HELSINKIMETROPOLIAUNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
Master’s Degree in Industrial Management/LogisticsManagement
Assignment 1 (TEMPLATE)
Here goes theTITLE for this assignment
“Value creation and delivery through service business models -
Combining theory and practice in my industry sector”
(Notice three main elements in this title. Discuss and connect them in your assignment)
Author: Your name
Instructors:Zinaida Grabovskaia, PhL
Sonja Holappa, MA
Delivered: __. __. 2017
table of contents
1Introduction
2BACKGROUND SECTION (split into 2-3 sub-sections)
3CASE analysis
4DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
References
Appendices
Dear students,
This template is meant as hands-on help to engineers who do not create reports often in their job, but need to do it for getting a degree. It provides practical guidance how to create a report step by step, by concentrating on the key elements of the topic and utilizing a ‘DDA approach’. This helps to arrive at the logical, well-structured, focused and reader-friendly text, and helps to ‘hit’ the topic correctly. When grasped, this approach will provide a good tool for creating any report easily in your professional future!
Wishing you fast learning and a rewarding academic journey,
IM & LOG Master’s team
1(8)
1Introduction
In the Introduction, the writer is typically expected to produceabout 3-4 paragraphs answering these questions:
- What is the study all about? (Introduce your topic). Create a focus/specify your problem area. Check that it corresponds to the tittle of your study. = 1 paragraph (“This report explores/focuses on ……”)
- Context and setting: in what environment are you looking at the topic?
- Why is this phenomenon significant / in what way? (Explain why you have focused on this topicDescribe where the phenomenon occurs). = 1 paragraph
- How the contents of the study are organized? (In this paragraph, describe the logic/ ’story-line’/structure of your report). The same logic should be visible in your table of contents. = 1 paragraph (“This report is written in x sections. Section 1 overviews xxxxx to give what…. Section 2 discusses xxxxx. Section 3 analyzes xxxx...because..”)
Please notice, although instructions contain bullet points and lists as here above, your text should not. Please write a coherent text using an academic report style. Use 1,5 space between the lines. The report should create from 10 to maximum 12 pages of the text, including the Reference list.
2Theoretical BACKGROUND (on xyz)
(1-2 sentences of meta-text telling the reader what this section is about and what goal it serves)
In this section you discuss the three main components indicated in your title for the report. Start by identifying what three key component you have for this section. Discuss each component in a separate sub-section below. For example, start discussing with the concept and main points of value creation (Section 2.1) and continue to discussing, for example, business models (in Section 2.2).Create a minimum of two subsections in each section.
2.1Sub-section Title (Use the Title Case)
Background section contains an overview of the existing knowledge (available knowledge, theory, best practice) on your topic.
Whenever you take up new issues, follow this DDA approach:
1.Define the term (e.g., customer experience / user experience, etc)
2. Describe its features, give examples
3. Analyzein relation to your topic/ case analysis (this is the place for your opinions, evaluations.
NOTE that all your recommendations (your “should” and “must”) are doneonly at the end or your report, based on the above three steps, in the final section. Not here.
Start withdefining your phenomena!
Reference the content accurately to the source (Grönroos 2008: 25). Do not write opinions or impressions or generalizationsin this part,nor instruct what companies “should” or “must” do.Instead, discuss what is known on the issue and present a merged, coherent view on this concept or phenomenon.
Link every subsection to the next one. Build a ‘bridge’.
2.2Sub-section Title (Use the Title Case)
Continue by discussing your next key element (similar approach to Section 2.1).
Here is some general advice for writing Section 2 (from M.Huhta’s“Instruction for Writing a Master’s Thesis”, see the file sent to you for the full text):
- First, decide your focus (Remember, it should link well with your case analysis)
- Develop your own ‘storyline’/logichow you present and discuss this topic and its details (and follow your logic, not the sources)
- Select only relevant ideas which would prove/support/ illustrate your logic (do not repeat the sources/ do not report all the ideas from them). Discard and minimize all the other elements.
- Merge these relevant ideas (mix them) to present your logic, but keep references visible to sources, to indicate where the most significant ideas come from.
- Start with definitions and proceed to detail.
- Finally, always check yourself: Does my text/logiclink to my topic? Or I am diverging to some other direction?
2.3Sub-section Title (Use the Title Case)
Continue by discussing your next key element (similar approach to Section 2.1).
‘Summing up, xxxxxxxxxx’. In this final part of Section 2, summarize briefly the main components of yourSection 2 (discussed above) and mention the key points related to this discussion. Say briefly what the main points of the theoretical background on, for example,valuecreation include. Example:
In summary, customer experience can be seen as… Customer experience differs from the points of view of suppliers and customers. From the supplier perspective, customer experience consists of… From the customer perspective, it relates to… As reported in Section 2.3, customer experience can be measured by…
In your Master’s thesis, this pastwill become theConceptual Framework of your study (= a selection of the most relevant points arising from theory that will be further applied for the case analysis and solution building).
If possible, try to create a visual model or a summary table with the key points discussed, which you consider the most relevant for this report topic, based on your theoretical review in this section.
3CASE ANAlYSIS (=practical part)
(1-2 sentences of meta-text telling the reader what this section is about). E.g.This paper looks at customer experience in the context of a major company in xxx logistics. Tell briefly what aspects come into focus and why. It is important to GROUNDyour choices.When designing this section, create a minimum of two subsections.
In this section, case analysis contains examples/ ideas/ links to the practical experiences/ challenges of the writer’s company related to the topic. Say why this company was chosen.
If you do not have a company case, analyze a case based on findings about an interesting company based on available data (website, friend). Mark the source of information, as always in academic/ research writing.
Here it is very important that you apply the same logic for your case analysis that you developed for Section 2 (use the same approach, for example: what is the service/value/customer experience? what are its parts? what influences value creation? etc and apply the ideas from your Section 2 to your case analysis. Tell us what you see).
=Section 3 will make about the same number of pages as Section 2 has, and should have the same logical structure.
3.1Case Company Background (or any other sub-section title)
Here, you provide a brief overview of your case company’s background, i.e. an introduction to the case company in general and from the perspective of the topic of this report.
3.2Topic element one (=e.g. Value creation, or Customer Experience, etc) in the Case Company(or any other sub-section title)
Define and describe how your topic (=for example, value creation) appears currently in the case company. Reference the sources of information (such as your internal documentation, case publications, company web-site, but DO NOT refer to any academic sources here, since this sections is fully case-based). Utilize your own observations. Analyze this phenomenon in your context and evaluate it, using the previously discussed key points as your logical guides that help you thinking about your case.
Since this section focuses on your case, it does not typically refer to any academic sources (as Section 2 above).
3.3Topic element two (=e.g. Value creation, or Customer Experience, etc) in the Case Company (or any other sub-section title)
Continue by discussing your next key element (similar approach to section 3.2).
Your report may benefit from a “mirror” structure. In other words, the same logic should ideally be visible in sub-sections of both sections, Section 2 and Section 3. For example, if you discuss value in 2.1 and how it is created in business models in 2.2, then Section 3 can utilize a similar logic applied to your case analysis. This simple technique helps to create a focused, structured report.
3.4Observations on xxx in the case company(Value Creation in xxx, Challenges, Change, Future, Innovation, etc. or any other sub-section title). Recommendations
Discuss the observations that you can make out of the practical part. What strengths and weakness you can see in the current situation in relation to value creation, especially relevant to some particular service business models (or their absence). What the situation in your company makes you think about. What can be suggested as next steps for your company. Where it should develop, where to focus next, what practical suggestions you can make in relation to this topic.Discuss opportunities to tackle the problems.
After you have discussed your observations, based on your observations and reflections, here the writer is encouraged to use his/her own ideas and come up with some recommendations.Here it is a good place to use ‘should’ and ‘must’, since your recommendations will be based on the case analysis.
4DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The point of this section is to identify the most important findings and to experiments with ideas (for example, by thinking what can be done with the findings).Here you combine ideas from the theoretical review (Section 2) with the situation in the case company (= the practical part).
4.1Summary and Conclusions
Writeyour conclusions. What you would suggest/ predict? To finish your paper successfully, you need to overview what you discussed before:
1)Start with briefly repeatingwhat your focus was (based on your Introduction). = 1 sentence to 1 paragraph (focus on Introduction). ”This report focused on xxxx”…
2)Make a brief summary of the topic (based on yourbackground Sections 2, and your case analysis, in Section 3, separately).This report overviewed xxxxx…It discussed …. It showed … Summing up, it seems that… = 2 paragraphs
3)Interpret what your observations mean from the point of view of your topic. This is not about ‘repeating the results’, but about connecting them to your topic and to what you said about the topic in Section 2, Theory.
This discussion part (point 3) of a good research report
- interprets the findings (by identifying the most important findings/ideas/ observations; experimenting with ideas; What do they mean? Are these findings as expected? What questions did you not find answers to?)
- connectsthe theoretical background and the case analysis sections: what are the similarities, differences observed, what kinds of new ideas emerged from the case analysis that you did not notice in the theoretical review?
4)Summarize your recommendations to the case company = 1-2 paragraphs. Based on the case analysis, it seems that… This report suggests/points to/ questions/argues/shows that xxx”…. Notice, your “must” and “should” are welcome here.
5)Identify limitations in this assignment = 1 sentence to 1 paragraph
6)Suggest further areas of research to take theory in the area forward. (Identify problems that need to be tackled next. What can be done next with the findings. Thinks of the feasibility of these options) = 1 paragraph
7)At the end, return to your topic (title of your report) on a more general level and tell in general and in your field – very briefly, based on the ideas from your text on that account – what you have found/what you can conclude = 1 paragraph (focus on thetopic/objective of your report) = 1 paragraph
References
In alphabetical order, using Harvard Referencing system, minimum 10 references.Please note that you only indicate the sources that were cited in the text. See examples below
Christensen, C. M. (2002). The Rules of Innovation. Technology Review. 105 (5), 32-38.
Grönroos, C. (2008). Service Logic Revisited: Who Creates Value? And Who Co-creates? European business Review. 20 (4), 298-314.