Length:
2 hours
Questions:

1 Compulsory Case Study Analysis section

1 Essay question to be answered from a choice of 5

Specifics
Preparation for both the case-study and essay questions in the examination will be provided
in the final lecture/tutorial. Specimen exam papers can also be found in the Sydney Jones
library. Please be aware that the module specifications have changed over recent years and
older exam questions are no longer relevant to this module’s content.
All assessment expectations will be discussed throughout the course.
Tips for achieving good marks in assessments:
Engage in the classroom debate, and read widely and deeply on the topic (taking the
suggested reading as a starting point).
Re-sits: Yes (in Aug/Sep)
Penalties and other issues: Students are reminded that the following important
information is published in the ULMS Postgraduate Student Handbook, available online at:
http://www.liv.ac.uk/management/current-students/
The information includes advice on:
 How to reference your work
 Lateness penalties
 What to do if you require an extension
 The marking criteria that will be used for this module
 Re-sits
Exam preparation
The exam consists of two parts. The first part is a case study and the second part consists of
five questions. You must answer all case study questions in section one and pick one
question from section two. Both parts of the exam carry equal weights.
For the case study part, you are required to pick ONE of the following organisations for your
strategic analysis:
 [These will be revealed prior to the exam]

You are required to prepare so that you are able to answer the strategic questions in the
exam about your organisation.
As outlined throughout the course, it is important that you apply the strategic models you
have encountered in this module in order to analyse your organisation and that you use this
analysis as the basis of any strategic recommendations you may provide. It is therefore
important that you understand these models (and also how they relate to each other – think
of Porter’s work vs. that of Barney) – and that you collect sufficient information about your
organisation to conduct a strategic analysis. Moreover, you should be able to critically
discuss possible problems of these models and, therefore, also possible problems with your
analysis.
Because you will have had the chance to engage with the theory throughout the six weeks of
this module, you should try to be thorough in your analysis and creative in your
recommendations – all this should be possible for you because of the work you have already
done!
For the essay questions part, you are required to pick one of five questions. In the handbook
you can find the topics we have discussed in this module and you can expect most of these
areas to be covered in the exam questions. I would therefore recommend you prepare for at
least 2 or 3 topics in detail and not only focus on one.
You can expect the questions to be fairly open – requiring a more essay-style answer (not
merely yes or no). When preparing you may consider the following points:
 Do you understand the theory? This may include definitions, authors, key ideas. It
may also include knowing where the theory/model comes from and how other
academics have reacted to it (used it, developed it, criticised it). You may also try to
remember the key authors (e.g. who came up with it, who has done major work on
it, who has criticised it, and so on).
 How is the theory/model/framework applied? You may think of good example or
perhaps a study that was conducted using this theory. Most of the frameworks we
have discussed in the lectures have been widely applied and there are lots of
published papers in the academic literature giving you a lot of information.
 How does this theory/model/framework fit within the wider strategic literature? For
this you require an understanding of the developments in the strategy literature –
and you may want to go back to the ULMS765 handbook for an overview and for
links to relevant literature.
 What were your experiences when applying the theory/model – and how do these
experiences relate to what the key authors say?
A note on examples:
You are not allowed to use examples from the case study companies (i.e. do not use any of
the companies listed in section one to answer the second part of the exam!!!)

Exam Assessment Guide Part 1: Case study
Analysis: Good and very good answers will depict in-depth understanding of the theoretical
issues. Very good answers will also utilise empirical evidence when analysing the
organisation and will develop consistent (with the theory and analysis) and creative
recommendations.
Recommendations: Adequate answers will show some consistency in thought between
theory, evidence and recommendation. Good and very good answers will show strong
consistency and also be creative and detailed about the translation of the ideas to the actual
organization.
Criticality: Adequate answers will highlight either theoretical or empirical/analytical
concerns with the analysis. Good and very good answers will show a high level of such
critical reflection when discussing their analysis and employ adequate examples to illustrate
this.

Part 2: Essay style question
Adequate answers will highlight either theoretical or empirical/analytical concerns lurking
behind the question/statement. Good and very good answers will show a high level of such
critical reflection when discussing their analysis and employ good examples to illustrate this.