Choosing an issue and a research question

What the business research project is

The internal assessment in business management is a business research project: a written report of no more than 1,800 words on a real issue or problem facing one real organisation, analysed through one of the four key concepts. It is the same task at SL and HL, it is marked out of 25, and it counts for 30% of the final grade at SL and 20% at HL. Your teacher marks it first, and a sample from your school is then checked by an external moderator.

The project is a piece of research. Most of the information in it comes from three to five supporting documents that you find yourself and attach at the end: articles, company reports, survey results, interview summaries and similar sources. You then analyse that information with the tools and theories of the course, weigh up what it shows, and reach a conclusion that answers your research question.

Almost every later mark depends on decisions taken in the first few weeks. A well-chosen organisation gives you documents to work with; a real issue gives you something to analyse; a suitable key concept gives you a lens that fits naturally; and a focused research question makes it possible to reach a clear conclusion in 1,800 words. Good writing later in the project cannot make up for a weak choice at the start.

The requirements at a glance

The requirements that shape your choice of topic are the single organisation, the real issue, the key concept and the need for recent documents that show more than one point of view.

How your choices affect the marks

The project is marked against seven assessment criteria, A to G. The table connects each criterion to the choices made before any writing starts.

Criteria A to E, worth 21 of the 25 marks, depend directly on how good the organisation, issue, concept and question are. Time spent choosing carefully therefore pays off across most of the marks.

Choosing an organisation

Any real organisation can be the subject: a multinational company, a privately held company, a sole trader, a cooperative, a charity, a social enterprise, a school or a public sector body. What matters is that you can find enough recent, reliable information about the issue you want to study, from more than one point of view.

What makes an organisation a good choice

• Access to information. Large publicly held companies publish annual reports, results and press releases and are covered by the news media. Small businesses publish little, but their owners may agree to an interview or allow a customer survey.

• A recent, visible issue. The organisation should have faced a decision, problem or change in the last three years, so that documents about it are recent enough to use.

• A manageable size. A huge multinational has so many activities that it is easy to drift into generalities. Focusing on one product, one market or one decision keeps the project specific.

• Your own interest and knowledge. You will read about this organisation for several months. Knowing its products, market or local context helps you notice what matters in the documents.

• Language. Documents in other languages may be used, but the highlighted parts must be translated, which takes time.

There is no best type of organisation. A small business works well if you can carry out good primary research and also find secondary sources, such as local news coverage, industry data or council planning documents, that give a wider view. A large company works well if you narrow the issue tightly, for example to one product launch or one market.

One organisation, but industry issues are allowed

The project must refer directly to a single organisation. You may still discuss issues that affect its whole industry, such as new regulation, rising raw material prices or a change in consumer tastes, as long as you analyse how they affect your organisation. An industry report or a government statistic can therefore be a good supporting document, provided the project uses it to explain the organisation's position.

Finding a real issue or problem

An issue is a situation in which the organisation has to make a choice, solve a problem, respond to a change or judge whether something it did has worked. A topic is not yet an issue: "Tesla's marketing" is a topic, while "whether a car maker should cut prices to protect its market share" is an issue, because there is something to decide and more than one possible answer.

Real issues usually take one of four forms.

Where to look for ideas

Good ideas come from noticing businesses around you and from the course itself. Local and national news, business sections of newspapers, company press releases, trade magazines and the businesses your family or friends work for are all sources of real issues. Each unit of the course also suggests typical issues.

Six tests for an issue

1. Is it real? It must be an issue the organisation actually faces or has faced, not one invented for the project.

2. Is it recent? Documents about it must have been published within the three years before submission.

3. Is it specific? It concerns one decision, problem or change, not the organisation's whole strategy.

4. Is it debatable? Reasonable people could disagree about it, so the project can weigh more than one view.

5. Is it analysable? Course tools and theories can be applied to it, and some data exist.

6. Is it the right size? It can be analysed in depth in 1,800 words.

Choosing the key concept lens

The project must use exactly one of the four key concepts, change, creativity, ethics or sustainability, as a lens, a particular angle from which the issue is analysed. The concept is named on the title page. It may also appear in the research question, but it does not have to.

A lens shapes which questions the project asks. The same issue looks different through different concepts. A supermarket's decision to replace staffed checkouts with self-service tills can be analysed through change (how the business manages the move and the resistance to it), ethics (its duty to employees whose jobs disappear and to older customers) or sustainability (whether the move keeps the business viable in the long run while affecting the local community). Each lens leads to different evidence and a different emphasis.

Choose the concept with the issue, not after it

The strongest projects choose the concept at the same time as the issue, because the concept and the issue fit each other. When the concept is chosen after the research is finished, it usually appears only in the introduction and the conclusion, and criterion A stays at the lower levels. A useful check is whether the concept could appear naturally in the research question: if it could, it will probably run naturally through the analysis too.

Writing the research question

The research question is the title of the project. It states precisely what the project investigates, names the organisation, and is phrased so that the conclusion can answer it directly. A good research question is the single most useful thing a project can have, because every later section is judged by how well it helps to answer it.

Forward-looking and backward-looking questions

A research question may look forward or back. A forward-looking research question asks what the organisation should do about a decision it still faces, so the project ends with a recommendation. A backward-looking research question asks how successful, effective or justified something the organisation has already done has been, so the project ends with a judgment.

Neither type is better. Choose the one that suits the information available. If the decision is still open and documents discuss the options, a forward-looking question works well. If the change happened between one and three years ago and there are results to analyse, a backward-looking question is usually stronger.

Two examples in the official style

Two kinds of question are widely used as models of what is appropriate.

• "Should company Y switch its manufacturing to outsourcing?" A forward-looking question about one decision. It leads into operations management and human resource management, and change is a natural lens, because outsourcing alters how work is organised and who does it.

• "How can airline X target segment Y successfully?" A forward-looking question about a marketing problem. It leads into market segmentation, promotion and measures of financial success, and sustainability can serve as the lens, for example whether targeting that segment keeps the airline viable in the long term.

Both name one organisation, one issue and an outcome that the conclusion can state. Neither asks for a description, and neither can be answered with a simple fact.

Features of a good research question

• Names one real organisation (and, where useful, one product, market or site).

• Focuses on one issue, not a list of issues.

• Invites analysis and judgment: "should", "how successful", "to what extent", "how can". It cannot be answered by looking up a fact.

• Allows more than one answer, so that evidence can be weighed.

• Is answerable from three to five documents, using data the documents contain.

• Is limited in time or scope where that helps: "in the next two years", "in its UK stores", "since 2024".

• Uses business language that points to the tools and theories involved: "market share", "profitability", "labour turnover", "repositioning".

Weak and improved research questions

The table shows common weaknesses and how to fix them. The organisations in the improved questions are invented, except where a widely known company is used to show the form of a question.

Each improved question names one organisation, one issue and a measure of success or a decision to be made. The lens column shows a concept that fits each issue naturally. In several rows a different concept could also work, as long as it runs through the analysis.

Testing the question before approval

Your teacher approves the research question before the research starts, to make sure it is suitable and allows access to the highest levels of every criterion. Before you ask for approval, test the question yourself. The figure shows the path from an initial interest to an approved question, with the test that applies at each step.

The document test

Try to name, before you start writing, three to five documents you expect to use, and say where each comes from and whose view it represents. If you can only think of the company's own website and one news article, the question is risky. If you can name a company report, an independent news analysis, an industry statistic and your own customer survey, the question is promising.

The tool test

Name two or three business management tools or theories that will help to answer the question, and say what each will show. For a question on entering a new market, a STEEPLE analysis of the new country, the Ansoff matrix and a short financial analysis might work together. If no tool clearly helps, the question may be too descriptive.

The answer test

Write two possible conclusions, one on each side ("Yes, Lumen Cycles should sell directly online, because…" and "No, because…"). If both are plausible, the question allows the balanced evaluation that criterion D rewards. If only one answer is possible, or the answer is obvious before any research, the question needs reworking.

Writing a short proposal

Many teachers ask for a short written proposal before approving a question. Even when it is not asked for, writing one clarifies your thinking and becomes the basis of your introduction. A good proposal covers six points in about 150 words.

Example research questions across the course

The table shows the form good research questions can take in every unit. The real organisations in it are used only to illustrate the wording of a question; they make no claim about decisions those organisations are actually facing. Before using any question like these, check that the issue is real and that recent documents exist.

The questions use a wide range of tools because each issue calls for different ones. A project does not need many tools. Two to four, applied in depth to the organisation's data, are usually far more effective than six or seven applied briefly.

Planning the project

Most schools spread the project over several months, with deadlines set by the teacher. Work usually proceeds in the order shown in the timeline. The dark bars mark fixed points: approval of the research question, the first draft, the teacher's comments on it and the final submission. Everything else can overlap.

Three features of the timeline matter most. The research question is fixed early, because all later work depends on it. Finding documents takes longer than most students expect, so it starts as soon as the question is approved. And the first draft is a complete draft, because the teacher comments on one draft only; the next version you hand in is the final one.

Common traps when choosing

• A topic instead of an issue. "Coca-Cola's advertising" is a topic. Find the decision, problem or change inside it.

• A question that is too broad. Narrow it by product, market, site, stakeholder group or time period.

• A question that needs secret data. Check that the figures you need are published or that the organisation will share them.

• Only one point of view available. If every document comes from the organisation itself, the project cannot weigh different views.

• An issue that is too old. Documents must be from the last three years before submission. An issue from five years ago will be hard to support.

• A concept added at the end. Choose the lens with the issue, so that it shapes the research from the start.

• Copying a question from an online example. The project must be your own. Example questions show a form, not a topic to reuse.

Before you ask for approval

• To do:

  I have chosen one real organisation and can find recent information about it.

• To do:

  I have identified a real issue: a decision, problem, change or opportunity it faces or has faced.

• To do:

  The issue is recent enough for documents published in the last three years.

• To do:

  The issue is debatable, with more than one reasonable answer.

• To do:

  I have chosen one key concept that fits the issue naturally, and can say why in one sentence.

• To do:

  My research question names the organisation, focuses on one issue and asks for a judgment or recommendation.

• To do:

  I know whether my question is forward-looking or backward-looking.

• To do:

  I can name three to five likely supporting documents, from different sources and viewpoints.

• To do:

  I can name two to four tools or theories and what each will show.

• To do:

  I have written two plausible answers to my question, one on each side.

• To do:

  The organisation is different from the one in any extended essay I am writing.