master reports guidelines -nov 19th, 2010

8/6/2019 Master Reports Guidelines -Nov 19th, 2010

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Reportss guidelines

by

Dr Emmanuel Monod, PhD, HDR

For

Master of International Business

And

Master of New Communication Technologies and Tourism

Université Paris-Dauphine

Nov 19th, 2010



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Reports GuidelinesTable of Contents

1- The Importance of the Reports .................................................................Erreur ! Signet non défini.

2- The Standard Expected of the Reports ..................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini.

3- The Content of the Reports ................................................................................................................. 3

4- Sources ................................................................................................................................................ 4

5- Planning and Guidance ....................................................................................................................... 5

6- Submission .......................................................................................................................................... 6

7- Arrangement of Reports ...................................................................................................................... 7

8- Reports Format .................................................................................................................................... 8

9- Footnotes ............................................................................................................................................. 8

10- References ......................................................................................................................................... 9

Sample A: Title Page ............................................................................................................................. 11

Sample B: Vita ...................................................................................................................................... 12

Appendix 1 : some consulting reports ................................................................................................... 15



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Reports Guidelines

1- the Corporation

The corporation might be the one you are working in as an apprentice or trainee, or a

customer of this company, or another company that you select either because you know it, or

because you are interested in it.

2- The Content of the Reports

A good Reports poses an interesting, focused question, and provides a reasoned answer to

this question.

For instance :

Project definition report :

• What are the context of this project?

• What are the objectives?

• What are resources sufficient?

• Is timing OK?

• How about risks?

• Please refer to the checklist for the PDR

Competition analysis report :

• is the company in hypercompetition?

• is the portfolio of products / markets balanced?

• Where is the company in his hypercompetitive trajectories?

• Is the corporation in international ? multinational? Global or transnational

mode?

Change management report

• Who are the stakeholders?

• What is the wake-up call?

• How is the team effectiveness?



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A Reports needs to have a central integrating argument. The argument should be logically

developed, building up a case point by point, and displaying a critical and analytical approach

to the subject. Descriptive material which does not contribute to such an argument should

normally be omitted.

It is not writing about the collection of books and articles which you have read about the

topic. A good Reports needs to contain your assessment of existing knowledge about the

topic plus contributions which you yourself may have made to that knowledge through

original research from primary sources of fieldwork. It should be an expression of your

thoughts and conclusions.

Your argument should have depth and balance. Avoid making superficial claims which will

not stand up to scrutiny. Important alternative views must be met. Similarly, do not ignore

evidence that does not support your case. Examine the evidence. If a candidate adopts a

single perspective, s/he must demonstrate a critical awareness of its strengths and weaknesses.

The Reports should relate to the content of at least one course of the Master program. You

should clearly demonstrate the link between the topic or case(s) studied and a recognised

corpus of literature that was taught in Management in the Master program and this link should

be made explicitly.

3- Sources

Students are encouraged to gather as much data and information as is possible within the

allocated time. You may find the Internet a useful tool for this purpose, but your corporationor institution should rather be the primary source of these data. Data might be :

1. Internal reports

2. Interviews (that may be anonymous: for instance, Mr X, director of Business Unit Y)

3. Your own observations (not mandatory)

4. Questionnaires (not mandatory)

5. Books

6. Press articles (that you may find in bookshops, libraries or on the internet)

7. Professional reports (that you may find in bookshops, libraries or on the internet)

By all means use primary source material (from interviews, fieldwork, surveys, or

analysis of original documents) if you wish and if it is available to you. But, given the short

time available to you for research, you should make sure that any fieldwork or primary

research that you do is strictly ‘containable’ within the time-frame for the Reports.



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Moreover, you should note that the use of primary source material is not a requirement

of a successful Reports, and that a Reports which is closer in style and approach to an

extended tutorial essay than to a mini doctoral thesis is perfectly acceptable, so long as it has a

clear and convincing argument and achieves adequate depth.

Do make sure well in advance that the material you hope to use is actually available.

Some earlier candidates postponed work on their Reportss until early July, only to discover, at

this stage, that their expected sources did not exist or were inaccessible.

While it is obviously necessary to identify the major sources relating to your topic,

you do not need to engage in the sort of exhaustive literature search, which would be more

appropriate for a research degree.

AVOID PLAGIARISM AT ALL COSTS. The definition of ‘plagiarise’ is ‘to take and use

another person's thoughts, writings, or inventions as one's own’. The most obvious form is

using someone else's words without any acknowledgement, but there are other kinds of

plagiarism. For example, using a verbatim passage without quotation marks would be

plagiarism even if the source was acknowledged in a precise reference. If you use verbatim

material from other sources it must both be in quotation marks and precisely referenced.

When the work of other people is referred to, there should always be an acknowledgement.

Proper citation of sources is an elementary but critical mark of the presentation of scholarly

work, and you should observe the standards used in top refereed journals. The examiners are

vigilant in cases of plagiarism, and a Reports containing plagiarism will be referred to theuniversity authorities.

4- Planning and Guidance

Start planning your Reports early. Obviously, you should pick a topic that closely interests

you, but make sure that it fits with the course material. You should discuss the general scope

and approach of your Reports as well as your proposed source material with your supervisor.

Once you have selected and defined your topic, and done some initial data gathering and

reading, draw up a draft plan. In the first instance, the plan is likely to be simply a list of

questions to be asked; new aspects will be added as you do more research, while others will

be eliminated as irrelevant. Do not expect your first plan to remain fixed; it is likely to

change as you develop your reading and research. Often your Reports will develop with a

cyclical process: you begin with a rough idea of what might be found or argued; you modify

this idea as you get into the topic; discard some ideas and concentrate on others; refine the

research question; and so on.



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5- Submission

The Reports should NEVER BE SENT BY MAIL

A mail will NEVER COUNT AND WILL BE GRADED WITH A ZERO GRADE

Please print it and give it to the administrative assistant,

There will be a discount of 3 point by late delivery day. After 5 days, zero grade.

The administrative assistant of the Master Program will write down the date and time of your

submission.

Please note: If you are sending your Reports by post it should arrive in the administrative

office at the due date. Failure of the postal services is not a valid excuse. If the Reportsarrives in after the deadline then normal penalties for late submission will apply.

Do not post your Reports to any other address. You should also enclose a completed copy of

the coursework submission form. Although this will not act as receipt we still need you to

sign the plagiarism statement. We will email you when your Reports arrives and this will act

as your receipt.

The Master Program cannot accept work sent electronically (by email).



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7- Arrangement of Reports

Each thesis or report must be arranged in the following order. Italicized pages are optional.

1. Title Page (Sample A) Includes this page in the pretext page count, but do not place a

page number on it.

2. Abstract. Continue pretext page numbering with lowercase Roman numerals.

3. Table of Contents. Continue pretext page numbering with lowercase Roman

numerals.

4. Acknowledgements and/or Preface. Begin placing pretext lowercase Roman

numerals at the bottom of this page, counting all preceding pretext material except for

the fly page. Page numbers are centered one inch from the bottom of the page.

5. Text. All pages from the first page of text through the Vita are numbered

consecutively in Arabic numerals, beginning with Arabic numeral “1” on the first page

of the thesis or report text.

6. Bibliography. Other possible titles are “References” or “Works Cited.” (not included

in the page number counting)

7. Vita (sample B)This brief biographical sketch of the author is always the last page of the thesis or report and the last page listed on the Table of Contents. (not included in

the page number counting)

8. Appendix. Stop page numbering with Arabic numerals. (not included in the page

number counting). Please do not hesitate to include many appendix.

9. Glossary. Stop page numbering with Arabic numerals. (not included in the page

number counting). Please do include a glossary when you refer to many technical

terms.



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8- Reports Format

a. Font

A single font must be used throughout the thesis or report, the only exceptions being in tables,

graphs, and appendices. Headings may be bolded and no more than 2 points larger than the

rest of the text. Recommended font is Times New Roman or Garamond

b. Margins

All theses and reports must have consistent margins of 2,7 centimeters at the top, bottom, left,

and right edges of the page. Page numbers must be placed at least one inch from the bottom of

the page. Margins which are smaller than those required are acceptable, but larger margins are

not.

c. Spacing

The thesis or report must be single -spaced.

d. Numbering of Pages

Beginning with the first page of the Acknowledgements or Preface, if used, all preliminary

pages preceding the actual text must be numbered in lowercase Roman numerals; e.g., iii, iv,

v, etc. These numerals must be centered under the text with at least one inch of space between

the number and the bottom of the page. If no optional pages are used, the page numbers must

begin on the Abstract. Do not number the copyright page, signature page, title page, ordedication, but do include each of them in the pretext page count. The first page of the text

begins at Arabic numeral 1. All pages within the text must contain an Arabic page number,

bottom-centered, at least one centimeter from the bottom edge of the page.

e. Length

The length of your Reports (exclusive of appendices and citations).

• Project definition report : 4 pages to 15 pages

• Competition analysis report : 10 pages to 25 pages

• Change leadership analysis report : 4 pages to 15 pages

9- Footnotes

There are several conventions, and it does not matter which one you adopt provided

that you cite sources properly, giving all the necessary information, and keep to the same



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convention throughout. The ‘Harvard’ system is briefly described below and is used by most

students. If you choose to adopt an alternative convention, make sure both that it is an

acceptable one and that you use it consistently. Students will be penalised for poor,

inconsistent or sloppy references.

Footnotes are used to take care of the occasions when you have a piece of information to give

but it is inconvenient to break up the text. Traditionally, footnotes appeared at the bottom of

the reference page in a smaller font, and the advent of more sophisticated word-processing

packages has given this type of footnote a new lease of life. Alternatively (and the more

common modern style), put all ‘notes’ at the end and signal them in the text by a number in

brackets (), in a single numerical sequence.

10- References

References are scholarly acknowledgements of work referred to or quoted. The ‘Harvard

system’ requires you to put in the text of your work the surname of the author, the date of

publication, and the page number, all within brackets. At the end of the Reports you then give

a single list of all the references you have used. This list of references should be arranged

alphabetically with full bibliographic information. The alphabetical list should include all the

references which have been used (books, articles, reports, internal corporation reports,

government publications, etc.). The references in the alphabetical list should be set out thus:

Books

Johnson, B. (1991) The Art of Referencing. London, Macmillan.

Journal Articles

Johnson, B. (1978) "The Harvard System" Academic Sciences Quarterly, 28(2): 184-

207.

Chapters of Books written by one author, edited by another.

Johnson, B (1989) Referencing. In R.Smith and A.Jones (eds). Scholarly Practice.London, Pergamon.

Where the author's name is not obvious (e.g. corporation or government report)

IBM (1991). Information Technology Report. Armonk, New York, USA.

Early identification of a fairly precise topic will help you enormously with sources, since the

processes of ‘serendipity’ and chance sightings of books and articles during the pursuit of

your other studies (as long as you make a written note of them at the time) will save time



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later, while reflection on your topic in advance of solid work on it may help you to develop

ideas which can elude you in mid-summer.



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Sample A: Title Page

Title of Report, Centered and Double-Spaced

by

Your name

Previous Academic Degrees (Licence, M1, Engineer degree, School of Commerce, B.A.;)

Recommended : LOGO OF YOUR COMPANY

Optional : your picture

Project definition report

Or : competition analysis report

Or : change leadership report

Presented to Université Paris-Dauphine

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Graduate Degree of

Master of International Business

Or

Master of New Communication Technologies and Tourism


Month Year



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Sample B: Sample page of a report

Four different phases may be identified in air transport market in Europe, each one being relatedto the occurred changes into economic and legal framework and to the increase of complexitiesin the competitiveness environment. The evolution of European Airlines can be summarized inone table (Figure 1).

SIMPLE

U N S T A B L E

S T A B L E

COMPLEX

COMPLEXITY

S T A B I L

I T Y

1993:

OPEN

SKIES

Before 1987:

National

markets

Bilateral

agreements

SHOCKS:

9/11/2001

2004: HYPER

COMPETITION

Figure 1 – Evolution of the European Airlines industry

The first phase of the European air transport market, which lasted up until 1987, wascharacterized by the existence of an oligopolistic regime having a nation-based dominance of

monopolies regulated through bilateral agreements. In 1987, the European Council of Ministries(Decision 87/602/EEC), defined the first set of laws regarding air transport liberalization which,following the deregulation process already started in the US during the ‘70s, abolished, inaccordance with specific agreements, the existing restrictions for the control of the respectivenational markets in terms of air routes and rates. This first regulation on the repartition of passenger capacity between air carriers in the scheduled air services among Member States and tothe access of air carriers to intra-European Union routes, established the foundations for thedefinition of an international agreement for air space deregulation (open-skies).

A second deregulation phase reached in 1993 with the end of national restrictions and the

application of the freedom of establishment (set out in Article 49 of the Treaty of Rome) to air

transport sector. Thus, the 1st January 1993 – with the entry into force of the Regulation n.

2408/92 - the European Commission transferred those principles of free market to airtransport

sector (second phase). This "open skies" regulation reduced the existing restrictions, defined the

procedure for the access of new airline companies into the intra-Community air routes and

introduced more liberalized air rates. Via this open skies regulation, any airline could freely

operate from any EU Country due to full traffic rights. These preliminary regulations had a

strong impact on the European airline market: since that moment on and for long time, “the

market has changed enormously due to different forces, often not predicted, which have pushed

towards an always increasing competitiveness” (CE, DG TREN, 2005).



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However, in 2001, the terrorist attack of September 11th, caused a significant shock-crisis in

global economy (third phase). Such event produced an immediate impact on the whole airline

transport market with serious implications for the world economy and a long period of

instability and recession. A relevant crisis involved the airlines sector, with a strong reduction in

the number of passengers on a global scale and a worldwide decrease of routes and flight

transfers. From then and for several years, most of the United States carriers – like American,

Delta, United, US Airways, Northwest and Continental – suffered important losses of liquidity.

Only a specific law on bankruptcy, launched by the US government, allowed the survival of many

airlines. Such protectionist law, however, caused further losses to carriers which continued to

operate despite the strong reduction of world flights. The decrease in demand caused an

overcapacity in a moment of tickets costs reduction and fuel costs increase. Many airline

companies, less competitive and financially limited, failed.

In 2004, the establishment of the SES - the Single European Sky - and the adoption of a set of new regulations concerning competition – which included the Framework Regulation (EC

Regulation no. 549/2004) and three technical regulations (EC Regulations no. 550, 551,552/2004) brought a rapid increase of competition with important repercussions on the worldmarket (fourth phase).

According to the Commission, such set of regulations allowed “to reduce the excessivefragmentation of the European airspace and the high transaction costs for users” (CE, DG

TREN, 2005) through reduction of delays, greater capacity in terms of air traffic management(ATM) and harmonization of technologies used in the management of traffic all over Europe

with a positive impact in term of global air transport growth, supply of air navigation services,inter-operability of air traffic management, as well as on security, environment and technology management. (Della Corte, 2009).Starting from 2004, a number of unexpected and unplanned factors induced a significant increase

of competition and generated a sudden increase of organizational and technological changing rate

in airlines market. The deregulation of the European Union airspace has generated significant

changes into the airlines industrial structure stimulating the process of globalization, the

development of new low-cost companies and the use of innovative technologies to manage the

commercial activities. Airports privatization has followed this new market organization with a

consequent global change of their governance policies. Therefore, the emergence of hyper-

competition seems obvious in airline industry from 2004.



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Sample C: Vita

VITA

Emmanuel Monod, Paris Dauphine University (France) is visiting associate professor at

Georgia State University (Atlanta, USA), and currently Associate Editor for Information

Systems Research (ISR). He is also editorial board member of Information Systems Journal

(ISJ), Database for Advances in IS and Information Technology and People. He was

previously associate editor for Communication of the AIS (CAIS) and Journal of the AIS

(JAIS).

He was vice-president of the AIS from 2003 to 2008 and conference track chair for ICIS

(2004 and 2005), ECIS 2005 and AMCIS (from 2004 to 2007). He created (and was leader of)

two AIS Special Interest Groups “e-culture e-tourism” and “philosophy and epistemology of

IS”. He has previously held executive positions in IBM (France and USA), France Telecom

and the French Company of External Trade (COFACE), depending of the French Ministry of

Finance. At Paris Dauphine University, he is the director of the Master of International

Business (MIB), co-director of the EDBA (Executive Doctorate in Business Administration),

co-director of the Master of New Communication Technologies and Tourism (MCT) and

director of the dual doctorate-PhD program with Georgia State University (Atlanta)

He published in Information and Organization, Information System Journal (ISJ), European

Journal of Management, Communications of the AIS (CAIS) and 3 French journals recognizedby CNRS (French equivalent to NSF) : Systèmes d’Information et Management (SIM),

Réseaux (networks) and Annales des Telecommunications. He was guest associate editor for

MISQ and guest editor of a special issue of ISJ

.



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Appendix 1 : some consulting reports

Forrester

http://www.forrester.com/rb/businessdata.jsp?cm_re=Navigation_010710-_-business_data_tab-_-business_data

Standish group

http://www.marketresearch.com/vendors/viewVendor.asp?VendorID=2514

ABI research

http://www.abiresearch.com/home.jsp

Accenture reports :

http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/By_Industry/default.htm

IBM reports

http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/html/glt-landing-2009.html

World Competitiveness Report :

http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm

Travel and tourism competitiveness report

http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/TravelandTourismReport/index.htm

Global Information Technology Report

http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Information%20Technology%20Report/index.htm

US Government SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) (all companies):

http://searchwww.sec.gov/EDGARFSClient/jsp/EDGAR_MainAccess.jsp

master reports guidelines -nov 19th, 2010

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