Your 531 paper begins with a series of taught workshops that will accelerate development of your applied business research and workplace readiness skills. This paper has two components that run concurrently: Applied Business Research Project and Internship Consultancy Project.

Applied Business Research Project- Case Study (Individual)

Learn how to undertake applied business research by working on a case study that will require you to write a business research proposal and a business research report. As part of your taught sessions, you will learn how to: gather information from a variety of sources and then to analyse this information write your proposal and report. Much of this will involve information gathering and analysis, including producing a simple financial evaluation of your recommendations and having a sound theoretical foundation for your research. Further, you will also consider the ethical implications of research and be able to distinguish clearly between primary and secondary research. The main requirements are the applied business research proposal and the applied business research report (5000-7000 words). Each student will be supervised by an academic supervisor.

Virtual Internship Consultancy Project (Group)

Concurrently, you will work in small teams as consultants to undertake a real project provided by a local business or organisation. Student teams can undertake these projects either remotely or based out of the university. You are required to work in teams on your assigned internship project for approximately 20-25 hours each week (total 100 hours) over four weeks. These projects will be managed by the Waikato Management School with input from the host organisations. Student groups will complete this internship project by presenting their findings to a panel from the university and/or the host organisations where feasible.

Your work-related project will provide you practical experience in business consultancy while giving you the opportunity to build essential professional skills. Learn how to conduct yourself in business and how to contribute value to the organisation. Through this experience, you will understand what businesses look for when they make decisions to add high-value team members, and you will have the opportunity to learn the skills to present yourself as a competent contributor.

All sessions will be delivered completely online while the campus is closed in line with COVID Alert levels. If and when we are able to revert to face to face classes (contingent on the levels), the taught sessions in this paper will be offered in a flexi format where students can participate online via Zoom synchronously or on-campus in Hamilton. We expect students to participate in all sessions synchronously as some assessments are scheduled at specific times. You are expected to participate fully in group work and assessments for you to be able to meet the requirements and expectations of this paper.

You are expected to satisfactorily undertake the internship project, meet pre-identified deliverables and fulfill all professional commitments agreed with the organisation.

Refer to Moodle for more details.

All assessment must be submitted as a Word document, unless otherwise stated.

PLEASE NOTE: The University has zero-tolerance for Plagiarism.

Booking of rooms for group meetings

Library Group Study Rooms - https://www.waikato.ac.nz/library/services/spaces/group-rooms
Please refer to Moodle for assessment details.

The workload associated with this paper is 300 hours. This includes approximately 30 hours of taught classes and supervision sessions with your supervisor. You are expected to complete 100 hours in your internship and the remaining 170 hours is to do the research for your paper, write up your findings and recommendations and complete your presentation