Business Case Study Guidelines and Rubric Overview Your case study should be written in narrative format and address a problem or issue at your internship site. A problem is an obstacle to be overcome. An issue is an idea or activity about which there is debate. You must decide upon and/or develop a policy that will best address the problem or issue.  Examples of problems or issues include: · How to most effectively increase sales · How to better utilize interns in the organization · How to best utilize social media for the organization · How to increase commination in the organization Your case study should contain the following information, in the order listed. 1. Strategic Perspective: Begin by identifying the problem or issue. Does something stand in the way of mutual interests in reaching a goal, or are there legitimate grounds for debate? Why did the problem or issue arise? Who is concerned? How critical is the situation?  2. Problem Solving and Decision Making: What quantitative data is available? What is the applicability of the data to the problem or issue at hand? How appropriate is the data in terms of precision or estimation? Is there an adequate accumulation of other evidence to support the idea that there is a legitimate issue or that a real problem exists? There must be definite instances, not just generalizations. What is the balance in terms of the evidence? Considerable support from both sides indicates that there is a real issue. How valid and objective is the evidence? Bias and prejudice must be avoided. What is the thoroughness of reasoning? How important or controversial is a particular point?  3. Innovative and Entrepreneurial Thinking: What are the possible solutions to the problems? What are the alternatives of action for resolving an issue? To evaluate action alternatives, consider such factors as feasibility, time involved, and the possible contribution in either solving the problem or resolving the issue.  4. Conclusions and/or Recommendations: Your conclusions and/or recommendations must show a relationship to the analysis. Include details of development. What is the policy? The policy is essentially the action decision.  Rubric Format: The case study should follow these formatting guidelines: minimum of 4 pages, double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, and citations in APA format. Instructor Feedback: Students can find their feedback in the Grade Center or Turnitin. Critical Elements Exemplary Proficient Needs Improvement Not Evident Value Strategic Perspective Meets Proficient and details the interrelationship to other functional areas within the organization (18-20) Describes the strategic perspective, identifying the problem or issue, why it arose, who the stakeholders are, and how critical it is (16-17) Describes the strategic perspective, but additional detail is needed to illustrate the problem or issue, why it arose, the stakeholders, and/or how critical it is (14-15) ...

1. Business Case Study Guidelines and Rubric
Overview
Your case study should be written in narrative format and
address a problem or issue at your internship site. A problem is
an obstacle to be overcome. An issue is an idea or activity about
which there is debate. You must decide upon and/or develop a
policy that will best address the problem or issue.
Examples of problems or issues include:
· How to most effectively increase sales
· How to better utilize interns in the organization
· How to best utilize social media for the organization
· How to increase commination in the organization
Your case study should contain the following information, in
the order listed.
1. Strategic Perspective: Begin by identifying the problem or
issue. Does something stand in the way of mutual interests in
reaching a goal, or are there legitimate grounds for debate? Why
did the problem or issue arise? Who is concerned? How critical
is the situation?
2. Problem Solving and Decision Making: What quantitative
data is available? What is the applicability of the data to the
problem or issue at hand? How appropriate is the data in terms
of precision or estimation? Is there an adequate accumulation
of other evidence to support the idea that there is a legitimate
issue or that a real problem exists? There must be definite

2. instances, not just generalizations. What is the balance in terms
of the evidence? Considerable support from both sides indicates
that there is a real issue. How valid and objective is the
evidence? Bias and prejudice must be avoided. What is the
thoroughness of reasoning? How important or controversial is a
particular point?
3. Innovative and Entrepreneurial Thinking: What are the
possible solutions to the problems? What are the alternatives of
action for resolving an issue? To evaluate action alternatives,
consider such factors as feasibility, time involved, and the
possible contribution in either solving the problem or resolving
the issue.
4. Conclusions and/or Recommendations: Your conclusions
and/or recommendations must show a relationship to the
analysis. Include details of development. What is the
policy? The policy is essentially the action decision.
Rubric
Format: The case study should follow these formatting
guidelines: minimum of 4 pages, double spacing, 12-point
Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, and citations in APA
format.
Instructor Feedback: Students can find their feedback in the
Grade Center or Turnitin.
Critical Elements
Exemplary
Proficient
Needs Improvement
Not Evident
Value
Strategic Perspective
Meets Proficient and details the interrelationship to other
functional areas within the organization
(18-20)

3. Describes the strategic perspective, identifying the problem or
issue, why it arose, who the stakeholders are, and how critical it
is
(16-17)
Describes the strategic perspective, but additional detail is
needed to illustrate the problem or issue, why it arose, the
stakeholders, and/or how critical it is (14-15)
Does not describe the strategic perspective
(0-13)
20
Problem Solving and Decision Making
Describes the available quantitative data and comprehensively
assesses its appropriateness for the problem or issue, including
its precision, its validity, and its objectivity (18-20)
Describes the available quantitative data and assesses its
appropriateness for the problem or issue, including its
precision, its validity, and its objectivity
(16-17)
Incomplete description of the quantitative data and incomplete
assessment of its appropriateness
(14-15)
Does not describe the available quantitative data
(0-13)
20
Innovative and Entrepreneurial Thinking
Thoroughly evaluates possible solutions, including feasibility,
time, and impact on problem or issue
(18-20)
Evaluates possible solutions, including feasibility, time, and
impact on problem or issue
(16-17)
Incomplete evaluation of possible solutions
(14-15)
Does not evaluate possible solutions
(0-13)

4. 20
Conclusion and/or Recommendations
Describes a creative and strategic action decision that is
appropriate for the problem
(18-20)
Describes an action decision that is appropriate for the problem
or issue
(16-17)
Incomplete description of action decision and/or evidence does
not wholly support action decision (14-15)
Does not describe an action decision that is appropriate for the
problem or issue
(0-13)
20
Articulation of Response
Submission is free of errors related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and organization and is presented in a
professional and easy-to-read format
(18-20)
Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
(16-17)
Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact
readability and articulation of main ideas
(14-15)
Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of
ideas
(0-13)
20
Earned Total
Comments:
100%

5. Project
In this final project, you are expected to leverage what you
learned in the class in a group (posted) to test decision tree and
neural network algorithms (for classification purposes only) on
a dataset of your choice, and compare your results as well as
discuss insights you obtained in detail.
Below are links to 2 well-known data repositories but you are
free to use other sources as well:
· CMU Archive http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/datasets/
· UCI Archive
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~mlearn/MLSummary.html
Once you select a dataset, you are expected to study and gather
information about the problem domain, transfor m the data as
appropriate, divide the dataset for training and testing purposes,
and train decision tree and neural network models that can
classify new cases.
After you obtain these models, write a report summarizing the
steps you took including your results and a discussion of those
results. The report should, at minimum, present the following in
7-8 pages max. excluding figures and references.
1. Problem statement / Background
2. Introduction to the dataset
3. Methodology
4. Results and Discussion
Deliverables: The response to this individual assignment will be
submitted in .docx or .pdf format. One submission per group is
sufficient.