Important information

A penalty of five marks will be deducted for late submissions that are made within the first hour after the deadline. Submissions that are more than one hour late but within the first 24 hours of the deadline will incur a penalty of ten marks. After the first 24 hours have passed, ten marks will be deducted for every 24 hours (or part thereof) that the submission is late for a total of 5 days. After 5 days it is treated as a non-submission and given a mark of zero. The consequences of non-submission are serious and can include de-registration from the University.

If you are unable to complete your open assessment by the submission date indicated above because of Exceptional Circumstances you can apply for an extension. If unforeseeable and exceptional circumstances do occur, you must seek support and provide evidence as soon as possible at the time of the occurrence. Applications must be made before the deadline to be considered.

Full details of the Exceptional Circumstances Policy and claim form. can be found here: https://www.york.ac.uk/students/studying/progress/exceptional-circumstances

If you submit your open assessment on time but feel that your performance has been affected by Exceptional Circumstances you may submit an Exceptional Circumstances Affecting Assessment claim form. by 7 days from the published assessment submission deadline. If you do not submit by the deadline indicated without good reason your claim will not be considered.

Please take proper precautions to safeguard your work and remember to make backup copies of your data. The University provides all its students with storage space on the University server and you should save and back up any work in progress on this server on a regular basis. Computer failure and theft of your equipment or storage media are not considered exceptional circumstances and extensions cannot be granted for work lost for these reasons.

Word count requirements

The word count for this assignment is 2500 words.

You must state on the front of your assignment the number of words used and this will be checked.

The main text for this assignment must be word-processed in Arial, font 12, double spacing, minimum 2cm margins all around.

You must observe the word count specified in this assignment brief. The School has a policy of accepting variations to the recommended word count of plus or minus 5%.

What does this mean for you?

Markers will mark your work up to the word count maximum plus 5% and then will stop marking; therefore all words which are in excess of the word count plus 5% will not be marked.

Where your word count is more than 5% below that specified, it is likely that this will result in a lack of analytical depth or relevant content, which will be reflected in the mark assigned.

What is in the word count?

The word count includes:

- the main text, including in-text reference citations and quotations.

The word count does not include:

- Appendices. These may be used to include supporting data, which may be too detailed or complex to include as a Table. They are not a device to incorporate material, which would otherwise cause you to exceed the word limit.

- Title page

- Contents page

- Abstract/executive summary

- Tables, figures, legends

- Reference lists

- Acknowledgements

Assignment:

The Management, Governance and Society module has examined the contribution of business firms and hybrid organisational models to a variety of complex social issues. To understand global challenges, the module has referred to the United National Sustainable Development Framework, which highlights 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be globally achieved between 2015 and 2030. Such global goals are equally relevant to all regions in the world, however the actions through which governments, organizations and citizens in specific areas aim to pursue these global objectives will vary depending on the characteristics of the local socioeconomic and socio-political environment.

The aim of this assignment is to critically evaluate the role of social-purpose organisations (whether private for-profit businesses or hybrid models) in mitigating a specific global challenge of your choice, in a geographical setting of your choice.

As a first step, you should:

- Select 1 or 2 SDGs. Should you choose more than 1 SDG, they should be clearly interlinked to allow for an integrated discussion;

- Select 1 geographical region of your preference (a country, or a region within a country).

In your essay, you should:

- Develop an analysis of the current situation and historical evolution of the region over the past two decades, with respect to the chosen SDG area (ca. 500 words);

- Examine the role of national and international policies to foster improvement in the selected area(s). At least 2 policy interventions (one national, one international) should be described and critically analysed, by highlighting their advantages and disadvantages (ca. 700 words);

- Examine the role of social-purpose organisations in addressing the identified problems in the selected area(s). At least 2 organisations of different kind (e.g. one social enterprise and one public-private partnership or one business firm and one multi-stakeholder partnership) should be described and critically analysed, by highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of their strategies (ca. 1000 words);

- Formulate recommendations for policy and practice, by considering the interdependences between the chosen policies, the social-purpose organisations, and the regulatory, socio-cultural and socio-economic environment (ca. 300 words).

Marking will consider the presence and degree of elaboration of the following points:

- Presentation and critical analysis of relevant examples of social-purpose business or hybrid models. Discussion related to social impact evaluation of said initiatives will be important to clearly demarcate their contribution to the selected SDGs;

- Presentation and critical analysis of relevant examples of policy reforms, aimed to tackle the chosen global challenges. Understanding of intended as well as unintended outcomes of policy measures will be important, to recognize advantages and disadvantages of regulatory interventions, also in relation to business initiatives;

- Contextualization of the above discussions into the institutional/regulatory environment, with elaboration of how contextual conditions influence business formation and policy intervention;

- Integration of the proposed critical evaluation with the theoretical concepts learnt during the module;

- Use of a wide variety of sources (e.g. academic literature, policy reports, press releases, blogs, annual reports, business archival data, interviews, national statistics, etc);

- Document layout and formatting. Formatting should be consistent throughout the document, and should be designed to help readability and content clarity.

Assessment Criteria