Consultancy report guideline Round 2

Executive summary:
Executive summary should contain the key elements of your report that will include the key
business problems; the context of concern such as country, industry, company etc, the main
approach to tackle the problem, the main findings, key recommendations and limitations or
scope of the findings.
Having a precisely written executive summary will help you to ensure you have all the material
covered as promised. You can also assess the underlying connection both logical and
theoretical in the later part of the report. A very good executive summary creates a keen interest
about the report, so that the reader who in our cases are senior managers. Therefore, it is
important that you deliver what you promise in the executive summary to avoid
disappointment.
Chapter 1: Introduction: (1500 words)
Simply think an introduction is an opportunity for your curious readers to give a comprehensive
insight about the purpose of your study, so that you can effectively retain their attention and
curiosity. Furthermore, introduction should be comprehensive guideline for the author to
ensure the integrity of their purpose of the study. Therefore, an introduction is a brief extended
summary of your report with emphasis on the effort to convince the justification of undertaking
the study on the selected business problem.
To achieve the above goal, you should incorporate relevant data, information from
internationally reputed news portals, reports from internationally reputed consulting companies
such as Mackenzie, Boston Consulting, KPMG etc, international organisations such as World
bank, UN etc, reputed national organisations as well as recent literature that support your cause.
It would be really great if you can provide practical examples from real life companies related
to your research problem.
“Recently there were many cases that showcased gender, racial and socio-economic biases
emanating from AI applications. Some of these include several facial recognition systems, for
example, Amazon’s AI-based “Rekognition” software, discriminating against darker-skinned
individuals and also providing unreliable results in identifying females; Google’s AI hate
speech detector was found providing racially biased outcomes; Google was showing fewer ads
to females compared to males in the recruitment of high paying jobs; Amazon also abandoned
an algorithmic human resources recruitment system for reviewing and ranking applicants’
resumes since it was biased against women; a racial bias in a medical algorithm developed by
Optum was found to favor white patients over sicker black patients; and the robodebt scheme
in Australia wrongly and unlawfully pursued hundreds of thousands of welfare clients for the
debt they did not owe (Blier, 2019; Hunter, 2020; Johnson, 2019; Martin, 2019).”
Please ensure that these references should be very recent, and you should not just ‘dump’ data
rather try to establish your cause through embedding the data in a manner that results a rational
narrative.
You need to give intext references to qualify your write up academically legitimate. For
example,
1. Recently, about thirty percent travel and tourism companies from southeast Asia have
reported loss and raised serious concern about their financial sustainability (Mackenzie,
2021). Or
2. As per the report published by Mackenzie (2021) it is evident that thirty percent travel
and tourism companies from southeast Asia have experienced financial loss during
covid pandemic.
You should pay attention to clarify the distinction between your aim, objectives and research
questions. Aim is the highest level, objectives are more specific, finally the research questions
are the explicit expression of your intent for investigation. For example:
The aim of this study is to provide a systematic discussion of how it can affect service systems
and how we can address algorithm-bias in data-driven decision making.
The main objectives of the current study are: 1) to review and analyze the algorithm bias in
customer management; 2) to synthesize the systematic literature review findings into a
decision-making framework, and 3) to provide future research directions as per the knowledge
gap.
Research question: ‘How to address algorithm bias in AI-driven customer management?’
Please note that you can always reshape or re-articulate your research aim, objectives and
research based on the later findings and insights revealed from the research. However, you
need to make sure you have a logical connections, coherence and alignment throughout. As
you will realize your contribution has to be justified reflecting the above. For example,
‘This study uniquely contributes to the theory by presenting a theoretical framework that
identifies four consistency measures and six post-hoc measures to address algorithm bias in
customer management. Further, this study is important as it contributes to the debate of
responsible innovation and ethical AI (Ghallab, 2019; Gupta and Krishnan, 2020; Rakova et
al. 2020) by scrutinizing the key ethical challenge of algorithm bias in AI applications.’
The link of the article of example:
https://www.igiglobal.com/pdf.aspx?tid=272249&ptid=262210&ctid=4&oa=true&isxn=9781799872627
Remember, after finishing each of the remaining chapters you should check and revise your
introduction chapter. In industry, expert write therefore the introduction chapter at the end.
However, I am strongly recommending you write a very good introduction chapter so that you
can use it as a guide and there are less chances that you will experience loss of focus.
Please use this guideline in conjunction with the guideline for introduction of ‘Consultancy
report guideline Round 1’.
Chapter 2: Literature review: (2500 words)
The first step of the literature review is to define what literature you need to review. You should
always maintain recency and relevance while conducting the review. The best way to start
doing research is from your research questions. For example, in the previously mentioned
research question ‘How to address algorithm bias in AI-driven customer management?’, there
are three key phrases such as ‘algorithm bias’, ‘AI-driven’ and ‘customer management’. Now
you should conduct search in scholarly databases to discover the relevant literature.
To find the exact relevance: you may use AND such as
‘algorithm bias’ AND ‘AI-driven’ AND ‘customer management’
‘algorithm bias’ AND ‘AI-driven’ AND ‘customer… – Google Scholar
However, there may be very few results, so you should try with both AND, OR combination
and explore with merging key words such as
‘AI-driven customer management’ – Google Scholar Here you get a new article. Through
repeating this process with several times with different length of phrases and combination try
to reveal up to 15 articles that are highly relevant as well as recent.
Now, scrutinize and discard some articles that are not closely relevant or dealing with topics
that are not directly related to your research problem.
Once you have finalized a total of 10/12 articles, review the abstract of those articles thoroughly
and find out 3 or 4 articles that are very similar to your research questions. You should consider
these as your sample to guide your structure, research gap and contribution. Moreover, from
doing cross referencing such as checking the references of these articles you may find more
relevant and useful articles.
You should prepare a table based on your initial 10/12 articles. For example, following table 2
of Akter et al. (2021)
Study type Study Key findings
Empirical Davenport, Abhijit,
Grewal & Bressgott,
2019
The study proposes a multidimensional framework to
identify whether AI is embedded in a robot and obtains
insights on the effects of AI considering intelligence
levels and the nature of tasks.
After compiling this table with 10/12 very good quality articles, you may consider you have
done a good work in reviewing the literature. Now following this table, you should feed content
across the sections of your literature review. You may notice some common structure or content
within these papers and also you should use these articles throughout your report. Specially
you should use them to write the research gap as well as finally validate the research
contribution in the discussion section.
While searching the single phrase such ‘customer management’ if you find some articles with
very high number of references you should consider them including in your literature review
writeup even if they are written more than 5 years earlier. These are seminal paper and highly
impactful papers; therefore, they are old. You should be aware of the content and reflect
appropriately.
You should include relevant practical example as necessary to remain close to the practical
world. You should pay special attention to write the research gap as your research gap is the
intellectual space where you are contributing through conducting the research. For example:
‘In the ever-growing digital economy, electronic-CRM requires service providers to collect a
vast amount of information, which can be misused or, used for purposes without receiving
consent from customers or, sold to third parties or can be used for targeted marketing purposes
(Bandara, Fernando, and Akter, 2019; Frow et al., 2011). Furthermore, complex pricing
comparison algorithms can create alternatives that may create confusion and make it difficult
for customers to make appropriate decisions (Frow et al., 2011) that may exploit a vulnerable
group of customers including young or elderly (Sheth and Sisodia, 2006). CRM performance
measurement systems and employee rewards may encourage buying behaviour without actual
necessity. On the contrary, using the data within CRM, firms can promote discriminatory
pricing strategies to allow services to a specific segment of customers while depriving others
(Payne, Wilkinson and Young, 2011). Thus, research is warranted to understand how service
providers can avoid dark side behaviour to eliminate the dysfunctional economic, social and
ethical consequences of such manipulative approaches using emerging digital technologies
(Bandara, Fernando, and Akter, 2020b; Frow et al., 2011; R. Wang, Harper, & Zhu, 2020).
Moreover, safeguarding customers from bias in AI applications within AI-driven business
operations is an important research avenue (Carmon, Schrift, Wertenbroch, and Yang, 2019;
Davenport, Guha, Grewal & Bressgott, 2019).
Please use this guideline in conjunction with the guideline for literature review of ‘Consultancy
report guideline Round 1’.
Chapter 3: Conceptual framework (2500 words)
You should narrate the key theories reflecting your research problems. Ensure alignment with
your literature review.
Please use this guideline in conjunction with the guideline for conceptual framework of
‘Consultancy report guideline Round 1’.
Chapter 4: Method: (1500 words)
Articulate the method clearly. You may consider incorporating some method from your
exemplar papers if appropriate.
Please use this guideline in conjunction with the guideline for method of ‘Consultancy report
guideline Round 1’.
Chapter 5: Findings (2500 – 3000 words)
In the findings section, please ensure you narrate the content that answer your research
questions. Contribute to the research gap mentioned earlier.
Please use this guideline in conjunction with the guideline for findings of ‘Consultancy report
guideline Round 1’.
Chapter 6: Discussion (1500 words)
In this section, you cross check your findings with the literature you wrote in the literature review.
Specially the references used in the table should be utilized here to validate your contribution.
‘This study was motivated to advance knowledge by examining how organizations can deal
with algorithm bias in their customer management efforts. The findings of this study have
several implications for both theory and practice. First, the study systematically reviews
literature pertinent to algorithm bias and presents key thematic areas relevant to the topic. This
type of review enables a team to critically evaluate and synthesize the subject’s underlying
knowledge in a robust, rigorous, transparent, and replicable way (Denyer & Tranfield, 2009;
Littell, Corcoran, & Pillai, 2008; Vrontis & Christofi, 2019). This is a significant contribution
considering the importance and relevance of the topical area, and lack of such efforts in this
field. Second, the study proposes a conceptual framework that consists of both a priori and
post hoc measures for addressing algorithm bias. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
study to systematically integrate both a priori and post-hoc approaches to mitigate or overcome
algorithm bias. We propose four consistency measures and six post-hoc measures, which can
help businesses to deploy AI applications and solutions in an ethical and responsible manner
and thereby improve customer management efforts (Michael et al. 2020).’
Please use this guideline in conjunction with the guideline for discussion of ‘Consultancy
report guideline Round 1’.
Chapter 7: Conclusion: (500 words)
Provide a key summary.
References:
Harvard referencing style:
Referencing a quotation
• Indeed, one researcher commented that ‘technological innovations have saved or
extended the lives of many patients’ (Lumby 2001, p. 44).
Journal article:
Author/s Year, ‘Title of Article’, Journal Name (Italics), Volume & Issue Numbers, Page
Numbers.
Seaman, C.B., Mendonca, M.G. & Kim, Y.M. 2003, ‘User evaluation and evolution of a
prototype management tool’, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 29, no. 9, pp.
838-51
Book:
Author/s Year, Title (Italics), Publisher, Place of Publication.
Alysen, B., Patching, R., Oakman, K.M. & Sedorkin, G. 2003, Reporting in a multimedia
world, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW.
Website:
Author/s Year, Title of Website (Italics), Publisher, Place of Publication, Date Viewed, . For
further reference, refer to Rules for Web Pages Australian Electorial Commission 2012, 2010
federal election, AEC, Canberra, viewed 28 June 2012.
Appendix: Only include an appendices if that adds value to the main content or utmost
necessary.
Consultancy report guideline Round 1
By Dr Shahriar Sajib
London Graduate School
Please note this is a suggested guideline only.
Title and cover page including all credentials including student name, student ID,
supervisor’s name
Executive summary:
Write the Executive summary within 250 words.
State the key objective in a very specific manner. Explain the importance of the research
objective briefly. How you are going to approach the problem, in other words the method. What
did you find? What are the limitations of your method or research settings? How the finding
will add value to the stakeholders of concern. 2/3 lines for each point.
Table of content:
List of tables:
List of figures:
List of definitions:
Chapter 1: Introduction: (1500 words)
Proposed structure:
1.1 Context of the research problem (400 words)
1.2 Motivation behind undertaking the study (200 words)
1.3 Research gap, aim and objective of the study. (300 words)
1.4 Research questions (150 words)
1.5 Research method (200 words)
1.6 Research findings, contribution and limitation (150 words)
1.7. Organisation of the report. (100 words)
Related marking criteria:
Be able to develop research objectives to analyse potential business problems:
a. Explain business research problems: Fully and comprehensively appraises a sound
and useful business research problem.
a. Develop and justify appropriate research aim and objectives: Develops and
justifies a challenging, worthwhile and appropriate set or research questions and
objectives
Chapter 2: Literature review: (2500 words)
Proposed structure
2.1 Critical review of the key literature related to research problem (850 words)
2.2 Critical review of the relevant theoretical approaches (850 words)
2.3 Reflection of theory and practical context in the context of the research problem (500
words)
2.4 Research gap (300 words)
Chapter 3: Conceptual framework (2500 words)
Proposed structure
3.1 Theoretical background of proposed research (600 words)
3.2 Discuss the specific framework or theories that are going to be applied. (600 words)
3.3 Explain the conceptual framework, model or hypothesis. (1200 words)
Related marking criteria for Chapter 2 and Chapter 3
Be able to critically review literature on the business research topic
– Use a range of relevant academic literature/secondary data relevant to the research
problem and objectives.
a. Excellent and comprehensive evaluation of the literature relevant to the research
problem and objectives.
– Evaluate different theoretical approaches to the research problem.
a. Comprehensive, well-reasoned and appropriate critically analyse of different
theoretical approaches to the research problem evidenced
Chapter 4: Method: (1500 words)
Proposed structure
4.1 Research methodology and method
4.2 Research design
Research Design, Data collection approach and protocol, reliability and validity of data,
Selection of case/ empirical context
4.3 Data analysis and Reporting findings of the study
4.4 Risk and contingency planning, Ethical considerations (150 words)
4.5 Methodological scope and limitation (150 words)
Related marking criteria
Be able to design and undertake appropriate business research methodologies
– Critically evaluate appropriate research methodologies in terms of the research
objectives.
a. Excellent and well-reasoned critical evaluation of the appropriate research
methodologies in terms of the research objectives.
– Design an appropriate methodology in terms of the research objectives.
a. Designs, justifies and quantifiably validates the appropriate methodology in terms
of the research objectives
– Justify the methodology selected in terms of the research objectives.
a. Justifies comprehensively the methodology selected in terms of the research
objectives
Chapter 5: Findings (2500 – 3000 words)
Proposed structure
5.1 Overview of the findings of the research context
5.2 Overview of the focal company
5.3 Reporting findings
Chapter 6: Discussion (1500 words)
Related marking criteria for Chapter 5 and Chaper 6
Be able to develop and present a Consultation Project Report
a. Demonstrate appropriate skills in recording, interpreting and analysing the
primary data collected: Demonstrate excellent and robust skills in recording,
interpreting and analysing relating to the research topic.
a. Demonstrate that the project findings, conclusions and recommendations are
relevant to address the research problem and objectives and are fully supported by
the research evidence: Demonstrates conclusively and in depth that the project
findings have been logically derived and that conclusions,
solutions/recommendations are fully supported by excellent evidence
– Derive strategic recommendations for changes in an organisation’s or business
sector’s activities and strategies and set out clear guidance on their courses of actions
a. Derives excellent well considered and practical strategic recommendations for
changes in an organisation’s or business sector’s activities and strategies and
articulate these in a coherent and robust
Chapter 7: Conclusion: (500 words)
References:
Harvard referencing style.
Appendix:
Marking Criteria for the consulting report:
Be able to develop research objectives to analyse potential business problems:
– Explain business research problems.
– Develop and justify appropriate research aim and objectives.
Be able to critically review literature on the business research topic
– Use a range of relevant academic literature/secondary data relevant to the research
problem and objectives.
– Evaluate different theoretical approaches to the research problem.
Be able to design and undertake appropriate business research methodologies
– Critically evaluate appropriate research methodologies in terms of the research
objectives.
– Design an appropriate methodology in terms of the research objectives.
– Justify the methodology selected in terms of the research objectives.
–
Be able to develop and present a Consultation Project Report
– Demonstrate appropriate skills in recording, interpreting and analysing the primary
data collected.
– Demonstrate that the project findings, conclusions and recommendations are relevant
to address the research problem and objectives and are fully supported by the research
evidence.
– Derive strategic recommendations for changes in an organisation’s or business
sector’s activities and strategies and set out clear guidance on their courses of actions.