RBP020L062S Financial Performance Management Assessment Brief Semester 2, 2024-25 | UoR

RBP020L062S Instructions for Assessment

Summative Assessment

There will be one summative assessment, which involves a comprehensive analysis of the financial and non-financial performance of an international organisation (of your choice) and its closest competitor. You are required to select an international organisation (company A), identify its closest competitor (company B), and analyse their financial performance using ratio analysis.

You are then required to summarise and critique the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) literature and develop a balanced scorecard performance evaluation of the organisation (Company A) and its critical success factors. Finally, you need to provide a critical analysis of the benefits and challenges of adopting Integrated Reporting for your selected organisation (Company A).

This is an individual report and should be 3,500 words (+/- 10% tolerance) excluding references, tables, figures, and appendix. See the sections below "Structure and Presentation" and "Rubric" for more details.

Note that the above table does not include the formative assessments, and that formative assessments are not marked. However, constructive feedback will be provided on your formative assessments.

Formative Assessment

During the module, you are asked to submit a "Report overview" by the set deadline. It represents an opportunity to start working towards the summative assessment and receive feedback early in the module. Detailed instructions on the Formative Assessment will be available on Moodle.

There will also be regular opportunities for Q&A on your summative work while it is under construction. Note that we will not provide any written or marks indicative feedback on drafts for summative assessment at any time. Should you perceive any formative feedback in such way, then please note that it is not binding for your marking. Markers can also always change, and you have no entitlement to be marked by the module convener or tutors.

Structure and presentation (Summative Assessment)

The assignment should address the following questions:

Question 1 (30%):

Select an international organisation (of your choice - company A) and identify its closest competitor (company B). Present the two organisations and the criteria used for the identification of the competitor. Use the ratio analysis technique to evaluate the financial performance of the two organisations; draw a comparative evaluation and critically discuss the findings. You need to access the annual financial statements of at least the last two years (i.e. 2022 and 2023) and provide details of the ratio calculations. It is recommended to use graphs, charts and tables to present your analysis and cite relevant academic literature to support your evaluation.

Question 2 (30%):

About relevant literature, critically evaluate Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System. Develop a proposed Balanced Scorecard to include critical success factors (CSFs) for your selected organisation (Company A).

Question 3 (30%):

Provide a critical analysis of the benefits and challenges of adopting Integrated Reporting <IR> for your selected organisation (Company A). Use academic literature and refer to the International Integrated Reporting <IR> framework to support your discussion.

Presentation (10%):

Mark awarded for presentation refers to the overall structure and presentation, academic style of writing, including the referencing style (both in-text and final references conforming to the Harvard Style). You need to use a comprehensive range of relevant (academic and professional) sources. Use of online sources should be limited, and the reliability of the sources should be verified. All sources need to be acknowledged and referenced properly to ensure the originality of the work. The report needs to follow the structure below and address the three questions above. The word limit for this assignment is 3,500 words (+/- 10% tolerance) excluding the references, tables, figures and appendices.

Important Guidance

Good answers should cover the following:

Checklist for Q1 (recommendations for a good answer, but not limited to):

• Describe the chosen company and its competitor.
• The selection of the competitor should be based on operating activities and financial information because the competitor needs to be of comparable size to the chosen company.
• Give general information and some financial information, such as sales, assets, and overall profitability for the chosen company and its competitor. This financial information should be used to justify competitor selection in addition to operating activities in the same industry and country.
• Cover a broad range of ratio analysis, including liquidity, working capital cycle, profitability, leverage, and valuation ratios.
• Explain and interpret in more detail some ratios in each category.
• Compare ratios over the years and with the competitor.
• Connect different ratios and draw a big picture of companies' financial performance
• Show input data, calculations of ratios, either in the body or in the appendix.
• Use graphs and tables to present your analysis.
• Cite relevant literature both in-text and in the reference list

Checklist for Q2 (recommendations for a good answer, but not limited to): 

• Critically evaluate Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard (BSC).
• Critically discuss why the traditional BSC could be out of date in recent years and what could be improved.
• Develop a balanced scorecard for the chosen company.
• It is important to discuss the company's strategy and vision, which is the foundation for the objectives of each dimension of BSC.
• Explain goals (objectives) and measures of the BSC
• Answer must be based on the chosen company
• Cite relevant literature both in-text and in the reference list

Checklist for Q3 (recommendations for a good answer, but not limited to):

• Show an understanding of the benefits and challenges of adopting integrated reporting at the chosen company. For example,
• Critically discuss how IR provides investors with financial-historical information, and non-financial and forward-looking information, thus overcoming the limitations of a traditional set of financial statements
• Critically discuss what information can be obtained from IR reports and how they help investors to understand companies' use of limited resources for long-term sustainable success and to balance the different interests of various stakeholders
• The answer must be based on the chosen company
• Cite relevant literature both in-text and in the reference list

Checklist for presentation (recommendations for a good answer, but not limited to): 

• Appendix for input data for calculations (if not included in the body)
• Appendix for extracts of balance sheets and income statements used for analysis, or links to websites
• Harvard style for references and in-text citations
• Headlines for sections and subsections
• A balanced structure report (e.g. around 1000 words for each question) Comprehensive range of relevant (academic and professional) sources
  Appropriate report structure (see the proposed structure below)
• Within the word limit of 3,500 words +/- 10%, excluding references, tables, figures, and appendix.

Proposed Structure of the Report:

1. Introduction

Introduce the scope and focus of the report (approx. 250 words)

2. Financial Performance using Ratios

Analysis - Question 1 (approx. 1,000 words)

3. Balanced Scorecard

Question 2 (approx. 1,000 words)

4. Integrated Reporting

Question 3 (approx. 1,000 words)

5. Conclusions

Provide an overall conclusion based on the reflection from the report (approx. 250 words)

References

Appendices - Provide details on the calculations presented in Question 1.

The proposed structure above intends to provide a recommendation on the structure of the coursework. This can be enriched with more sections/subsections as you consider appropriate (for example, abstract, executive summary, table of contents, appendices, etc.).

Marking and Feedback Process

Between you handing in your work and then receiving your feedback and marks within 20 days, there are a number of quality assurance processes that we go through to ensure that students receive marks that reflect their work. A summary is provided below.

• Step One - The module and marking team meet to agree on standards, expectations and how feedback will be provided.
• Step Two - A subject expert will mark your work using the criteria provided in the assessment brief.
• Step Three - A moderation meeting takes place where all members of the teaching and marking team will review the marking of others to confirm whether they agree with the mark and feedback.
• Step Four-Work then goes to an external examiner who will review a sample of work to confirm that the marking between different staff is consistent and fair.
• Stop Five - Your mark and feedback are processed by the Office and made available to you