IGNORANCE PROJECT WITH GAPMINDER

This Business Project represents a unique opportunity to contribute to a real global research project to address ignorance about emerging markets. Gapminder is a non-profit organization that evaluates misconceptions about global development. They have conducted research in several countries such as South Africa, Sweden, or the USA. You will be directly in contact with the director of Gapminder and his research team for a project on assessing ignorance across professions (e.g. medical doctors, engineers, lawyers) and across students (e.g. international management, biology, literature).

You will work with Gapminder to develop your own set of questions and sample respondents to assess their knowledge about emerging markets. The geographical scope of the professions part of the project remains to be determined. As for the students part, it is expected that you compare CEMS students who are entering the program to those that just graduated, as well as to students of other subjects (at WU or other universities in Vienna).

We expect the findings of both studies to be communicated on mainstream media such as Der Standard or Die Presse, but also that recommendations on the CEMS curriculum are given to the CEMS headquarters. A final presentation will be organized in Vienna as a public event, together with Gapminder and the Competence Center for Emerging Markets and CEE.Therefore, this Business Project is the opportunity for you to conduct research that will make an impact.

You will set up your consulting project team yourself, allocate responsibilities, and work on the following tasks that you are expected to clear with Gapminder:

• Design and implementation of a questionnaire
• Collection of data, both offline and online throughout Austria
• Analysis of quantitative data
• Creation of two reports
• Development of recommendations and detailed implementation plan

Knowledge and Understanding: After completing this coursestudents will have:

• extendedtheir knowledge of global development and emerging markets (e.g. FDI,imports/exports, institutions, emerging market multinationals)
• learnedhow to collect, analyze, and structure data
• receivedfeedback from practitioners on the outcome of their analysis and the viabilityof their recommendations

Cognitive& Subject Specific Skills: On completion of the course, students will havethe ability to:

• develop critical thinking and defendtheir developed arguments in class and in front of practitioners
• apply tools for analyzing challenges in the global environment
  

KeySkills: Students on completion of the course will have the ability to:

• conduct research on emerging marketsand global development topics
• gather and filter informationefficiently and effectively on a specific research topic
• organize teamwork including presentationand report writing skills
• shift material quickly andefficiently, to structure it into a coherent argument and to present it in aconcise way tailored to a professional audience
• present this business project to thepartner in a professional way, through personal presentation skills and supportof suitable media,
• utilize the theoretical knowledgeand the interpersonal skills developed throughout their studies to solve areal-life challenge.

Thisbusiness project uses a combination of discussions with Gapminderrepresentatives, feedback sessions, presentations, group coaching and feedback,as well as individual/group work outside the classroom. Groups of students willbe formed in the kick-off session.

In a firstkick-off session with supervising faculty, the challenges and milestones of thecase are outlined. At the same time, students are familiarized with the guidingprinciples of project work, with the project plan and rules in handlingsupervising faculty/ Gapminder interaction.

Afterfamiliarizing the students with the challenge, contact with Gapminder isestablished. In a plenary session, Gapminder outlines the challenges from theirperspective and provides useful input into the project (e.g. items fromprevious questionnaires) and the specific challenges to be dealt with.

Subsequently,students will have to start designing the questionnaire by integrating itemsgiven by Gapminder and combining these with new ones that relate more tointernational management topics such as institutions, FDI, import/exports, andemerging market multinationals. Data for the survey on the Austria populationshould be conducted face-to-face or by phone and be representative of theAustrian population. Students should follow standards of top-tier marketresearch companies (e.g. Nielsen). The CEMS survey should be done online andrepresentative of both groups (entering and finishing students).

Throughoutthe process, various feedback loops (in coaching sessions with the individualfaculty supervising group work, in plenary sessions with all groups/academicsupervisors (mid-term presentation), or in coaching and Feedback sessions with Gapminder)are installed to make sure that students are on the right track and getrelevant input needed in each project phase.

Resultsare presented to Gapminder at the end of this process. The verbal and printedpresentations will be assessed. Students will have to actively participate inclass, hold group presentations and summarize their findings in a final report.It is the express policy of the class that no late assignments will be acceptedunder any circumstances. As this course format heavily relies on personalinteraction between students, Gapminder and faculty, presence in sessions ismandatory. More than 2 times absence during the sessions announced at thebeginning of the seminar will lead to exclusion from the seminar.

Assessmentis based on the quality of the mid- and end-term presentation, theparticipation during the classes, group members’ peer rating, and the finalreport.

Groupassessment:

•    Mid-termPresentation (PowerPoint Document): 20%

•    Mid-termPresentation (oral Presentation): 10%

•    End-termPresentation (PowerPoint Document): 30%

•    End-termPresentation to Corporate Partner: 20%

Individual:

•    Peerrating: 20%

Studentswill be assessed on

•    theirability to understand and analyze international strategy and/or

•    managementchallenges,

•    theirability to use the appropriate analytical techniques and to come up withrelevant market research Information,

•    thequality of the presentations, the written reports and the examinationquestions; by quality in this context we mean the clarity and persuasiveness ofeach bit of work. This implies an ability to work in teams.

Studentsfailing to participate in their teams will lose the marks for that piece ofwork.

WU willretain a copy of all coursework for Teaching Quality Assessment as part of theongoing quality assessment programme. It is important, therefore, that studentsmake a second copy for their own purposes.