MKTG90037 Chap.5 Recommendation Defence and Exam Essays
Recommendation Defence and Exam Essays
A defensible recommendation connects a managerial decision to an explicit chain of evidence. It identifies the beneficiary and objective, states the causal assumption, compares a plausible alternative, specifies implementation ownership and names the measure that would trigger revision. A list of attractive initiatives is not a recommendation because the reader cannot see priority, dependency or consequence.
Group reports require this chain to be recoverable from sources and analysis, while the individual oral defence tests whether each student can explain choices, limitations and rejected options without relying on a polished shared document.
The closed-book examination uses essay questions across the subject, so recall must be organised around connections: customer value leads to the capability and activity system, the business model explains delivery and capture, and stakeholder evidence qualifies the managerial action.
A strong exam answer selects only the concepts needed for the prompt, applies them to facts, evaluates evidence and ends with a bounded decision rather than repeating definitions.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Causal assumption
- 02
Implementation dependency
- 03
Revision trigger
- 04
Recommendation claim and scope
- 05
Evidence chain and counterargument
- 06
Owner, sequence and dependency
- 07
Individual oral defence
- 08
Integrated concept selection
- 09
Closed-book essay evaluation
- 10
Revision and stop conditions
Turn a broad proposal into a defensible recommendation
- 1Define the customer decision the platform will influence and the value problem it addresses.
- 1Compare the platform with a lower-cost research or service alternative using relevant evidence.
- 1Specify owner, sequence, capability, participant safeguards and implementation dependency.
- 1Set experience, behaviour, cost and burden measures with a revision or stop condition.
Key terms
- Causal assumption
- A testable claim that one proposed action will produce a specified outcome through a stated mechanism.
- Implementation dependency
- A resource, action, actor or condition that must be available for a recommendation to work.
- Revision trigger
- A pre-specified result or observation that requires a plan to be changed, paused or abandoned.
Recommendation Defence and Exam Essays FAQ
What makes a recommendation defensible?
It links a scoped decision to evidence, mechanism, alternative, owner, dependency, stakeholder consequence and revision condition. An attractive aspiration without those relations cannot be evaluated or implemented.
How should an individual oral defence be prepared?
Reconstruct every major report choice from source to inference and recommendation. Each student should explain assumptions, rejected alternatives, implementation risks and evidence limits without reading the report aloud.
What belongs in an evidence chain?
Begin with the claim, identify the source or observation, explain the inference, compare contrary evidence and show which managerial choice changes. A bibliography alone does not reveal that chain.
How should concepts be selected in the exam?
Choose concepts that answer the prompt and form a causal or comparative sequence. Fewer well-applied ideas are stronger than a catalogue of definitions with no decision consequence.
What makes evaluation more than criticism?
Evaluation weighs evidence, mechanism, stakeholder effects and alternatives, then states the condition under which the preferred conclusion changes. General statements about limitations are not enough.
How can an exam conclusion remain specific?
Name the beneficiary, recommended action, implementation boundary, principal risk and evidence trigger. Do not introduce a new theory or claim certainty beyond the scenario facts.
Does a recommendation need numerical evidence?
Not always, but its evidence must fit the claim. Qualitative experience, observed behaviour, operations and economics can be triangulated without pretending one measure answers every value question.
When should a team reject its preferred proposal?
Reject or redesign it when a critical assumption fails, stakeholder burden exceeds benefit, required capability is absent or a coherent alternative performs better on the decision criteria.
Exam move
Create a defence sheet for each recommendation with seven rows: decision, beneficiary, mechanism, supporting evidence, strongest counterargument, implementation dependency and revision trigger. Assign a team member to challenge every row before the report is final.
Rehearse oral questions that begin why, compared with what, what evidence and what would change your mind; answer by tracing the report’s actual analysis rather than inventing a new justification. For the closed-book exam, practise thirty-minute outlines that connect value, capability, model and stakeholder consequence only when the prompt requires them.
Write a qualified thesis, allocate one decision job to each paragraph, apply scenario details and reserve the conclusion for implementation and evidence conditions. After practice, remove any definition that never changes the analysis and replace vague limitation language with the missing fact or test that matters.
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