EXECUTIVE DIPLOMA PROGRAM

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

PROJECT PAPER

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1.0 THE PROJECT PAPER

The project paper is an integral part of the Executive Diploma Program, and if
properly chosen will serve the following purposes:

- A synthesis of various aspects of learning on the Executive Program.

- A demonstration of students understanding of concepts, techniques and
skills acquired during the program, through their application in real
situations.
- A demonstration of a student's ability to write a substantial report in a
well-structured manner.

2.0 APPOINTMENT OF SUPERVISOR AND SECOND EXAMINER

Lecturers from the Supply Chain Management, International Business,

Economics and Management Department will be appointed by the Head of
Program to advise the student‟s project. Each candidate will be assigned to
one lecturer. The appointment will be made known to students and lecturers
before the beginning of 5th month. Meetings and manner of supervision will
be on the arrangement between the students and their advisors. The Head of
Program will also appoint second examiners to evaluate the students‟ project.

3.0 CHOOSING THE PROJECT TOPIC

It is the student's responsibility to identify a suitable project topic, subject to

the approval of his/her supervisor. The topic must be of transportation issues
either in the area of management, operation, distribution, logistic, planning or
marketing.

4.0 LENGTH OF THE PROJECT PAPER

The project paper is a written document similar in some ways to a thesis or

dissertation. The paper should be between 8000 to 12000 words in length
excluding illustrations, maps and appendices. Unless prior permission is
obtained for exceeding this length from the advisor, marks will be discounted
for excessive length of paper. The quality of what is written is far more
important than the quantity.

5.0 SUBMISSION

1. Students are required to submit the final/revised Research Proposal to

the advisor and his/her second examiner on the 8th month .
2. Students are not required to present their research findings to his/her
advisor and the second examiner.
3. Final submission of Project Paper will be on the 14 month. The project
paper must be submitted in three (3) copies, hard cover bound in
maroon colour for the Head of Program.

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6.0 ASSESSMENT

1. The assessment will be based on:

a) Research Proposal 0%
b) Presentation of findings 0%
c) Project Report/Thesis 100%

2. Presentation of findings

The presentation is quite similar to the viva or formal interview based

on the project work. The presentation will be attended by both the
supervisor and the second examiner.

It is the student‟s responsibility to make arrangement on dates, venue

and any other facilities required with the approval of the advisor. The
purpose of the presentation is :

a) To establish the authenticity of the Project Paper.

b) To test the students knowledge of areas surrounding the
subject.
c) To elicit more information about the techniques of research
employed.
d) To provide the student with detailed criticism of the findings
thus allowing students to make necessary adjustment /
corrections before the final writings and submission.

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 THE PROJECT PAPER

1.0 THE STRUCTURE OF THE PROJECT PAPER

1.1 FRONT COVER (See Appendix A)

1.2 TITLE PAGE (See Appendix B)

The title page should include all of the following:

a) The title of the project paper.

This title should have been registered with the head of program
with the agreement of the advisor before the project paper is
submitted. Titles should obviously give an immediate
indication of the scope of the project.

b) The name of the student.

c) The course for which the project is being submitted.

d) The name of the school.

e) The (month and) year of submission.

1.3 ABSTRACT

The abstract would comprise two paragraphs (no more than 250 words
in total). The first paragraphs should state concisely the purpose of the
project. The second should state, again concisely, what was achieved.

1.4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Student may wish to formally acknowledge anyone who has provided

exceptional assistance or organizations that have given the student
ready access to their facilities. The wording should be simple and
concise.

1.5 TABLE OF CONTENTS (See Appendix C)

A table of contents must be drawn up and included at the beginning of

the project paper. It should include the commencing page of the
acknowledgements and each of the lists of tables, figures,
abbreviations and abstract (in Roman numerals eg. i, ii, ......vi etc) if
these appear in the project paper. The page numbers in the table of
content should be stated on the right side of the page. Note that the
title page at the front of the project paper is considered to be page i, but
the number is not typed. Roman numeral ii appears on the first page
that follows the title page.

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1.6 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES (OPTIONAL)

If the report contains many tables and/or figures a list should be

provided, giving the table or figure number, the title and the number of
the page as which it is presented.

1.7 GLOSSARY (OPTIONAL)

In writing a project paper it is sometimes convenient to use symbols,

abbreviations or „jargon‟ that are unfamiliar to the general reader. It
may be helpful to provide a key to these at the beginning of the project
paper and should be presented as separate page.

1.8 INTRODUCTION

One of the most common problems found in project reports concerns

the intelligibility of the work to the general reader student must
remember that, unlike his/her supervisor, the general reader has not
had the benefits of discussing his/her work with opportunity to ask the
student questions. The introduction provides an opportunity to lead the
reader „gently‟ into the report, beginning by setting the scene very
broadly and then progressively focusing on the nature of the topic to be
addressed, and the reason it was chosen as the subject of study.

1.9 LITERATURE REVIEW

This section should give a detailed account of the topic to be studied, a

comprehensive discussion (with references where appropriate) of
relevant work which has previously been carried on by other workers in
the field of study. All material taken verbatim from articles, textbooks
etc. must be presented in quotation marks.

Examples of Fully Referenced Review of the Literature:

1. According to Ziesemer, Thomas (1995) in his study about the

growth with imported capital goods, limited export and demand
and foreign debt, there is an implication of introducing
imported inputs and elasticity‟s of export demand into the
neoclassical growth model for the analysis of long-run growth.

2. Epstein, Gein (1994) said that the world faces the prospect of a
new kind of debt crisis. Actual deficit is still conceivable, but
something shy of default is even more possible.

1.10 RESEARCH DESIGN

The structure of the report will largely be determined by the nature of

the project, and only general guidance can be given here. In general, a
detailed account will be given of the source of data and information,
how it was collected, and how it was processed and/or analyzed. Any
results obtained will also be presented here, but not the discussion of
these results.
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1.11 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

This is the heart of the report, where students will present a critical
appraisal of what has been written before, make comparisons and
present arguments supported by his/her analysis of the results. Student
should make clear the logical steps which lead to the conclusions
he/she has drawn, and relate these conclusions to the objectives of the
project.

1.12 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The conclusions should follow naturally from the analysis and should
need no further comment, apart from any qualifications, which may
apply to the conditions under which they hold. It is felt that actions
should be taken on the basis of the conclusions then such
recommendations should be stated there.

1.13 APPENDICES

Any materials which is not necessary for the general reader to follow
the report‟s arguments should be placed in an appendix such material
should, nevertheless, must be relevant to the work, and is included for
those readers who may wish to question the findings or to pursue the
work further.

1.14 REFERENCES
Detailed references should be given so that the reader may know what
sources the writer drew on, which information is attributed to which
source and to find the original information to check it or obtain more
information.
References may be presented according to the Harvard system.
References to periodicals should be listed as follows: authors‟
surnames and initials (instead of first author et al), year of publication
in parentheses, exact title of paper, contracted title of periodical in
italics (or underlined), volume number in Arabic figures (in bold print),
initial and final page numbers of article.
Example:
Sachs, T.M & Benson, A.R. (1978). A Conceptual Framework for The
Management of Marketing Efficiency. Journal of Marketing 58 (1) 80 -
81.
In the Harvard System, the titles of books are in italics, (or underlined),
followed by the town and publisher.
Example:
Jain, E.E (1990). The Logic of Strategic Planning, 5th Ed. New York;
John Wiley & Sons, P.P. 80 - 86.

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 References from an edited book may be written as follows:
Mc Namara, C.P. (1991). Marketing Planning-Approaches of selected
companies. In the Frontiers of Marketing Thoughts and Science
(Frank, M.B. ed), p 57 - 62 Chicago: American Marketing Association.

1.15 PAGINATION
The project paper should be paginated continuously in Arabic
numerals placing the number at the center of bottom of the page, about
1 cm from the bottom edge the middle of the margin lines of text.

1.16. CORRECTIONS
Before sending the project to a binder the student should proof read it
to correct any typing errors. If the project paper is submitted with
errors it will probably be returned to the student for correction before it
is finally accepted.

2.0 THE FINAL PROJECT PAPER

2.1 FORMAT

A project paper consists of many parts arranged in a certain order. It is

recommended that the following order be used as a guide, although not
every paper will include all the items listed:

No. Item Remarks

1. Blank Page/Title Fly

2. Title Page No to be paginated but counted as

(i)
3. Declaration of Original Work Not to be paginated or listed in
(See Appendix D) Table of Contents but designated
as (ii).

4. Letter of Submission Not to be paginated or listed in

(Only for Hard-Bound Copy) Table of Content but designated as
(See Appendix E) (iii).

5. Acknowledgements/Preface To be paginated as page (iv) and

listed in Table of Contents.

6. Table of Contents Not listed in Table of Contents.

7. List of Tables To be paginated as page (v) and

listed in Table of Contents.

8. List of Figures/Graphs/Diagrams To be paginated as page (vi) and

listed in Table of Contents.

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 9. List of Abbreviations (or To be paginated as page (vii) and
Glossary) listed in Table of Contents.

10. List of Definition of Terms To be paginated as page (viii) and

listed in Table of Contents.

11. Abstract (not exceeding 300 To be paginated as page (ix) and

words) listed in Table of Contents.

12. Main Body (Chapters) To be paginated beginning with 1.

13. Bibliography (or Literature cited) To be paginated.

14. Appendices First sheet to be counted but not

paginated. (Insert a leaf with only
the word APPENDICES etc. in the
center of page - followed by the
actual appendices that are
paginated.

15. Blank Page

2.2 PRINT SPECIFICATIONS

Font used should not be too fancy as to complicate reading. Students

are advised to use Arial with font size of at least 11.

2.3 MARGINS

The left margin should be at least 1.5 inches wide to facilitate binding
of the submitted thesis. The tip, bottom and right margin should be at
least 1 inch while the header and footer at least 0.5 inch from the
edges. These specifications are applicable to the printed output, thus
margins in the "page setup" should be adjusted accordingly to produce
the desired result.

2.4 SPACING

Text in the thesis should be typed double-spaced. The following,

however, should be single-spaced:

(i) explanatory footnotes (if absolutely necessary)

(ii) quotations longer than three lines set in a block
(iii) bibliography (except between entries)
(iv) appendices, such as questionnaires, letters, etc.
(v) slightly long headings or subheadings.

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 2.5 OTHERS

(i) Plagiarism is a very serious offence. Any student caught of

such misconduct would automatically get a failing grade.

2.6 BINDING

When the project paper is completed and the advisor approves of the
final draft, it is ready for binding. Students should check all copies
carefully to ensure that pages are in order.

Students will have to submit three copies based on the following

specifications.

First Copy : To be given to the Head of the Program, with the

following specification.
- This copy should have a hard bound cover and the colour of the
cover is maroon.

The following particulars should be on :

(i) Spine

Name of student
Title (condensed version)
Month and Year of Submission

(ii) Cover

Full Title of project paper

Name of candidate and student ID
Degree
Name of University and
Year of submission

(Please refer to sample attached)

All lettering should be in gold blocking font of 18 points (for the first copy only).

Second and Third Copy : To be given to the advisor and 2nd examiner
respectively. These copies will be spiral bound only.

The specification for the cover off these copies should be similar to the
first copy.

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 3½ cm

Appendix A

OPTIMISATION OF BUS SEATING CAPACITY

IN METRO BUS SDN BHD

NORMAH BT. SHUIB

98026564

EXECUTIVE DIPLOMA
IN
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

JUN 2007
3½ cm

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 Appendix B

(TITLE OF YOUR PROJECT)

(YOUR NAME)

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirement for the
Executive Diploma in Supply Chain Malaysia

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

(YEAR OF COMPLETION)

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 Appendix C

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGE ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iii
LIST OF TABLES v
LIST OF FIGURES vi
ABSTRACT vii

CHAPTERS

1. INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background 1
1.2 Problem Statement 5
1.3 Objective 6
1.4 Significance of Study 8
1.5 Hypotheses 9
1.6 Limitations 10
1.7 Definitions of Terms 11

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Marketing as a Management Philosophy 14

2.1.1 The Marketing Concept 15
2.1.1 (a) Marketing Functions 16
2.1.2 The Marketing Management Concept 17
2.1.2 (b) Importance of Marketing Department 18
2.2 Corporate Marketing 19
2.3 Corporate Strategic Marketing Planning 23
2.4 The Nature of the Relationship between Corporate Marketing 28
and Corporate Strategic Marketing Planning

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN 33

3.1 The Data Collection (Primary and Secondary) 34
3.1.1 Survey Instrument (Questionnaires) 35
3.2 Sampling Techniques (Probability or Non Probability) 36
3.2.1 Sampling Size/Population 37
3.3 Procedure for Analysis of Data (eg. cross-tabulation, chi-square, 38
correlation analysis, factor analysis, t-test, z-test, anova, mann-
whithey, regression analysis, discriminate analysis, etc.)

4. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 46

4.1 Frequency and Characteristics of the Respondents/Companies 47
4.2 Analysis of Problem Statement, Objective and Hyphotesis 48
findings and results.

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 60

BIBLIOGRAPHY 65
APPENDICES 67

Appendix I - Cover Letter 68

Appendix II - Questionnaire 69
Appendix III - Photographs/Maps/Lengthy Charts 71

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 DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL WORK
Appendix D

EXECUTIVE DIPLOMA OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

FACULTY OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
JOHOR

“DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL WORK”

I, ________________________, (I/C Number:_____________)

Hereby, declare that,

 This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any
degree, locally or overseas and is not being concurrently submitted
for this degree or any other degrees

 This project paper is the result of my independent work and

investigation, except where otherwise stated

 All verbatim extracts have been distinguished by quotation marks

and sources of my information have been specifically
acknowledged.

Signature:_______________ Date:_______________

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 Appendix E

LETTER OF SUBMISSION

Date of submission

The Programme Coordinator

Executive Diploma Program
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur.

Dear Sir,

SUBMISSION OF PROJECT PAPER

Attached is the project paper titled “AFTA: EFFECTS AND

CHALLENGES FACING THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY IN
MALAYSIA” to fulfill the requirement as needed by the Executive
Diploma Program, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Thank you

Yours sincerely

NORMAH SHUIB
200023456

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