IB Business Management IA
The IB Business Management Internal Assessment is the business research project: a report of up to 1,800 words on a real issue or problem facing one organisation, built on three to five supporting documents and analysed through one of four key concepts: change, creativity, ethics or sustainability. The task and the criteria are the same at SL and HL. It is marked out of 25 and is worth 30% of the final grade at SL and 20% at HL. Much of that mark is settled by three choices you make before you write a paragraph: the research question, the key concept and the supporting documents.
What the seven criteria are worth
| Criterion | Marks | What it rewards |
|---|---|---|
| A: Integration of a key concept | 5 | Analysis of the connection between your key concept and the organisation, integrated throughout the project. |
| B: Supporting documents | 4 | Three to five relevant documents that address the research question in depth and offer a range of ideas and views. |
| C: Selection and application of tools and theories | 4 | Tools and theories chosen for their relevance to the question and applied accurately. |
| D: Analysis and evaluation | 5 | Data from the supporting documents used to analyse and evaluate the question, with assumptions and implications considered. |
| E: Conclusions | 3 | Conclusions consistent with the evidence that explicitly answer the research question. |
| F: Structure | 2 | A logical structure. |
| G: Presentation | 2 | A title page, an accurate table of contents, headings and sub-headings, and numbered pages. |
Fourteen of the 25 marks sit in Criteria A, C and D, and all three reward the same habit: using a concept, a tool or a piece of data to say something about the research question, not just presenting it. Criterion B is largely decided by which documents you choose, before you write anything. Criteria F and G are four marks that depend on care, not on insight.
Choose the organisation and the research question
The project has to refer directly to one real organisation, though it can consider industry-wide issues that affect that organisation. The research question can look forward (should the organisation do something?) or backward (how far did a decision achieve what it set out to do?). A workable question has three properties:
- It needs a judgement. "How does a bakery chain market its products?" can be answered by describing. "Should the same chain replace its delivery vans with electric ones?" cannot: it has to be argued from evidence, and it has an answer for Criterion E to check.
- It is narrow enough for 1,800 words. One decision, one organisation, one period. A question about a whole strategy leaves no room for analysis.
- You can get documents for it. Before you commit, check that three to five recent documents exist that speak to this question and do not all come from the organisation itself.
Pick one key concept and keep it working
The key concept has to be one of the four (change, creativity, ethics or sustainability) and has to be indicated on the title page. Criterion A then marks how far the analysis of its connection to the organisation runs through the project. Describing the connection reaches 2 marks. Analysing it reaches 3. Analysis that is partly integrated reaches 4, and analysis integrated throughout reaches 5.
So the concept is not a paragraph near the end. Choose the one your question already raises: a question about electric vans raises sustainability without any forcing. Then, in each part of the analysis, say what the evidence means for that concept in this organisation. A project that names sustainability on the title page and returns to it once in the conclusion has described a connection, and stays in the lower marks.
Select three to five supporting documents
The supporting documents are where most of the information in your project should come from, and they are attached to it. The rules are specific, and breaking them costs marks that no amount of good writing recovers:
- Three to five documents. One or two, or more than five, limits Criterion B to 1 mark out of 4.
- Recent. Each must have been published no more than three years before the project is submitted to the IB. Check the dates against your own session.
- At most one transcript of video or audio material.
- A range of ideas and views. The top mark on Criterion B needs it. Documents that all come from the company do not give balance, and neither do several surveys of similar people.
- Marked up. Highlight the parts of each document that relate to your research question, so the reader can see what you used.
Both primary research (an interview or survey you carried out) and secondary research (published material) can be supporting documents. A set that tends to give range: something from the organisation, something about it from outside, such as a news report, and something about its market or its competitors. A textbook you cite for a tool is referenced in the bibliography, but it is not one of the supporting documents.
Apply tools and theories, do not display them
Criterion C has two halves: selecting tools and theories that suit the research question, and applying them accurately. The common way to lose marks is a tool used as a template: a SWOT analysis with all four boxes filled, or a set of ratios calculated, that the argument never returns to.
Choose tools for what the question asks. A question about buying equipment calls for an investment appraisal. A question about growth options suits an Ansoff matrix. A question about entering a new market suits a STEEPLE analysis. In 1,800 words there is room to apply two or three tools properly, not six. A useful test: the last sentence about each tool should say what it shows about the research question.
Analysis, evaluation and the conclusion
Criterion D marks how you select and use data from the supporting documents. For the top mark the ideas have to be integrated throughout, and the project has to consider the assumptions behind its arguments and their implications. In practice: after each finding, ask what it assumes, and what follows for the organisation if that assumption does not hold. A payback figure assumes that sales stay where the forecast puts them, and saying so is evaluation.
Criterion E asks for conclusions that are consistent with the evidence you presented and that explicitly answer the research question. Answer it in so many words. The guide also advises against bringing in facts or arguments that were not discussed earlier, so a conclusion is not the place for a new idea.
Structure, presentation and the word count
Criterion F asks for a logical structure and does not prescribe a template. One that works: an introduction (the organisation, the issue, the research question and the key concept), a short account of the documents and tools you chose and why, the analysis and evaluation, the conclusion, then the bibliography, with the supporting documents attached. Criterion G lists what must be present: a title page, an accurate table of contents, appropriate headings and sub-headings, and numbered pages. Those two marks are a checklist, so run it.
The limit is 1,800 words. Moderators do not read beyond it, and your teacher's mark is based on the first 1,800, so a conclusion that starts at word 1,750 is mostly unread. Definitions and quotations count. These do not: acknowledgements, the contents page, tables of statistical data, diagrams and figures, equations and calculations, the supporting documents, citations, references and the bibliography.
Checklist before you hand it in
- One real organisation, and a research question that needs a judgement.
- One key concept from the four, named on the title page and analysed in every part of the project.
- Three to five supporting documents, each published within three years of submission, no more than one transcript, not all from the organisation, with the relevant parts highlighted.
- Each tool ends in a sentence about the research question.
- Assumptions and implications of the main arguments are stated.
- The conclusion answers the question explicitly and adds nothing new.
- Title page, accurate table of contents, headings and sub-headings, numbered pages.
- 1,800 words or fewer by the rules above, with every source referenced.
Getting feedback before your teacher marks it
If your teacher and your school allow outside feedback, IBLens reads your research project against the seven criteria, gives feedback on each, and counts the words against the 1,800-word limit. Paste the project itself and, if there is room, a short list of your supporting documents with their publishers and dates, so the feedback on Criterion B can take their range and age into account.
Paste your Business Management IA into IBLens for criterion-by-criterion feedback →
Frequently asked questions
Is the Business Management IA the same at SL and HL?
Yes. The task, the word limit and the seven criteria are the same. Only the weighting differs: 30% of the final grade at SL and 20% at HL.
Can I use my own interview or survey?
Yes. Primary research can be a supporting document. Keep the balance in mind: several surveys of similar people do not give the range of views that the top mark on Criterion B needs, and at most one supporting document can be a transcript of video or audio material.
What happens if I go over 1,800 words?
Moderators do not read beyond 1,800 words, and your teacher's mark is based on the first 1,800. Whatever sits after the limit, usually the conclusion, earns nothing.