Programme:

Business & Tourism Management

Level:

Level 5

Module Title:

Introduction to Research methods

Module code:

BTM5IRM

Module leader/s:

Assignment No:

Choose an item.

Assignment Type:

Critical Review

Assignment weighting %:

100%

Assignment Word Count: (or equivalent)

4000 words

Summative Submission Due Date:

Tuesday
27 May 2025 14:00

BTM5IRM_SEP22: 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

1.1.        Background and Context 1

1.2.        Problem Statement 1

2.      Literature Review (3300 words) 2

2.1.        Theoretical and
Conceptual Frameworks of the Research (500 words) 2

2.2.        Key Concepts,
Theories and Studies (2650-2700 words) 3

2.2.1.          Topic 1. 3

2.2.2.          Topic 2. 3

2.2.3.          Topic 3. (contextualising
research) 3

2.2.4.          Topic 4
(contextualising research) 4

2.3.        Key Debates and
Controversies (optional) 4

2.4.        Gap(s) in Existing
Knowledge (100-150 words) 4

3.      Research Question,
Research Aim and Research Objectives (150 words) 4

3.1.        Research Question. 4

3.2.        Research Aim.. 4

3.3.        Research Objectives. 4

4.      Implications and
contributions to knowledge (150 words) 5

4.1.        Practical
Implications. 5

4.2.        Theoretical
Implications. 5

References. 5

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)

2.           
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.

3.                   
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.

4.                   
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.

2.     
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.:

3.     
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)

4.     
You
may include your questionnaire as a tool to collect primary data in
appendices as well (example 2 below).

5.     
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 harvard available
in pdf format

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

     
I.    Format. Please ensure that your work has
been saved in an appropriate file format (Microsoft Word).

    
II.    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.

  
III.    There is no limitation to pages, but
all content should be presented clearly, and the text should not exceed the
required word count.

  
IV.    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.’