Please read all the attached instructions before you start the paper. The professor prefers students use any resources that he provided only. So please find references from the articles he provided only. Use simple grammar and vocabulary. Please let me know if you can't open any files I sent you.
You can chose any topic from the options but "Climate Change" and "(walmart) Corporate Social Responsibility"
because I already wrote them.

MGT 330 Final Paper Guidelines

The final paper is due Dec. 16^th at noon.  Late papers are likely to incur an incomplete grade, as I probably will not be able to grade them in time for the university deadline.

The purpose of the final paper is to undertake a more in-depth research project, in a small group. The paper should be based on a topic closely related to one on the syllabus, but should not be identical to the class topics that anyone in your group has written in your shorter papers. The topics can cover diversity, environmental issues, trends in work and technology (e.g. the gig economy), the financial crisis, etc. You should draw from the same conceptual frameworks – market failures, CSR, trade and national competitiveness (including business clusters), and corporate strategies in facing social pressures. E.g. if you tackle CSR, you could look at Fairtrade, corporate sustainability policies, labor conditions in electronics assembly (Foxconn),  recent concerns about privacy, etc. – instead of Walmart and Rana Plaza, the cases we focused on in class. On climate change, you could look more at current policies to promote clean energy, or climate adaptation.

You need to conduct further research (5-6 sources, including longer reports and academic articles), and write up a 9-12 page paper (2-3 people in a group). This provides an opportunity for developmental writing and to investigate an issue in more depth.

To ensure that you are on the right track, you need to prepare a 2-page outline of the final paper and bring to class/email by Nov. 20th. Earlier is more likely to get more feedback from me, especially if via email. The outline should provide (1) the structure of the paper, i.e. an outline of the argument with headings and some bullet points under each heading, (2) the concepts from the course you will apply (can be multiple ones), (3) how the concepts help you analyze the case, and (4) sources you will use. The headings can be similar to the guideline questions we have used – i.e. each paragraph can address a question – what is happening? Why? What are the implications? What are the opposing views? What can we (the company, the public/consumers, activists, or the government) do about it? An analytical paper draws from a conceptual framework to make logical arguments to address a question. Try to make causal linkages clear e.g. how ‘tragedy of the commons’ leads to excessive greenhouse gas emissions.

The final paper should be about 9-12 pages long (towards 9 for groups of 2), double-spaced, and use appropriate formatting and citations. You need to indicate how the group divided up the work - who wrote which sections (or made other contributions, such as searching for relevant sources). Maximum group size is 3. The paper needs to be well integrated, and involve discussions among the students in the group – this is the key value of a group.

This should be a well-structured paper with good English. You need to research the topic in more depth and explore the issue from at least two conceptual standpoints, e.g. market failures, CSR and stakeholders, the role of corporate power, or role of technology and globalization. You will find that at least two of these conceptual frames can be applied to the various topics.

It is important is that you do not just write up everything that you find on the issue – a “data dump”; instead, you need to organize the information conceptually using analytical tools and concepts, and illustrate briefly with relevant data and examples.  Explore the different sides of the issue, make clear and coherent analytical arguments, try to be balanced, but you can come down on one side or another if you want. Try to avoid vague generalities, but also avoid lots of descriptive details without making your point clear. Be concise and clear.

Citation format:

Citation format is APA style, which uses short (author, year) references in the body of the text, with a full citation at the end of the paper. For example, as Levy (1997: 12) put it, “the relationship between business and society is essentially political” (Indicate page numbers when you include a direct quote). Or mention an idea or a statistic, and then put the author and year in brackets (Levy, 1997). Do not cite the textbook for general ideas, only for specific facts. Avoid the use of footnotes.

Bibliography example:

Korten, D. C. (1995) When corporations rule the world. West Hartford, Conn.: Kumarian Press (for a book)

Levy, D. L. (1997) Business and international environmental treaties: ozone depletion and climate change. California Management Review, 39(3), 54-71. (for an article: the numbers refer to volume, issue number, and page numbers in that order).

 McCormick, J. (1993). International nongovernmental organizations: Prospects for a global environmental movement. In S. Kamieniecki (Editor), Environmental politics in the international arena . Albany, NY: SUNY Press. (for a chapter in an edited book)

For an internet site, provide the author’s name, the name of the organization running the site, the URL, and the date accessed.

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Academic Honesty  - VERY IMPORTANT!!

The University maintains that every aspect of academic life, not only formal coursework but also all relationships and interactions connected to the educational process, shall be conducted in an absolutely honest manner. The University presupposes that any submission of work for academic credit indicates that the work is the student’s own and is in compliance with university policies. In cases where academic dishonesty is discovered after completion of a course or degree program, sanctions may be imposed retroactively, up to and including revocation of the degree. Any student who reasonably believes another student has committed an act of academic dishonesty should inform the course instructor of the alleged violation. 

Copying from classmates during tests and exams, and plagiarism of materials for papers will not be tolerated. Plagiarism means representing the work of another as your own. It includes copying or paraphrasing from other sources, whether on the internet, the newspapers, or a journal, without acknowledging the source. Collaborating excessively with another person and claiming the work as solely your own also constitutes plagiarism. If you are unclear about this, please ask me. Do not submit papers from other courses.

Do not weave together chunks of text from internet sources, even if you cite sources – I want to see YOUR thinking and writing. If you want to cite a sentence to emphasize a point, put it in “quotation” marks and cite the source - but keep these to a minimum. You should cite a source even if you are using a specific idea from someone else in your own words. Depending on the severity of the case, plagiarism can lead to penalties ranging from failing the assignment, failing the course, or even suspension from the university. 

I am very good at detecting academic dishonesty and deal with it harshly. Plagiarism on any assignment will, at minimum, result in an "F" for the assignment, without an opportunity to ‘redo’. I reserve the right to pursue further disciplinary action if appropriate (e.g., any student caught cheating on an exam will receive an "F" for the course). In all cases, students will have a description of the incident attached to his or her academic records. For further information, refer to the Code of Student Conduct section listed in the University Catalog, the Student Handbook, or http://cdn(dot)umb(dot)edu/images/life_on_campus/Code_of_Conduct_5-14-14.pdf

Students should be aware that, at the discretion of the instructor, assignments may be submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for the purpose of detecting possible plagiarism. 

Research Guide for Business and Society

Your research should combine:

1. Some general searching using the web, but beware that the web gives you lots of junk, irrelevant material, out of date information, and unreliable sources.

2. Business magazines and newspapers (see below)

3. Academic journal articles.

4. ‘Respectable’ blogs

Search for relevant sources using scholar.google.com

Some articles are available in full-text directly on the site (check on the right of a reference, to reveal other versions of the same article). You can link your library account to scholar.google to see articles for which UMass Boston has a subscription.

A good strategy is to use the citations at the end of a recent comprehensive article to find other relevant references. Try to find longer, more serious discussions of topics rather than lots of short items.

Once you have located relevant articles, you can often find the full-text versions using the Healey Library on-line databases, such as ABI-Inform. These databases also have their own search facilities, but scholar.google is much easier. Then look for the journal and find the year and issue number. Look for databases or journals from: https://www(dot)umb(dot)edu/library/journals  (click on e-journals to find journals held in digital format).

You will NOT find academic journals on the general web. You can access some serious newspapers, such as the Financial Times and New York Times, on the Web, with registration, but you are limited to 5 or 10 articles a month.

The following are some suggestions for useful sources. The list is not exhaustive, of course, but will help you focus your search.

ACADEMIC JOURNALS

Academy of Management Perspectives

Harvard Business Review

Business Horizons

California Management Review

Sloan Management Review

Business and Society

NON-ACADEMIC JOURNALS

The Nation  www(dot)thenation(dot)com

Dollars and Sense www(dot)dollarsandsense(dot)org

Mother Jones  www(dot)mojones(dot)com

BUSINESS JOURNALS

(mostly available through UMB library)

BusinessWeek    BW.com

Fortune               Fortune.com

The Economist   Economist.com

NEWSPAPERS

New York Times NYT.com

Financial Times  FT.com

Wall Street Journal WSJ.com

Good blogs about business and society

http://craneandmatten(dot)blogspot(dot)com/

https://theconversation(dot)com/us/business (also check out the environment+energy page)

http://www(dot)commondreams(dot)org/economy

https://organizationsandsocialchange(dot)wordpress(dot)com/  Our own UMB business faculty blog!

WEBSITES (these are just some suggestions to get you started)

General Industry Information

Corporate Watch  www(dot)corpwatch(dot)org

National Priorities project http://nationalpriorities(dot)org/

Domhoff’s Who Rules America http://sociology(dot)ucsc(dot)edu/whorulesamerica/

Center for Corporate Policy http://www(dot)corporatepolicy(dot)org/

Corporate Crime Reporter  http://www(dot)corporatecrimereporter(dot)com/

OpenSecrets.Org http://www(dot)opensecrets(dot)org/   Lots of information on corporate lobbyin

Ethical Consumer www(dot)ethicalconsumer(dot)org

Media

Adbusters, a humorous Canadian outfit that satirizes corporate advertising  www(dot)adbusters(dot)org

Environment – General

www(dot)wri(dot)org   World Resources Institute

www(dot)envirolink(dot)org

www(dot)ucs(dot)usa(dot)org             Union of Concerned Scientists

www(dot)tufts(dot)edu/gdae         Tufts University Global Development and Environment

www(dot)greenamerica(dot)org

Climate Change – Global Warming

http://thinkprogress(dot)org/climate/issue/  Climate Progress 

http://www(dot)globalwarming(dot)org/          An industry funded site, in the guise of a “neutral” information source.

www(dot)epa(dot)gov/globalwarming/            EPA global warming site

http://www(dot)realclimate(dot)org/                Blog by real climate scientists. Tough to read, but scary!