Module Title

MSc Marketing & Services Management

Level 7

Title of Assignment

 Coursework 2

Programmes undertaking the assignment

MSc Global Management

MSc Financial Services Management

Hand-out date

13^th March 2017

Hand-in date

12^th May 2017, 4pm

Weighting within the module

50%

Word limit/presentation criteria

3000 Words

(You must be within the designated word counts by +/-10%)

Learning Outcomes to be assessed

(from module spec.)

1.      Critically and effectively assess the value of theories, concepts and models to the practices of  the service sector and how they manage service quality;

2.      Critically assess the relationship marketing (RM) approach in marketing theory and practice and evaluate critically the importance of ‘interactions’, ‘networks’ and service processes in modern marketing;

3.      Demonstrate critical awareness of ‘experiential marketing’, and how this can be complemented through Social Media Marketing in a way with which organisations and consumers can ‘co-create value’.

Key Skills

On completion of this module students will have had the opportunity to:

1.      Enhance and apply planning, organising, decision-making and time management skills appropriate for use in an organisational context.

2.      Experiment and develop personal initiative and responsibility in undertaking complex investigations in the solving of organisational problems and issues.

3.      Critically analyse and apply key ideas and concepts via comprehensive research relevant both to the subject area and to professional practice in the field.

4.      Use terminology associated with the subject area accurately and in a way, which demonstrates sophisticated knowledge and understanding.

5.      Develop and enhance both individually and collaboratively effective written and oral communication skills for both specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Details of the task

Critically examine the interdependent nature between service quality and relationship marketing in establishing sustainable long term relations with customers. Illustrate your answers with appropriate examples from personal experience in commercial contexts (100 marks).

As a guide you should:

1.      Critically review the service quality literature (25 marks)

2.      Critically review the relationship marketing literature (25 marks)

3.      Discuss the connections between service quality and relationship marketing literatures (25 marks).

4.      Illustrate your essay with examples from your own your personal experience  in commercial contexts (25 marks)

Your work should be in a creative, critical and evaluative manner.  Ensure that your arguments are clear and logical and where appropriate include academic sources, i.e. academic journal papers, which add weight to your points raised. Please show in your list of references an appropriate breadth and depth of references relevant to the topic.

Your work must be correctly referenced throughout in the Harvard format.

Your assignment should be word processed and produced in an appropriate academic style. The font should be 12, and be double spaced. The work should be completed on an individual basis.

We have set up a draft submission area so that you can check whether your work is adequately referenced. You are strongly advised to make use of this system. You can submit a draft to turnitin as many times as you wish but you can only submit one final version. Therefore please ensure you submit to the correct area of blackboard turnitin systems.

WARNING – ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT

The University’s policy on Good Academic Conduct applies. Plagiarism, collusion and other forms of misconduct identified by the Policy are serious offences leading to potentially very severe disciplinary consequences.  Cases of academic misconduct WILL be reported.

In a nutshell plagiarism means passing off somebody else’s efforts as your own work.

The following are NOT permitted:

• Copying somebody else’s work in whole or in part
• Getting somebody else to help you with the specific content of your assignment (only general discussion with somebody else about the topics covered in the assignment is permitted – not discussion about the specific assignment contents)
• Getting somebody else to correct your work
• Copying (or cutting and pasting) text or web site content into your assignment without attribution of the source with full academic referencing
• Quoting more than 100 words of text verbatim even with attribution to the source

Any student who assists another student to plagiarise or collude (by allowing their work to be copied or by specific assistance/checking another student’s work) or participates in any other form of misconduct is ALSO guilty of misconduct and will be penalised along with the student who has been assisted.

Assessment criteria

There is very good  coverage of service quality and customer relationships literature, including very good connections made between both sets of literature. There are very good examples drawn from personal experience. There is very good presentation style, flow between sections and sequencing of the different sections.

60 to 69

There is  good  coverage of service quality and customer relationships literature, including  good connections made between both sets of literature. There are good examples drawn from personal experience. There is good presentation style, flow between sections and sequencing of the different sections.

50 to 59

There is  satisfactory  coverage of service quality and customer relationships literature, including  satisfactory connections made between both sets of literature. There are satisfactory examples drawn from personal experience. There is satisfactory  presentation style, flow between sections and sequencing of the different sections