Assessment 2 (Business Research Report) – All Students

This assessment contributes 30% towards your total marks for this paper. It is due before 5:00 pm on 23^RD September 2025, New Zealand Time.

For the research report, you are required to write an academic-type business report to the management addressing the issues raised in the case scenario and providing suitable recommendations. In order to do this, you are expected to reason and argue your ‘point of view’ using suitable literature. This should include appropriate literature and citations from a minimum of 3 journal articles.

Word limit: You should write no more than 1,000 words for this assignment, excluding cover page, references and appendix. Writing more than 1,000 words indicates that you need to edit your work to remove unnecessary words. Concise writing is a valuable business skill.

Research Report Question: 

Manu Mahan had just been appointed vice president of the Wellington Regional Events Corporation (WRE). The company provides services for a variety of special events, from planning for events, sending out invitations, co-ordinating eating and drinks requirements, setting up and decorating event venues, to hosting and after event cleaning services.  The clients send their event details, type of event, venue for the event, number of attendees, dietary requirements, type of drinks, expectations regarding decorations and so on to WRE which records the data on each event in a computerised database. WRE then sends the data electronically to the nearest event centre which then proceeds to get in touch with the individual client within their region/vicinity for further details and for a face-to-face meeting. The Wellington Region has three event centres, which are in Porirua, Newlands and Lambton Quay (Central Wellington).  Prior to her promotion to vice president, Ms Mahan was the general manager of an events coordinating centre in Auckland.

Immediately after assuming her new position, Ms Mahan requested a complete financial report for the just-ended fiscal year from the region’s controller, Foon Chang. Ms Mahan specified that the financial report should follow the standardised format required by corporate headquarters for all regional performance reports. That report follows:

Wellington Regional Events Corporation (WRE)  Wellington Region  Financial Performance

*Includes building rental expense for the Porirua, and Newlands locations and building depreciation for the Lambton Quay (Central Wellington) location.

⁺ Local administrative expenses are the administrative expenses incurred at the event coordination centres.

^Regional administrative expenses are allocated to the events coordination centres based on sales.

^¥Corporate administrative expenses are charged to segments of the company such as the Wellington Region, and the events co-ordination centres at the rate of 9.5% of their sales.

Upon seeing this report, Ms Mahan summoned Foon Chang for an explanation.

Required: 

Write a report to the management of the Wellington Regional Events Corporation (WRE) advising and recommending if the Lambton Quay (Central Wellington) events coordination centre should be closed down with appropriate academic arguments, citations and using financial evidence (summary calculation) where appropriate. In your report, include answers to questions 1, 2 and 3 in a comprehensive manner.  Please use headers and sub-headers as part of the Report. Make sure key concepts related to the Case Scenario are explained using academic literature and are appropriately contextualised using the information given about the Company. Round all calculations to the nearest dollar.

Note: Your report should be based on sound academic reasoning with evidence/ citations from academic journals, explaining and analysing the major concepts applicable to the Company scenario.  Include only the most important calculations as a check figure in your report. Provide detailed calculations in the appendix, and when including check figure calculations in your content, remember to refer to the appendix for detailed calculations.

Refrain from explaining how the calculation was done; instead, explain and justify why the calculations are important using academic literature. 

QUESTIONS: 

1. From the standpoint of the company as a whole, what is the financial advantage (disadvantage) of closing the Lambton Quay (Central Wellington) events coordinating centre and redistributing its work to other events coordinating centres in the region? Explain using supportive analysis drawn from academic literature (citations) and check figures from calculations.
2. Analyse and discuss using constructive, academically based arguments and your calculations why it might be in Manu Mahan’s self-interest to shut down the Lambton Quay (Central Wellington) facility. Do you think Manu Mahan is conducting herself in an ethical manner? Explain and analyse using academic arguments with appropriate academic literature (citations).
3. What influence should the depreciation on the facilities at Lambton Quay (Central Wellington) have on prices charged by Lambton Quay (Central Wellington) for its services? Discuss and analyse using academic literature and citations, and make sure you include the check figure calculations.