Review of Ming Zeng’s Article Entitled “Alibaba and the Future of Business” in Harvard Business Review
(a copy of this article is attached)STRUCTURE OF THE ESSAY
There will be FIVE sections of this essay, namely:
Write a brief introduction / abstract (does not go into word count)
Section 1: summary of the article, name of author, sources, put link to the article or reference of the article
Section 2: background of the company (maybe one company or a number of companies) — this article if about Alibaba but please also mention briefly about a competitor of Alibaba, e.g. Amazon or eBay and how Alibaba demonstrated competitive advantage etc.
Section 3: summary of business case
Section 4: main contention, theory, gap, critical analysis, critique of the paper, political situation or background affecting the writing / content of the author of the article (please refer to the topics above / on page 3 of this attachment)
Section 5: what did you learn, conclusion of your thought vs. the authors, any development since the timing of the article, future of the company, some comments
Reference list –> Harvard, e.g.
Latu, I. M. et. al. (2015) Gender Biases in (Inter) Action: The Role of Interviewers’ and Applicants’ Implicit and Explicit Stereotypes in Predicting Women’s Job Interview Outcomes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 39 (4), pp. 539-552.
Appendixes: tables or figures (PESTEL/SWOT) — these can be in charts format; supporting document e.g. the article
***
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
The article review will be evaluated based on the following marking criteria:
Marking Criteria – Article Review Marks
allocated to criteria:
Focus
Is the article linked to relevant topics covered in the module? 10%
Synthesis
Does the review provide a clear summary of the discussed article? 10%
Relevance/Consistency with class material
Does the review select the appropriate literature and class material to discuss the article? There must be evidence of use of class material. 30%
Understanding
Does the review indicate a comprehensive understanding of the topic area and literature discussed? Is the literature and class material appropriately applied? 30%
Clarity of structure and mechanical soundness
Is the review well organised and logically constructed? Is the review clearly written, spell checked, and grammatically sound, and referenced appropriately? 10%
References
Is the review using an adequate reference list and a proper and consistent referencing style? 10%
More information about the core business topics
The individual essay consists of a review of a journal article that must be related to the topic around “Analysis and Practice of Global Strategy”, and included a number of the following key concepts around business strategy:
Strategy of a company
The external environment of the company
Macro-environment –> PESTEL Analysis
Industry
Main opportunities and threats
The internal environment of the company
Resources and competencies
The distinction between threshold and distinctive resources and competencies appraisal of the distinctive resources and competencies
SWOT Analysis
Is the business strategy consistent with the external environment and the sources and competencies of the company?