The IB BM Business Management IA guide
A complete guide to the IB BM Business Management IA
Now you have a research question...what happens next?
Writing the IB BM Business Management IA can be really tricky! It seems like the IB BM Business Managment IA is asking for loads of things within the 1800-word, word limit! You need a solid research question to begin with! If you don’t have that then click here for a guide on writing a top-class research question!
Once you’ve done that then you probably want to know, ‘what happens next’?
We’ve got you! This guide is put together with the best advice we could create to help you bang out a level 7 IA that will cause joy at IB headquarters! Follow this IA guide and you’re IA will be so good that the IB examiner will be reaching for their big fat green marker pen!
Requirements (guidance from the IB)
- Select a real business issue or problem for their business research project that relates to any part of the syllabus
- Refer directly to a single business organization but may consider industry-wide issues that impact on that organization
- Provide a research question (RQ) that could either be forward looking or backward looking
- Must integrate 2 to 3 tools from the BMT (unit 6)
- Base their research on primary and/or secondary research, selected for its suitability, depth and breadth and incorporates a difference of opinion!
- Attach five supporting documents from which the majority of the information for the research question (RQ) has been obtained
- Produce a report of 1,800 words
- Fully reference the 5 key supporting documents and any additional sources used in the bibliography
Key concept (guidance from the IB)
- The report must feature one of the four key concepts (change, creativity, ethics or sustainability) as a lens through which to analyse the IA. That concept must be used throughout the IA!
- This key concept should be used (for good practice) in the title of the IA.
- The key concept must be stated on the front page of the report
- The key concept should be underlined all the way through your report so it’s easy to spot!
Supporting Documents (guidance from the IB)
- The selection of supporting documents is very important for your IB BM Business management IA.
- To score highly, the report should present a range of ideas and views!
- Documents published by a single company or author would not provide balance or objectivity.
- Supporting documents must be published no more than three years prior to the submission of the IA.
- A maximum of one of the supporting documents may be a transcript of video or audio material. The transcript must provide the essential points of the video or audio file used for the purposes of the project. Videos only from trusted sources should be used!
- Referencing must be absolutely clear!
- Primary sources are not absolutely necessary. But, if you do choose to use primary sources then they could include
- Observations, focus groups, surveys and questionnaires / surveys! Evidence of these should be included in the appendices section of the report!
- Examples of secondary sources include:
- Articles from the local, national or international press, business accounts, business plans, extracts from company websites, transcripts of a relevant audio-visual file, financial reports, government and other statistics, journal publications, market research surveys, mission statements.
- Maximum length of supporting documents is 5 pages. Longer than that should be cropped or shortened using a PDF tool!
- Students must highlight the parts of each supporting document that relate directly to their IA.
- Any foreign language used must be translated accurately!
- Students should label each supporting document clearly.
Choosing the best supporting docs (guidance from the IB)
- Start with more than 5 documents and refine the list to 5 maximum!
- The other documents can be used as additional sources for the IA. These will appear in the bibliography!
- How do students select which five supporting documents to use?
- Eliminate any document over 3 years old!
- Now decide which documents yield the ‘best’ information to answer the RQ. Top marks are only awarded if documents are “relevant and sufficiently in depth” or have a “difference of opinion or views“!
- Submitting more than 5 documents will lose marks!
How to structure and present your IA
- Title page
- Acknowledgements
- Contents page or “Table of contents”.
- Introduction
- Methodology employed
- Main results and findings
- Analysis and discussion
- Conclusion
- Supporting documents (clearly referenced and highlighted)
- Bibliography or additional works cited
- Any appendices
Title page
- Business Management SL/HL Internal Assessment
- The Research Question (RQ)
- State the conceptual lens used
- State the intended audience (The management of your chosen business)
- Word count (1800 words)
Contents page
List titles and page numbers for:
- All sections of your main report, and each of your selected documents.
- Once the report is complete, go back and check the page numbers and actual contents on each page match! This is a common problem on the business IA!
Acknowledgements (guidance from the IB)
- The acknowledgements should recognize any individual and/or organization that made the production of the report possible.
- Start the Acknowledgements section with the following sentence.. “I would like to acknowledge and thank the following people”
Introduction (approximately 200 words)
The introduction should demonstrate some background knowledge about the organization and give a clear outline of the issue / problem or decision under investigation. Below is a suggested list of items that may feature in the introduction:
This bullet point list heavily depends on the nature of your question! This is just some ideas to get your IA started or get your thinking!
- The type of market the firm operates in
- Connect your lens to the business!
- The firm’s market share and the market shares of its main competitors (if relevant)
- Relevant economic issue(s) affecting demand for the firm’s products (if relevant)
- The conceptual lens (sustainability, change, creativity or ethics) should be either explicitly mentioned OR it should be obvious which lens you have chosen! Failure to do this will put doubt about your IA in the mind of the examiner!
- Outline the issue or decision or industry problem you are going to discuss
- Include a hook – (a connection to the rationale in the research proposal that highlights why this issue is worth investigating).
- End the introduction with these words, “Therefore, this report will address the following research question: state your Business Management IA RQ here”
Methodology approximately 250 words
The methodology employed section should be a summary of the primary (and, where relevant, secondary) research undertaken and the business tools, techniques and theories applied.
It should also include an assessment of the validity and reliability of the data collected.
For example, let’s say you conducted some observations of a store location to see how much foot traffic there was! You may only have time to visit twice on two different days! Whilst you got some useful data, your methodology could have been improved by setting out a better plan! Let’s say, plans to visit on a morning and evening (in the busiest times) as well as on the weekend! This would yield more reliable data and thus creates a ‘better’ methodology for collecting data!
Your IA data collection is not supposed to be perfect, however, you can score additional marks and head to a level 7 by being reflective on possible improvements or possible weaknesses in your data collection or analysis!
Explain (where relevant):
- The primary (and or) secondary sources you used or plan to use!
- The business theories you used / plan to use
- How reliable your data collection was and what were the data problems you bumped into? By the way…being honest doesn’t show weakness, but helps show the examiner you are reflective and have considered things! This will help you to achieve an IA Level 7
Main results and findings (approximately 300 words)
The Main results and findings section should clarify:
- What have the 5 key supporting documents revealed / indicated
- What the data collected shows / indicates!
- What do the BMT tools you used show / indicate?
- It can be in a list format for speed!
- There should be no analysis! Just state the facts
- This section is a summary of your results
- Therefore, use lots of citations to the supporting documents (primary and or secondary sources)!
- Results from qualitative tools come before quantitative tools (unless there is a good reason to switch them around)
- You can put charts or tables here (OR) in the results and analysis section! You have to decide which makes most sense! Do NOT duplicate them! You can instead refer to them by making sure they are clearly and consistently labelled!
This section of the IA is only a short section! You therefore have to decide judiciously what to include and what not! Go with the most impacting, interesting and important results!
Analysis and discussion (approximately 900 words)
The results and findings of your research should be analysed. What main issues emerge from the research and why are these issues helpful (or unhelpful) to answering the research question?
You should adopt a balanced approach for your discussion of your findings: for example,
- What are the impacts of your findings?
- What are the consequences?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of the various perspectives on the issue you are investigating, and
- What are the implications of these advantages and disadvantages?
Conclusion (approximately 200 words)
The conclusions should follow on from the analysis and discussion. No new facts or arguments should not be presented.
Begin by restating the research question to remind the reader of the report’s main focus.
Outline the key findings of
- The tools and analysis
- Go back and summarise in terms of the RQ and key concept
- Clearly summarize the major findings of the report. Answer the research question, presenting conclusions based on the evidence gathered and discussed in the body of the report.
Limitations: Acknowledge any limitations in the research that might affect the results or the extent to which the findings can be generalized. This could include methodological limitations, challenges in data collection, or external factors.
Closing Statement: End with a strong closing statement that may reflect on the broader topic or the significance of the findings in a wider context.
You must explicitly answer the research question!
Identify one further area that could be studied to help clarify this position! For example, if you are asking ‘To what extent Patagonia is sustainable”…you could say something like,
One area of further study could be a more detailed examination of the main suppliers of Patagonia to get a sense of how sustainable Patagonia is both internally and externally (by accounting for the behaviour of its suppliers or supply chain)!
Bibliography
This is additional supporting documents that you may have used. Whilst the majority of information must come from the five key supporting documents, it is assumed that you may have examined additional sources! These must be referenced on a new page named, ‘Bibliography’ or ‘Additional cited work’. You must use an accepted referencing system!
Five key supporting documents & highlighting
Supporting documents (5 key documents)
The supporting 5 key documents should be made very obvious! It is worth creating their own table at the end of the report (like the example).
This will show the name, the location / hyper link and a brief description of what each document includes)
Below this table, every part of the 5 key supporting documents that you have used must be highlighted! Failure to do this is likely to lead to a loss of confidence from the examiner and potentially a loss of marks. See the example below!
Appendices
Guidance from IB BM guide: The appendices should contain only information or data that is required to support the text and should be clearly referred to where relevant.
The appendices will typically include examples of photographs, documents, questionnaires, numerical raw data in tables and statistical calculations. All documents in the appendices must be in English.
Include
- Transcripts of your interview(s)
- Highlight the parts from the interview transcript(s) that you used in the written report.
- Survey questions
The Information in appendices will not be directly assessed. However, if it is missing then it impacts the validity and believability of the entire report!
Word count
The Internal assessment (IA) must not exceed 1,800 words. The word count must be included on the cover page of the IA.
Note: Moderators will not read beyond 1,800 words!
The following are not included in the word count.
- Acknowledgments
- Contents page
- Tables of statistical data
- Diagrams or figures
- Equations, formulae and calculations
- Supporting documents
- Citations (which, if used, must be in the body of the project)
- References (which, if used, must be in the footnotes/endnotes)
- Bibliography
Need an IA research question (RQ)?
This is a complete guide to the IB BM Business Management IA to score a level 7! If you think you’re not quite ready to start or feel you need more guidance on creating a great research question (RQ) then here are two great resources for you!
You can find the link here! https://ibmonkeybusiness.site/write-a-level-7-business-management-ia/
Another great site link here: https://thecuriouseconomist.com/intro-to-the-bm-ia/
