The Extended Essay is a compulsory requirement of the IB Diploma and attaining a grade below a D results in the failure to be awarded the Diploma.
Students who do an Extended Essay (EE) in Business & Management, have to write about:-
- An issue or topic related to the IB Business & Management syllabus that interests them
- Something that is happening at the moment in business current affairs
- An aspect of a student’s own experience
- Business practices in a specific regional or national context
- The practical applications of the work of a particular business management theorist.
- Ideally the research question should be sharply focused (see my blog entry on sharply focusing questions for the Internal Assessment), forward-looking not backward looking, and should be rooted in a real world setting, i.e. be based on an actual company, industry, market or business situation.
Importantly, an Extended Essay in Business should not be an extension of (or exactly the same as) a piece of Internal Assessment (IA) in business.
The table below helps you see the differences and similarities between the Business IA and an Extended Essay:-
*= the Business and Management guide to the EE says that primary data collection is not necessary for the EE, but could be conducted provided it adds “substantial value” to the EE.
** = Students are certainly encouraged to explore and use the core concepts when writing their Essays.
