IB Business Management Extended Essay: The Complete Guide

The IB Business Management Extended Essay is an assessment designed to assess your ability to analyze and understand business activities at the different levels of the economy.

In this assignment, you have to:

• Choose an interesting topic to explore.
• Develop a research question.
• Do in-depth research on the issue.
• Write a critically analyzed argument.
• Present credible data and evidence for your work. 

IB Business Management Extended Essay Research Question

The research question is important in IB Business Management Extended Essay because the entire assignment hinges on it.

You want to make sure you EE in Business and Management meets the following conditions:

1. Scope

The term scope refers to how wide the topic you selected is. Don’t focus on a research question that lacks sufficient research material for the 4,000 words limit.

Instead, choose a topic that’s highly specific, one to which you can find sufficient information to cover more comprehensively.

2. Ability to Apply Concepts and Techniques Learned

Choose a research question that lets you apply business analysis methods, terminologies, and techniques that you’ve learned.

Not only should the question have a tight link to the syllabus, but also it should allow you to draw direct links to the theoretical concepts taught in the business management coursework.

Keep in mind the goal of the EE in business isn’t to show off your knowledge but to prove that you understand and can apply what you’ve already learned.

3. Availability of Research Material

A research question may look great, but it isn’t going to be worth focusing on if it lacks the depth of material and knowledge base to warrant the 4,000-word treatment.

If you can’t access records or useful research data for the research question, drop it.

4. Usefulness and Application

Your research question should be relevant and applicable to the current business environment.

You may draw your inspiration from journals and newspapers for current ideas.

5. Engaging

Don’t just develop a research question simply because you find it interesting. It has to be something that you’ve actually investigated or have always want to research.

That way, you’ll have an easy time pulling off the engagement part of the assessment criteria.

Check out our post on IB Business & Management EE Topics for some ideas that might be interesting to explore.

IB Business Management EE Structure (The Outline to Use)

The following is the structure of an IB Extended Essay for Business Management:

Title Page

It’s the first page of your IB Business Management Extended essay. While it’s not included in your word count, it’s an important part of the assignment that includes the following information:

• Your Business Management EE Title: Should not be a question but a clear, summarized statement of your research question
• Your Research Question: Write your research question in this section
• The Subject: The subject should be “Business Management”
• Word Count: This part should be your word count

You should not write your name, candidate name, date, or school name on the page title of the Extended Essay.

Table of Content

This part is also not included in your word count, but you must include it because it’s part of the assignment.

Include all parts of your IB Business Management Extended essay in this section. Don’t forget to include the page numbers.

Introduction (About 250 Words)

The introduction is a section where you provide a clear context for your research question.

Use this space to describe why your research is interesting and why it’s important to your audience.

Make sure your audience knows what you’ll be exploring, how you intend to explore your research question, and how valuable your research is to your audience.

Methodology (About 350 Words)

Have two parts for the methodology, one explaining your sources and the other one explaining your tools – with the limitations and drawbacks of each.

Methodology Part 1: Sources

State and explain primary and secondary sources for your research. Make sure to include the benefit and weaknesses of each source.

Some insightful sources include news articles, encyclopedias, company annual reports, and magazine articles.

These make good secondary sources, which is where majority of your research should come from.

Methodology Part 2: Tools

Here, state the tools you will use and make sure to include a brief description explaining why you’re going to use them in IB Business Management EE.

If you change your tools as you write your EE, mention those changes here.

Main Body (About 2800 Words)

The main body is the largest part of you IB Business Management Extended Essay.

In this section, you will share your research, analysis, discussion, and evaluation. You can divide the section into two, the first part for your tools and the second for your research.

In the first part, show your teacher that you know how to do what you’ve learned in the IB Business Management class.

The second part is where you make an impression with your research, which sometimes can go beyond what you’ve learned in the classroom.

As you work on the body part of the essay, make sure each paragraph relates to the research question. So make sure you include only the tools and research that answers the questions properly.

Conclusion

Tie everything together to show that what you’ve done so far fully answers your research question. You can also mention the limitations of your research.

Also, you can try to explain other unresolved questions, but don’t introduce any new idea in the essay.

Bibliography

This isn’t included in your word count, but aiming for at most 3 or 4 pages of sources should be fine for the assignment.

IB Business Management Extended Essay Rubric and Assessment Criteria

IB Business Management EE Rubric (Assessment Criteria)

IB evaluates business management extended essays based on the following 5 criteria:

• Focus and method 
• Knowledge and understanding
• Critical thinking
• Presentation
• Engagement

The grades range from A to E, with the top grade having a maximum of 34 points and anything worse than a C being a fail.

While the professional judgment of selected instructors can affect your grades, these descriptors used to determine the actual grade that you get in the end.

Criterion A: Focus and Method 

Criterion A examines how unique, focused, intelligent, and analytical you’re when using techniques learned in the course and outside the classroom.

Evaluators expect you to demonstrate your scholastic ability to apply theories in practical situations, come up with answers to you research issue, and offer a possible solution to the problem at hand.

To score a 6 for focus and method:

• Develop a clear, focused research question.
• Use secondary sources for topic research.
• Support your arguments with relevant, recent, and credible evidence or data.
• Develop a well-organized, logical methodology leading up to your conclusions. 

Criteria B: Knowledge and Understanding

Knowledge and understanding focuses on not only how much you’ve learned in the course but also how well you can apply the concepts taught in class to the real world.

To show a business-oriented thinking, use business terminologies.

You can use abstract concepts in the paper, but you should also add thorough explanation your process using a simple language that readers can understand.

Diagrams and charts can help explain concepts that would be hard to explain in words, but it’s important to explain each so that your ideas are clear.

As you explain business trends linked to your research topic, ensure your ideas follow an analytical process while remaining grounded in the case you’re exploring.

Criteria C: Critical Thinking

To score high on this criterion, show a unique application of business concepts, technique, theories, and methods to analyze the problem under investigation.

• Back your argument with in-depth, credible research.
• Be self-critical, making sure you evaluate the accuracy and reliability of your sources.
• Comment on the gaps or weaknesses your arguments don’t solve and suggest what you think researchers can do to solve these issues.
• Use the analytical techniques learned in the course to follow up every point you make in your business management extended essay.

Criterion D: Presentation

The presentation criterion looks at how well you organize and communicate your ideas. The common academic standards evaluated include:

• A clear and easy to understand language
• Clearly labeled charts, graphs, figures, and images
• A well-structured essay with headings and subheadings

Criterion E: Engagement

Criterion E evaluates how you engage with the research topic based on the subject’s intersection in your life.

Avoid using a third-person perspective because doing so will earn you few points.

Quite instances of personal interactions instead, and show that the research question you choose is relevant to you and others.

IB Business Management Extended Essay Grade Descriptors

The following are the grade descriptors used for IB Business Management Extended Essay:

Descriptor A

To get an A, you must have a clear research question, conduct relevant research, and demonstrate expert knowledge and understanding of the materials taught in the classroom.

Also, show a comprehensive engagement to and explanation of the problem.

Your extended essay in business management should feature a logical, structural layout, include key reflections, and have relevant, accurate conclusions.

Descriptor B

To score a B, you need to demonstrate good knowledge of research, appropriate research skill, and a reasonable application of the business concepts and techniques learned in the classroom.

Also, offer a synthesis of an effective research question, a satisfactory presentation, and conclusion supported by evidence presented in the IB business management extended essay.

Descriptor C

Students who score a C for their extended essay in business management are those who display some knowledge and understanding of the key concepts involved, including reasonable application of the topic.

However, the essay fails to synthesize the research question, it offers descriptive instead of an evaluative discussion, there are errors in the arguments use, and structure used is poor.

Descriptor D

Business management extended essays that score a D reflect poor research that lead to a general focus.

Although the essay shows some relevant knowledge of the topic, the content is full of discrepancies and inaccuracies.

In addition to the lack of a logical structure and coherent readability, the essay lacks a critical evaluation of the topic and the conclusions are inconsistent.

Descriptor E

An E is the grade awarded to an unclear essay with an unsystematic approach. The essay lacks a clear focus because it portrays limited knowledge of key concept, not to mention it has an inconsistent analysis and an inaccurate conclusion.

Tips to Write a Compelling IB Business Management Extended Essay

1. Choose Your Research Question

The research question for your IB Business Management Extended essay should not be practical or actionable.

This is applicable only in the Internal Assessment.

Also, make your research question focused, not too broad and not to narrow. While you should be asking relatively simple questions, make sure they aren’t too obvious.

2. Formatting Your Work

Your IB teacher will also look into how you format your work. So it’s important to make sure you get this right from the start.

Use the Times New Roman font type and 12-point font size. Double space your work and make sure every page has a number.

3. Citing Sources

You need to cite all the sources you use in writing your IB Business Management Extended Essay. You can use any citation format, but it’s preferable to MLA.

And don’t worry if you find citing sources somewhat confusing. Our guide on sources and citation should be enough to point you in the right direction.

4. Sticking to the Word Count

Your piece of research should not exceed 4,000 words.

Even if you feel like you have a lot to write to make your ideas clear, you should trim down during revision if your work is more than 4,000 words already.

5. Write a Great Reflection

The reflection for your IB Business Management Extended essay is not only important as the other parts of the assignment.

It’s also about 18% of the total grade. So you should give it your best shot.

6. Edit Your Work Thoroughly

Reading a 4,000-word IB Business Management Extended Essay after spending so many hours writing it can be rather boring and much less time consuming.

But doing so is the only way to make sure your essay is good enough for submission and ready for marking.

• Look out for grammar and spelling mistakes and fix them. Use a tool such as Grammarly to make your work easier
• Rewrite longer sentences, making them short and concise.
• Don’t hesitate to trim down word count in a sentence if you can say the same thing but in fewer words
• Do parts of your essay sound redundant? Delete them, regardless of where they appear in the essay
• Have you used a source you haven’t cited? Go back and fix the error

Editing your work thoroughly isn’t the fun part of working on an IB Business Management Extended Essay. However, it goes a long way to make your essay read better.