Final exam – 26100 Integrating Business Perspectives – SPR 2021 (648)

Integrating Business Perspectives and 26100

Assessment Task 3 – Take Home Examination

Spring 2021 (Main)

Instructions

This examination is made available online at 9:30am on 08/11/2021.

Your completed answer file is due at 9:30am on 09/11/2021 and must be submitted online via Turnitin link in the Assessment Task 3 folder on Canvas.

Note: If you have special conditions for the exam or an alternative start time your exam will be available to be submitted at the end time you have been given by the university.

There are 2 questions. Your answer to each question should commence on a new page and be appropriately numbered.

The examination is worth 30% of the marks available in this subject. The contribution each question makes to the total examination mark is indicated in marks or as a percentage.

This examination is an open book examination.

This examination is expected to take approximately 2 hours of working time. You are advised to allocate your time accordingly. Your answer file may be submitted at any time before the due time. Please allow time to complete the submission process.

Please submit your file in PDF/Word. format unless directed otherwise. Please name your file as follows:

EXAM_subject number_student number e.g. EXAM_54000_12345678

Word Limit

There is a word limit for each question. Footnotes/references are not included in the word count. Your answer can consist of a word count less than the imposed word limit. A ten percent (10%) leeway on word counts is permitted.

Footnotes/references must be used for citation purposes only and not for the development of your arguments. A bibliography is not required for this assessment task.

Important Notice – Exam Conditions and Academic Integrity

In attempting this examination and submitting an answer file, candidates are undertaking that the work they submit is a result of their own unaided efforts and that they have not discussed the questions or possible answers with other persons during the examination period. Candidates who are found to have participated in any form of cooperation or collusion or any activity which could amount to academic misconduct in the answering of this examination will have their marks withdrawn and disciplinary action will be initiated on a complaint from the Examiner.

Exam answers must be submitted via Turnitin. Staff may ask that a student undertake an oral test to ensure they have completed the work on their own and to assess their knowledge of the answers they have submitted.

Students must not post any requests for clarification on the Discussion Boards on Canvas or Microsoft Teams. Any requests for clarification should be directed by email to Dr. Stephen Schweinsberg on stephen.schweinsberg@uts.edu.au. Where clarification is required it will be broadcast by email to all students in the exam group. Dr. Schweinsberg will be available from 9am to 5pm Sydney time during the exam period.

Exam Questions

Q1. Over the course of the semester we have presented the business model canvas as a tool for establishing how an organisation can create, deliver and capture economic value. To this end, the business model canvas formed a core component of your final group report. However, what of the environmental and social sustainability of your team’s business idea?

In week 10 of the semester we asked teams to consider the triple layered business canvas (see reading by Joyce & Paquin, 2016). The purpose of this exam question will be for you to analyse the sustainability of your team’s business idea with reference to the Joyce & Paquin (2016) model:

What are three components of the environmental layer of the Joyce and Paquin (2016) model that will be most likely to impact on the environmental sustainability of your team’s business idea into the future, and why? (6 marks; 2 marks per component)

Similarly, to the original business model canvas, which is intended to determine if revenues outweighed expenditures, the primary goal of the environmental layer of the TLBMC is to determine whether a company creates more environmental advantages than it does negative environmental consequences.

Production

It is the production component that stretches the main activities component from the initial business model canvas to the environmental layer, and it is responsible for capturing the activities that the company conducts in order to produce value (Joyce, Paquin, & Pigneur, 2015). Production for a producer may entail the transformation of raw or unfinished resources into completed goods of higher monetary worth. As in the case of materials, the emphasis herein is not on entire activities, but instead on those that are essential to the company’s operation and have a significant influence on the environment. The business idea being in the fast-food industry, production will likely impact the environmental sustainability in the future. The business will have an environmental sustainability in the future since the emissions from the fast-food chains generation considerably contribute to high carbon footprint in comparison with grains or vegetables.

Distribution

Distributing commodities is similar to the original business model in that it includes the shipping of items. With regards to a service provider or a commodity manufacturer, distribution refers to the physical mechanisms through which the company guarantees that its functional value is accessible to the public or other customers (Pardalis, Mahapatra, & Mainali, 2020). Consequently, inside the environmental layer, it is necessary to take into account the mix of transport means, distances travelled, and the masses of the items being sent. In addition, challenges such as packing and shipping logistics may arise in this situation. In the case of the fast-food industry, transportation means used in the sourcing of raw materials and delivery to customers will likely have an impact on the environmental sustainability in future. This is because of the type of fuel used in the automobiles used in transportation is a significant determinant in the overall carbon footprint.

End-of-life

A product’s “end-of-life” status is determined by the consumer’s decision to discontinue the utilization of its functional value. This situation frequently involves concerns of material reuse like recycling, reprocessing, and disassembling as well as combustion or disposing of products (García-Muiña et al., 2020). As seen from an environmental standpoint, this element assists the firm in researching methods to reduce its environmental effect by expanding its responsibilities far beyond value of its goods as they were originally intended. With the introduction of different material limitations and recycling regulations, governments are increasingly compelling businesses to address this issue. Product service systems as well as industrial symbiosis are two examples of innovative business models that may be explored by firms in a creative manner during this time period.

What are three components of the social layer of the Joyce and Paquin (2016) model that will be most likely to impact on the social sustainability of your team’s business idea into the future, and why? (6 marks; 2 marks per component)

The use of the social layer of the TLBMC is important because it allows one to expand the primary business model canvas utilizing the stakeholder approach, which allows a business to capture both the complex interrelationships between stakeholders and the firm and the company’s own impacts (You et al., 2020). Additionally, this layer aims to record the most important social consequences of the firm’s interactions as they arise as a result of those ties.

Social value

The term “social value” refers to the portion of a company’s objectives that is concerned with providing benefits for its stakeholders as well as for community as a whole. Generating social value is almost certainly an important component of the purpose of sustainability-oriented businesses (Diana, 2020). Even for a majority of profit-driven firms, on the other hand, are likely to view their value creation potential in terms other than financial gain. The firm creates social value through its collective action to fight hunger and malnutrition.

Employee

Considering the workers’ component allows the firm to take a step back and think about their role as a key stakeholder inside the company. It is possible to incorporate a variety of components herein, like the type and number of workers, prominent demographics including variances in compensation, gender, race, and education among others inside the firm, and so forth (Furqon, Sultan, & Wijaya, 2019). Also included is an opportunity to examine how the firm’s employee-oriented initiatives, such as employee training, development, and extra support programs, add to the long-term survival and profitability of the organisation. Considering that the business serves different people in different geographical locations, the maintenance of a good customer relation and good working environment will likely require a consideration in the core of the business.

Social impacts

The social effects element of an enterprise is concerned with the societal expenses incurred by the company. It adds to and increases the financial expenses of the economic layer, as well as the bio-physical repercussions of the environmental layer, which are already present (Kwak et al., 2020). Despite the fact that there is an increasing corpus of work on social effect metrics, there is still no clarity on which social impacts should be included or how to measure them. Among the common indicators include fair competition, working hours, community engagement, cultural heritage as well as health and safety. For the business, adverse negative impacts may stem from the engagement between the local farmers and the organization, social practices or the negative impacts associated with the consumption of fast foods such as obesity among children.

Many people view business sustainability simply as a process of operating a business in a manner that ensures its continued operation and longevity. Why might this be a very narrow way of thinking about sustainability in your team project? What would be two benefits of instead thinking about how your team’s business can contribute to sustainable development? (8 marks; 4 marks per benefit discussed)

Several people refer business sustainability just as the process of carrying out business activities in a way that ensures its continued longevity and operation. Nevertheless, this tends to be a shallow way of thinking regarding sustainability. This is because sustainability is nowadays defined and associated with the actions and processes through which humans avoid depleting natural resources in an effort to maintain an ecological balance that do not give room to the deterioration of life quality with the society (Wong & Ngai, 2021). Sustainability has several advantages but the two main ones are the maintenance of health and biocapacity within the environment. Secondly, it helps to build a stronger economy with less pollution and waste, less greenhouse gas emissions, more employment, and a more equitable distribution.

Q2. Reflect on your group discussions over the semester:

Identify and briefly explain one phase of the design thinking process that, in retrospect, you believe your team should have dedicated more time to. (2 marks)

Design Thinking is a creative technique that takes a problem-solving strategy that is centred on the solution of issues. A human-centred approach is essential to tackle challenging problems which are ill-defined or unidentified, because it involves the comprehension of the human needs implicated, interpreting the issue in a human-centric manner, generating numerous suggestions during brainstorming process, and taking an active role in prototype development and testing (Serrat, 2017). The prototype is the phase that the team ought to have dedicated a considerable amount of time. As part of this stage, the design team will make a bunch of affordable, scaled-down samples of the commodity or particular aspects present inside the commodity in order to study the issue remedies that were produced in the preceding phase. Prototypes could well be distributed and examined inside the design team alone, in other divisions, or on a handful of individuals outside the design team, depending on the situation. This is a testing stage, and the goal is to figure out the solution for each of the issues that were discovered during the previous three phases. Based on the consumers’ perspectives, the remedies are incorporated in the samples and tested out one by one before being approved, enhanced and re-tested, or dismissed. While this stage is completed, the design group will have a greater understanding of the restrictions present in the product as well as the difficulties that are there, as well as a stronger understanding of how real consumers will act, perceive, and feel when engaging with the finished version.

Justify this view by drawing on relevant evidence you collected through the semester and/or relevant concepts/theories (8 marks)

One of the most important parts of prototype stage is that it fosters empathy in the minds of potential customers. There’s not much difference between developing software and designing items for human consumption in this regard. A product that is developed without taking into consideration the demands of the client might lead to needless functionalities, bad designs, and a slew of other issues (Dam & Siang, 2018). The creation of a prototype allows one to contextualise a concept and determine which aspects will be tough to execute in the final product. As a result, prototyping might uncover previously undiscovered physical, technological, or economical limits. Ones that go through the entire prototype phase are less risky than projects that do not go through the prototyping phase. This is due to the fact that prototype has a direct impact on project resources, timeline, and money. It is feasible to forecast the time and resources required for development via the use of prototype techniques. It is feasible to enhance the product based on the data collected from potential consumers via prototypes till an excellent product is developed. Producing numerous prototypes prior to going into large scale production can help to reduce the expenses of unsold items, which can help to keep the overall cost of manufacturing down. The most significant benefit of spending considerable amount of time in prototyping is that it allows for the creation of a replica of the finished product to be tested. It may be used to entice clients to invest in the commodity before any resources are allocated for its development and execution (Dam & Siang, 2018). Prior to actually going into production, one may identify design flaws and ensure that they are properly implemented. When one exposes a prototype, he or she may gather more targeted consumer input on the desirable attributes of the finished version. Feedback from consumers is essential for understanding their wants and expectations, as well as business needs, and for gaining an accurate picture of where the product is heading.