Faculty of Business Studies

Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA)

B301 A: Making Sense of Strategy I
SPRING- Semester 2016 – 2017
Cut Off date: To be announced by the VPAA

This tutor marked-assignment is meant to assess the student’s ability in understanding, and application of
the course materials provided in the class room and ideas from external sources, as well as to test his/her
reflection and critical thinking. Among other ILOs, it is also intended to test the student’s ability to argue
relevantly and to justify a point of view besides, constructing, defending and evaluating an argument, using
relevant evidence and giving reasons for conclusions. It consists of two questions and accounts for 20% of
the total grade assigned to the course.
INSTRUCTIONS
The TMA must be done with strict compliance to the guidelines and instructions stated, otherwise there will
be penalties in form of marks deduction as per the university’s policy.
You are encouraged to collaborate with others in studying, but submitted work copied from or written jointly with
others is not acceptable. Submitting work that has been done by someone else and persistent borrowing of other
people’s work without citation are obvious instances of plagiarism and are regarded as cheating.

Paying for work from other sources and submitting it as your own is also cheating. It is intellectually
dishonest to cheat. If a case of plagiarism is proven, this is a serious offence and the disciplinary procedures will be
followed, as described under the Examination Policy of the AOU. Cases of plagiarism will receive a mark of “ Zero”
on the assignment. Please refer to AOU plagiarism policy.

1. TMA must be written in ESSAY (discussion) format, BULLETS and NUMBERING to be avoided. Avoid
writing TMA in first person tense. E.g. “I suggest that …” or “In this TMA I am going to discuss…”etc.

2. Word count should be exact, 1500 words with 10% (More/less) tolerance.

3. You must acknowledge all sources of information using full Harvard Style Referencing (In-text
referencing plus list of references at the end) Minimum of 5 references are required. MUST include E-
library and course materials.

4. Wikipedia is not recommended as a reference.

5. Copy and paste- plagiarized work will be detected by TURNITIN and heavily penalized.

6. TMAs to tutors through emails and late submission not permitted.

7. Strictly use the PT3 Form with yellow color mark accompanying this TMA.

Any other non-compliance to guidelines and requirements will be penalized

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B301A TMA-SPRING-16-17
WARNING: THERE WILL BE NO EXTENSION OF CUT-OFF DATE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE.

Please Note that this particular TMA is meant to respond to recommendations given by EE
to encourage and develop greater critical analytical skills especially at level 3 l 6, by
encouraging the students to read more widely; the greater use of comparative case
studies; and encouraging part-time students to reflect on the application of the
theories discussed to their own workplace and industries in their own countries.

Question
For the purposes of this TMA you need to read through the CASE STUDY of APPLE attached.

You are required to:

1. Critically analyze and discuss the strategy adopted by APPLE to penetrate and survive in
the highly competitive market of consumer electronics. (1000words)- 60 marks

2. Based on the B301A course material and your understanding of strategy, critically discuss
what Nokia could have done differently to sustain its initial dominance in the technology
industry. (500 words)-40 marks

***************** Good Luck *********************

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