover current research surrounding the topic of dark tourism.

• To evaluate the motivations of travellers visiting destinations associated with dark tourism.

• To use focus groups to examine whether tourist perspectives are influenced by dark tourism.

OR include specific details HOW you will achieve these objectives, e.g.

• To measure …… using quantitative methods.

• To analyse … by means of …. analysis.

• To test (e.g. customer brand awareness).

DO NOT REPEAT THE VERBS!

Note. Verbs will differ depending on your research methodology.

If you apply quantitative methodology, you will need to formulate quantitative research objectives, using verbs like determine, measure, assess, quantify, analyse…metrics/score, investigate (indices), examine effects, assess influence, determine the correlation between X and Y, predict… rates, etc. see Verbs for research objectives on Lecture Week 1 slides)

If your research approach is qualitative, you will need verbs for qualitative research objectives, like determine, predict, assess, investigate, explore, understand, uncover, capture, delve into, explain, explore, and the like, see Verbs for research objectives on Lecture Week 1 slides)

For mixed methods you will probably need both.

1. Implications and contributions to knowledge (150 words)

This section should emphasise why your proposed project is important and how it will contribute to practice or theory.

4.1. Practical Implications.

Explain if your research findings will help to improve a process, inform policy, or make a case for concrete change. State in one sentence who will benefit from your research findings /solution of the problem (the audience).

4.2. Theoretical Implications.

Explain if your research findings will help to strengthen a theory or model, challenge current assumptions, or create a basis for further research. How?

References.

Include at least 20 references here (These sources are highlighted in green throughout the template).

Please, include only the resources that you used for:

• contextualising your research topic,
• analysing the previous research in the Literature Review
• regulating your research procedures, especially Ethical Considerations.

Do NOT use bullet points or numbering!

Ways how to present statistical data in text and refer to Appendices (Appendices are optional) 

Ways how to present statistical data in text and refer to Appendices

1. There will be NO Figures or Tables in the body of the Critical review. There is no need for this, as all data will be incorporated into academic text. However, you can have one figure – Conceptual Framework, that will be numbered, titled, and cited, and which authorship will be named if this is created by the student, e.g. Fig. 1. Conceptual Framework for … research (created by author based on (Name, year; Name, year; Name, year). In brackets you will list the sources you used to create the framework.
   1. In case students refer to statistical data to support problem statement or justify their research, they must refer to the resource (e.g. a report, a survey or a database), discuss the statistical data in the text, give an in-text citation and include the resource in the references. E.g.: 

1. Therefore, no additional tables or figures are needed in appendices. However, if you are planning to use some technique developed by a different author mentioned in the critical literature review, you may mention it in your objective, and include it in the Appendices, e.g. Appendices A, Appendix B (example 1 below)
2. You may include your questionnaire as a tool to collect primary data in appendices as well (example 2 below).
3. The text of the literature review/ research objectives will refer to the Appendices and appendices will help to explain the text. There are different ways to do it, e.g.:

Additional resources to create the Critical Review

– There are additional resources for writing Critical Review and research proposals, where a Literature Review is one of the major parts, in the Module Handbook, references to all lectures in the corresponding sections, Formative activities 1-4, and the Critical Review Template.

– Additional resources for reading include four Samples of Critical Review of the literature in academic articles, research proposals and a dissertation, which may be used as examples to formulate different parts of your Critical Review.

– Critical Review Template is available on Moodle and may be used to draft each section in Formative activities 1-4, can be edited and then saved under the title “Critical Review” and submitted anonymously as a complete assignment.

Mandatory Referencing and Research Requirements

Referencing Style

CCCU Harvard Referencing Style

CCCU Harvard Referencing Guide · CCCU Harvard citation (updated Jul 23 2024) · Citationsy

Mandatory Sources to be included in the Assignment

– Assignment Brief contains a list of resources in section Learning Materials/Resources that you might use for your Critical review and reflect the same resources in your presentation.

– In addition to 15+ resources for 3-4 topics in the Literature Review, you must use more resources for the Theoretical Framework and Conceptual Framework to explain key theories and concepts and justify the research problem.

– Overall, your Critical Review will refer to more than 20 academic and business resources.

– Please, be aware that you CANNOT USE books on RESEARCH METHODS as resources for Literature review on Tourism or Theoretical or Conceptual Framework. Please, see the suggestion of the resource distribution in your paper in the Assignment Guide for the Critical Review.

Format of your submission and how your assignment will be assessed

1. Format. Please ensure that your work has been saved in an appropriate file format (Microsoft Word).
2. Critical review undergoes anonymous marking; therefore, you must NOT name yourself or include your Student ID anywhere in the text or the title of the submitted Critical review.
3. There is no limitation to pages, but all content should be presented clearly, and the text should not exceed the required word count.
4. If it is appropriate to the format of your assignment and your subject area, a proportion of your marks will also depend on your use of academic referencing conventions.

Pay attention to the Table of Penalties applied to all assessments (see Appendix A).

Marking Scheme / Rubric – The Marking Scheme (otherwise known as a rubric) is available on the Module Assessment Tab on Moodle.  

Submission Requirements

Submission Platform

This assignment should be submitted electronically using Moodle to the Module Submission link

Submission Date &Time

All submission & resubmission dates and time are as stated at the beginning of this Assignment brief.

You should submit your Assignment for all deadlines earlier than 2:00pm on the date stated.  

Late submissions can be accepted for Summative Submissions only up to a maximum of 2 working days after the submission deadline. This does not apply to resubmission deadlines. A 10 mark deduction will be made by CCCU for all late submissions.

Work submitted more than two working days after the deadline will not be accepted and will be recorded as a non-submission.

Assignments submitted to the Resubmissions deadlines will be capped at 40 by CCCU.

If you are affected by events which are unexpected, outside your control and short-term in nature (i.e. lasting one to two weeks), under the exceptional circumstances procedure you may be eligible for:

• A seven day extension to your coursework (via self-certification request).
• A 14 day extension to your coursework (via evidence-based request).
• To defer your exam or time-constrained assessment if you have not yet submitted/attempted it (via self-certification or evidence-based request).
• To re-take an exam/time-constrained assessment, if you feel your performance on your first attempt was negatively impacted (via impaired performance request).

Please note students are only eligible to have a maximum of 2 self-certification requests per academic year.

You can make a self-certification request up to 14 calendar days before your deadline:

• for coursework it must be no later than 2pm on the deadline date
• for exams and time-constrained assessments, the request must be submitted no later than the start time of the assessment.

How this task prepares you for Level 6 and Professional activities

This assessment is a Critical Review of Literature in Business and Tourism Management that presents student’s ability to select relevant sources and analyse them critically, synthesise sources, evaluate applied methodologies, define the research problem and research gap, set research aim and objectives and effectively communicate the idea. The students are expected to logically substantiate theoretical and conceptual framework for preliminary research and clearly outline expected research outcomes.

Depending on the context, Critical review of published information might be required in a range of situations either in the employment in tourism sector or in an academic setting, where students will need to solve a theoretical and/or practical problem.

Critical review is the final assignment in Level 5, and logically prepares students to undertaking a dissertation at Level 6. By presenting this assignment, students must demonstrate they have achieved their learning outcomes.

Table of Penalties

Issue with the Assignment

Penalty to be Applied

Suspected Academic Misconduct or Breach of Academic integrity

The Assignment will be graded zero. Written feedback will be ‘This assignment has been identified as potential Academic Misconduct/Breach of Academic Integrity. You will be invited to a meeting to discuss’.

You will be invited to a meeting with an academic Misconduct reviewer. When you attend the meeting if Academic Misconduct or the breach of Academic Integrity is upheld you will be asked to rewrite the section of the assignment it applies to and re-submit the assignment.  

Do not upload any assignments to the AMC submission links before the meeting otherwise it will be removed.

Failure to attend the meeting means the assignment will remain graded at zero and you will be unable to pass the module until you have attended the meeting.

The assignment is more than 10% over the prescribed wordcount i.e. for 3,000 words, if 3,400 is submitted excluding the cover page, table of contents, references and appendices.

A 10-mark deduction applied to the overall grade that is manually entered by the Lecturer. This deduction is capped at 40%, which means an assignment cannot get less than 40% if a deduction has to be made.

For example, if the mark for the assignment was 60. The lecturer would deduct 10 marks and the mark will be 50.  Written feedback will also state ‘This assignment is 10% over the wordcount and 10 marks have been deducted’.

Where assignments are more than 10% less than the prescribed wordcount and lecturers cannot identify if the learning outcomes have been met.

This assignment will be graded below 40.

Where a student submits a .pdf instead of a word document.

This assignment will be graded a Fail.

The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘This is a pdf submission and is not allowed. All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format’.

Students not working in their groups as agreed by the lecturer.

This assignment will be graded a Fail.  

The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘This submission was not completed in the designated group’.

Please note: Where a student has asked the lecturer to move from their original group and the lecturer has agreed this does not apply.

For a presentation assignment that requires oral delivery, and the student does not present in person.

The Oral rubric criteria is not moved, and the oral criteria will remain at zero.

For a presentation assignment and the student does not upload a converted PPT To Word File with speaker notes.

The communication rubric criteria is not moved, and the communication criteria will remain at zero.

For a presentation assignment that requires oral delivery, and the student did not present on the day or upload the presentation to a Word document with speaker Notes.

This assignment will be graded a Fail.

The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘There was no Oral presentation in class and the submission was not converted to Microsoft Word’.

For a presentation assignment the student uploads a file that contains no slides and is simply continuous text.

This assignment will be graded a Fail.

The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘There are no slides present in the assignment submission’.

If the assignment is group work and the resubmission is not changed to individual work.

If a group assignment is failed then the resubmitted work must be changed by a minimum of 25% to make it an individual piece of work.

This means if a Group Presentation is 12 slides a minimum of 3 must be different to the group submission. If the assignment is a Group Poster with 6 text boxes then a minimum of 2 of them must be different to the Group Poster.

This assignment will be graded a Fail.

The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘This resubmission should be individual and a minimum of 25% of the assignment has not changed’.

Where a written assignment has text that is unable to be read by Turnitin because it is either a graphical image (excluding Presentations & Posters); for example, a screenshot or the assignment is written within text boxes on each page.

This assignment will be graded 0 and the written feedback should state ‘This assignment is unreadable by Turnitin and cannot be checked for Academic Misconduct. It has been referred for an AMC meeting’.

The assignment will then be referred for Academic Misconduct investigation.

An assignment that does not make use of any Mandatory references provided in the assignment brief/Module Handbook.

The reference rubric criteria is not moved and that criteria will remain at zero

An assignment has a reference list, but no citations.

The reference rubric criteria is not moved and that criteria will remain at zero.

Written feedback should state ’The reference criteria has been graded Zero as no citations have been used.  Please include citations in your assignment to support the academic points being made’.

An assignment has no citations and no reference list.

Foundation & Level 4 – The reference rubric criteria is not moved and that criteria will remain at zero. The written feedback will state ‘Please ensure that you use citations and references to support your assignment submission’.

At Level 5 and Level 6 this would be graded as a Fail. The lecturer will grade as 1 and written feedback will also show ‘This assignment has no citations and no reference list’.

Where False references are included in an assignment.

This will be referred for Academic Misconduct.

This assignment will be graded 0 and the written feedback should state ‘This assignment contains false references and has been referred for Academic Misconduct. You will be invited to attend an Academic Misconduct meeting’.

Assignment is submitted after the Late Deadline or if it is a Resubmission, after the Resubmission deadline

This assignment will be graded a Fail.

The lecturer will grade as 1 and written feedback should state `This assignment was submitted after the deadline. Please resubmit at the next resubmission opportunity.`