How to Write a Top-Scoring IB Business Management EE

You’ve decided to write your Extended Essay in Business Management? Excellent, it is a great opportunity to learn more about a business issue and potentially earn a bonus point for your overall IBDP score. But how do you write your IB Business Management EE to meet this goal?

This guide is exactly the right place to learn more about EE assessment criteria, valuable writing tips, and even pitfalls to avoid.

What is IB Business Management EE (Extended Essay)?

The IB Business Management Extended Essay is a piece of independent research about real-world practices or issues. Which issue to study, with what methods, on the example of which company, as well as a specific topic and area of Business Management – all of this is at your discretion. The key requirement is, however, that this investigation demonstrates your critical thinking and can be done within 4,000 words.

Because you have a lot of creative freedom, you may view the Extended Essay as an opportunity to dive deeper into a topic of your interest or study an area of Business Management not covered by the syllabus. For example, a school programme may completely overlook such a prominent phenomenon as influencer marketing, but your essay can help you fill this knowledge gap.

Overall, the beauty of the Extended Essay is that it contributes to the further development of your research skills. Yes, you have to create Internal Assessments, whose purpose is largely similar, but those can be group projects. When it comes to the EE, you are your own research team. You can rely only on the expert assistance of your EE supervisor. With them, you will have three mandatory sessions throughout the life cycle of your investigation.

On top of that, the Business Management Extended Essay pursue the following goals:

Help you apply Business theory and models to real-world situations;
Improve your high-order thinking skills, from choosing relevant sources to drawing meaningful conclusions from data analysis;
Polish your academic writing skills, which are a prerequisite for university-level research;
Improve your time management skills, especially when you have to combine EE writing with your other commitments.

Last but not least, the Extended Essay is one of the core components of the IB programme. Together with TOK and CAS, it awards up to three bonus points to your final score. However, if you fail to submit your essay or it doesn’t meet the rigorous standards, you are at risk of failing the entire Diploma Programme.

IB Business Management EE structure

Finding a good structure for your IB Business Management Extended Essay means meeting assessment Criterion D: Presentation. Besides, a clear organisation of your ideas simply makes your essay more readable. Examiners appreciate it when they can easily follow your train of thought.

Although a clear structure is one of EE requirements, there is no specific guidance regarding a layout or pages you must include. However, our IB Business Management tutors, many of whom are EE supervisors and directly involved in the assessment process, have found the following structure to be the most effective.

Title Page

The front page of your IB Business Management EE must include only these four elements:

Your essay title (a clear statement summarising your research, not a question)
Your research question;
The subject (Business Management);
The word count.

Remember that personal information, such as your name or the name of your supervisor, school, or personal identification number, should not appear on the title page.

The table of contents must list all major sections with corresponding page numbers:

Introduction;
Methodology;
Main analysis;
Conclusion;
Bibliography;
Appendices.

Keep in mind that the numeration of your Extended Essay starts with this exact page.

Introduction

First and foremost, this 250-word section should identify the organisation you investigate and briefly describe what it does (including its products and services). After that, outline your specific business topic and provide context to help readers understand why your research matters. For example, you can describe the company’s price policy, sustainability, competition, etc. Apart from that, you may introduce a business situation or a company’s position on the market.

Finally, state your research question and explain its significance. Why is this question worth answering? Who would benefit from these insights?

Methodology

The methodology section, containing around 250 words, should cover both your analytical tools and information sources.

For starters, you should briefly explain each business tool used and its specific purpose in your analysis. On top of that, it is important to acknowledge their limitations since it demonstrates your critical understanding.

When it comes to sources, you need to describe both primary and secondary research materials. As a rule of thumb, secondary sources form the backbone of Business Management research. They might include annual reports, news articles, business textbooks, and industry publications. Don’t forget to mention how they contributed to your research.

Similarly to tools, you should show a critical approach to your sources. In particular, it is beneficial to point out their possible bias or scope limitations. Additionally, you may specify any adjustments you made to your research as your investigation progressed.

Analysis

Analysis (around 3,100 words) is the heart of your essay. Typically, it has two subsections: tools and extra research. The first one should logically flow into the other, so subheaders might be unnecessary.

You should start with a showcase of your knowledge of the business tools you relied on. Usually, it suffices to show the application of 4-5 relevant tools that directly help answer your research question. If possible, at least one of them should be a financial tool.

We suggest starting with qualitative tools (SWOT or PEST analysis) to establish context before moving to quantitative tools (such as ratio analysis). After each tool application, provide a mini-conclusion and acknowledge any limitations of the chosen tool.

Students often overlook the second section, the one about additional research. However, if your goal is to get a high grade, you need to prove that you are able to go beyond the standard course content. It is also your chance to impress the readers with industry-specific knowledge. Here, you might:

Apply specialised models used in the chosen industry;
Discuss industry-specific metrics or analytical approaches;
Analyse your topic using frameworks from current business literature.

You are welcome to use visual data (i.e. graphs) to reinforce your analysis. Those must be fully labelled, feature a title and corresponding number, as well as a short description. Visual materials created by someone else must be properly cited.

Remember, you should connect every paragraph to your research question. Cut anything that doesn’t help answer it, no matter how interesting it might seem.

Conclusion

Your conclusion is basically a synthesis of your findings. In particular, you need to mention how your tools and methods contributed to answering your research question and to what extent you managed to answer it.

This section is also an opportunity to look critically at your analysis. This means discussing the limitations of your approach (for example, biased data sources or inherent limitations of business tools) alongside factors that (potentially) affected the results. Besides, you need to suggest ways to reduce these limitations and how else you could improve your investigation. Having said that, make sure you don’t introduce any new data in your conclusion.

Bibliography

Typically, a bibliography lists 3-4 pages of sources. A well-balanced bibliography includes:

2-3 books (including textbooks);
Around 15 credible online sources;
At least 3 high-quality specialised sources (academic journals, industry reports);
Any visual materials that you didn’t create on your own.

Every source listed must be referenced within your essay text. Make sure to list all the resources in alphabetical order using the citation style preferred by your school

Appendices

While appendices are not formally assessed, they can be an additional demonstration of how thoroughly you approach your research process. You may include here:

Interview transcripts;
Supplementary analyses;
Questionnaire results;
Detailed calculations;
Supporting data referenced in your main text.

IB Business Management EE Assessment Criteria

EE assessment criteria are actually your guidance as they tell you exactly what your essay should be like to get high marks. Therefore, you need to get to know them before you start your investigation. Overall, five criteria evaluate your work. Combined, they award 34 possible marks.

Criterion A: Focus and Method

This 6-mark criterion evaluates how well you’ve defined your research question and designed your methodology. In particular, it assesses:

The clarity and focus of your research question;
How well your title promotes higher-order thinking skills (analysis, evaluation, synthesis);
Your use of appropriate secondary sources as the foundation of your research;
The quality of your research design and planning;
The relevance of any primary research (if used) and how it enhances your analysis;
The overall coherence of your approach to addressing the research question.

If you rely too heavily on questionnaires or interviews, you’ll likely lose marks. Along with this, if examiners deem your research question inappropriate for Business Management, you won’t be able to receive more than 4 marks on this criterion.

Criterion B: Knowledge and Understanding

With 6 marks available, this criterion looks at your knowledge of business concepts and terminology. Additionally, it requires you to place your topic within a broader business context. The specific aspects under scrutiny are:

An accurate and consistent use of business terminology;
How well you connect your topic to wider business functions or concepts;
Your ability to explain and define business terms when necessary;
The depth of your subject knowledge throughout the essay;
How effectively you demonstrate understanding of relevant business theories and tools.

Again, if it happens that your research question is inappropriate for Business Management, you won’t receive more than 4 marks here.

Criterion C: Critical Thinking

As the most heavily weighted criterion (it contributes 12 points to your overall score), it evaluates your analytical skills as well as your ability to construct a logical argument. It is vital that you base your claims and arguments on evidence. With this criterion, examiners assess:

Your analysis of business data and sources (make sure that you don’t just describe them);
Your application of business theories, tools, and techniques to develop arguments;
The quality of your reasoning and the logical flow of your arguments;
Your ability to reach insightful conclusions that directly address the research question;
How well you assess the strengths and limitations of different perspectives;
Your recognition of any biases or limitations in your sources;
Your awareness of unresolved issues and suggestions for further investigation.

Descriptive essays that lack analysis tend to lose marks here. Moreover, an inappropriate research question will limit your score to a maximum of 3 points on this criterion.

Criterion D: Presentation

This criterion focuses on how well your essay follows academic conventions. To earn 4 marks here, you need to choose a logical structure that helps examiners better understand your research process. Specifically, this criterion assesses:

How appropriate your chosen structure is;
The quality and relevance of any visual elements (that is, graphs, charts, tables, etc. must be fully labelled, annotated, and referenced in the bibliography);
Proper placement of visual elements close to their references in the text;
Correct citation and referencing of all non-original material;
A complete bibliography that follows a format preferred in your school;
Adherence to formal requirements (title page, table of contents, page numbers).

Make sure to stick to the required 4,000-word limit, as examiners do not read extra words. Therefore, they do not assess anything after this point. In the same vein, examiners are not obligated to read appendices. You can still have them, but it’s best to place all the essential information in the actual essay.

Criterion E: Engagement

Awarding 6 marks, the final criterion evaluates your personal engagement with the research process. After you submit your IB Business Management Extended Essay, you need to fill out the Reflections on Planning and Progress Form (RPPF) and take part in a final interview with your supervisor. Both the information in the RPPF and commentaries from the supervisor are the basis for this criterion. Among other things, it assesses:

Your reflections on how and why you chose your topic;
Insights into your decision-making throughout the research process;
Your ability to reflect critically rather than just describe procedures;
Evidence of creativity and original thinking in your approach;
How you overcame challenges;
What you learned about yourself as a researcher and thinker;
Your consideration of what you might do differently in future research.

Tips to improve your IB Business Management Extended Essay

So now you know how to organise your Business Management Extended Essay to the highest standards. Now let’s talk about content for these sections, starting from your research topic and up to filling the Reflections form.

1. Choose an interesting IB Business Management EE topic

An essay topic is the starting point of your journey. From here, you can go in any direction as long as it falls into the Business Management category. But be careful, if a topic you choose doesn’t exactly fit the subject and, nevertheless, you register your EE under the Business Management category, you will lose a significant number of marks.

For starters, think about the aspects of business that pique your interest. There must be something you care about – if you make it a focus of your research, it may feel less of an ordeal. Your curiosity will drive you forward and give you motivation to spend hours researching, analysing, and writing.

Let’s say, out of all units of Business Management, Marketing consistently grabs your attention in class. That’s a good starting point, but it is quite a broad field. You need to turn this general idea into a focused EE topic. Ask yourself: What is the most interesting thing about marketing?

Let’s assume you want to go with Crisis Marketing/Communication. An excellent choice, but still too broad. At this point, you might consider a specific organisation you’d like to investigate. For example, you often visit KFC and might remember the notorious 2018 UK chicken shortage that made the chain close two-thirds of their restaurants. Do you also recall how the company dealt with this situation by posting humorous apology ads?

Taking this specific case into account, your title might be ‘Analysing KFC’s Humorous Communication Strategy During the 2018 UK Chicken Shortage’. Here is why it works:

It focuses on a narrow area of Business Management (Communication Strategy);
It sets a time limit (2018);
It talks about a specific company and its specific crisis (KFC’s Chicken shortage);
You pinpoint a unique aspect of their communication (humour);
The title is not descriptive; it suggests an analytic approach.

2. Focus on relevant IB Business Management EE research questions

After you find your topic, the next big step is to turn it into a research question. Again, you should be very careful since it sets the tone of your entire investigation and often determines how successful your essay is going to be. Needless to say, you must give it a good thought.

First of all, it is vital to ensure you have enough data to support your investigation. Remember, a good Business Management EE research question should allow access to both academic theories and real-world business information. While primary research can supplement your work, you should mostly rely on quality secondary sources. Therefore, check whether academic articles, business publications, and company reports are available on your chosen topic before committing to it.

It is a good idea to choose a research question that addresses a contemporary business issue. This way, you can enhance the relevance and appeal of your work. For example, you might explore how businesses adapt to sustainability demands, navigate digital transformation, respond to shifting consumer behaviours, or use artificial intelligence in their operations.

A common pitfall is a question that’s either too broad or too narrow. As a rule of thumb, if you can fully answer your question in a few sentences, it’s likely too narrow. Conversely, if your question could be a title of a textbook chapter, it’s probably too broad. If you are not sure if you can explore it in depth within the 4,000-word limit, such a question won’t do.

Similar to your Business Management EE title, a research question should be analytical. It often starts with:

To what extent…
How effective …
How did X contribute to the success of….
What was the influence/cause of X…

Let’s get back to our exemplar title – ‘Analysing KFC’s Humorous Communication Strategy During the 2018 UK Chicken Shortage’. Here, possible research questions can be:

To what extent was KFC’s communication strategy effective in mitigating negative public perception and maintaining brand loyalty during the 2018 UK chicken shortage?
What was the impact of KFC’s communication strategy on key stakeholders (customers, employees, investors) during and immediately after the 2018 UK chicken shortage?
How did KFC’s use of humour in its communication strategy influence public perception and brand engagement during the 2018 UK chicken shortage?

As you can see, there can be multiple research paths for the same title. Therefore, you need to be very specific about what you want to investigate. But before you start, make sure to talk to your supervisor. They should be able to give you valuable advice on how to approach the research and warn you about possible hurdles.

3. Ensure sufficient research material

So, you’ve come up with a topic that perfectly fits Business Management EE criteria. But there is a catch – if you can’t find enough research material to support your arguments, your essay will lack depth and credibility. Naturally, such an essay won’t score high. Hence, it makes sense to do preliminary research to see what’s available. You need to do it before discussing your topic with the supervisor and getting the go-ahead.

A rich collection of sources shows examiners you’ve explored your topic thoroughly. Mainly, you’ll be working with secondary resources (books, journals, case studies, etc.). Your goal here is to find at least 15 such sources appropriate for what you are investigating. Needless to say, if you find interesting business-related information that doesn’t in any way support your research, don’t try to incorporate it into your EE. Otherwise, you will simply lose valuable marks.

Primary sources are allowed as well since they add originality to your investigations. For example, you can conduct a survey of customers about brand loyalty or interview a local business owner about pricing strategies. However, you need to approach this work carefully, as there is a risk that the methodology you choose might skew the results towards pre-determined conclusions. Besides, it takes significant effort and time to plan and collect primary data. Therefore, you need to consider whether you can even afford such an undertaking.

The assessment criteria don’t necessarily require you to have primary research materials. Even more, you won’t lose a single mark if you rely solely on secondary data as long as they come from varying sources. On the other hand, if you focus too much on interviews or questionnaires, you are likely to face mark reductions.

4. Use IB Business Management Resources

As we have already pointed out, you need a solid foundation of research and evidence to score well. The right resources can make all the difference – they help explore your topic deeply and support your arguments with credible data. Moreover, diverse and credible resources will help you meet assessment criteria and show the examiners you’ve done your ‘homework’.

It is a good idea to use a mix of resources. Your choices are:

Textbooks. IB Business Management textbooks, such as Business Management for the IB Diploma by Paul Hoang are tailored to the syllabus and packed with useful theoretical material. There, you will find core concepts, theories, case studies, and more to give your EE a theoretical framework.
Online Databases. They are a must for quantitative data and in-depth reports. Platforms like Statista offer statistics on markets, industries, consumer trends, and trade volumes, while the Economist Intelligence Unit provides country reports and forecasts.
Corporate websites. Public companies are obligated to publish annual reports. Oftentimes, you can find these on their own corporate websites. These financial insights make claims about a selected business more persuasive.
Academic Journals. They are excellent sources of scholarly analysis on business topics. Platforms such as JSTOR and Google Scholar provide peer-reviewed articles on business, economics, and management. They are highly valued by examiners due to their contribution to broad and detailed research.
Business News and Reports. Bloomberg, The Economist, Financial Times, and similar platforms provide up-to-date coverage of business trends, policies, and events. With their help, you can connect your topic to contemporary issues and make your essay more relevant.
Case Studies. Their beauty is that they bring business theories to life and illustrate how concepts apply in real-world scenarios. Your textbook likely includes some, but you can also find more in business publications or online platforms such as Harvard Business Review.
School Resources. Your school’s library or online portal may offer access to premium databases, journals, or e-books. Don’t hesitate to ask your teacher or librarian for recommendations. Some schools (yours might be one of them) have subscriptions to Business Source Complete or industry reports. These resources provide unique insights, which have the power to set your EE apart.
Past EE Examples. High-scoring EEs from previous years can show you how others used resources effectively. The school’s library might make these available. Your EE supervisor might also share some examples. If you consider a tutor to help with your Business Management endeavours, they should also be able to provide past EEs that scored well. These examples are of great help to guide your structure and source selection.

5. Apply relevant business theories and models

Your Business Management EE is a research paper. It simply cannot be descriptive. Therefore, analysis must lie in its heart. And this analytical approach is impossible without relevant business theories and models. They are the framework that gives the real-world scenarios and data you work with a convincing explanation.

Your research question (and more specifically, its theme or issue) should tell you which models and theories are the best match. For example, if your EE is about strategic management, consider SWOT analysis, Ansoff’s Matrix, or Porter’s Five Forces. On the other hand, if you’re discussing financial performance, it makes sense to apply ratio analysis, break-even analysis, or cash flow forecasting. Keep in mind that you should use 4-5 tools for a robust analysis.

Once you’ve chosen your theories and models, it’s time to integrate them into your Business Management Essay. Here is what you can do:

Introduce your Theory or Model. The first step is to explain what this theory or model is and why it’s relevant to your research question. For example, “Porter’s Five Forces analyses the competitive forces in an industry, which helps explain why Company X faces challenges in the retail sector.”
Apply It to Your Case. Let your models become a plan for your analysis. Again, for Porter’s Five Forces, you should discuss each force and how it applies to your case. Make sure to use data and examples to illustrate how these forces affect a chosen company.
Discuss Insights Gained: Explain what applying the model reveals about your research question. For instance, the result of your analysis may show that the company in question has strong brand loyalty yet high operational costs. Based on these findings, you may suggest areas for strategic improvement.
Relate Findings to the Broader Context. It is critical to connect your insights back to the larger business environment. If you’re analysing a company’s marketing strategy, it is necessary to discuss how it fits into industry trends or consumer behaviour.

Most of these theories and tools should be familiar to you from your Business Management course. Still, it is a great idea to look for theories outside of the syllabus. If you include at least one model or tool not covered in class, you have a chance to conduct a more original analysis and prove that you can dig deeper.

6. Use data and examples

Clearly, you can’t apply any business models if you have no data to analyse. After all, data is what is supposed to prove your points or highlight business issues. Simply put, they make your analysis more solid and professional.

Your Business Management EE research question may prompt you to work with various types of data:

Financial Data (revenue, profit margins, return on investment, etc.) is vital for topics involving business performance. They might be available on the company’s corporate website.
Market Data (market size, market share, growth rates, consumer preferences, and others) can back up your claims if the focus of your EE is marketing strategies. You can find those on Statista or Economist Intelligence Unit.
Consumer Behaviour Data (purchasing habits or brand loyalty) is useful for topics involving marketing or customer relations. Statista or JSTOR can become a source of this data.
Operational Data (production costs, efficiency rates, supply chain metrics, etc.) may be necessary for operations-focused research. Company reports or industry analyses can offer numbers to work with.
Case Study Data can also offer valuable examples to illustrate business concepts.

Make sure you stick to recent data, especially for dynamic topics such as technology or sustainability. Data collected in 2015 is unlikely to reflect trends in 2025. And don’t overload your essay with too many statistics – it’s better to focus on quality, not quantity.

7. Include graphs and tables in IB Business Management EE

Sometimes, you will have to work with a lot of data. In this case, it makes sense to present it in a reader-friendly way. Tables can help you organise figures and graphs – show trends.

It is important to label these with a title, axes, and units, as well as include a brief caption explaining their relevance. For visuals that you didn’t create yourself, specify their sources, both in text and bibliography. This will ensure that you don’t face plagiarism issues.

How you place your visuals is also important. To help your argument flow easily, they should appear within your discussion, not at the end. However, if a table is rather large, it’s best to start it on the next page. Otherwise, your table might break and thus worsen readability. For extra-large tables (those that can’t fit into a single page), it might be better to use appendices. Still, you should present key data from these tables in the text because examiners are not obligated to read appendices.

8. Demonstrate critical thinking

One more time, a Business Management Extended Essay is not a descriptive work. This means you can’t just drop numbers. Instead, you need to explain what they mean.

You must link each finding to your argument and show how it supports your research question. For instance, if you determined that the company’s sales grew by 10% in 2024, this may be an indication of the success of the new pricing strategy.

Besides data interpretation, you need to show critical thinking when working with your sources. Do not include anything that doesn’t support your argument. Your goal is to present a range of sources with different perspectives on your chosen business issue. For any source you use, evaluate its credibility, reliability, and relevance. If you analyse a company’s financial performance, you may critically assess information from its annual reports and compare it with independent financial analysts and academic studies. Note any significant discrepancies and try to figure out why they exist.

Remember, every source of data has its limitations. These can be biases, gaps in information, or methodological weaknesses. As a critical thinker, you need to acknowledge these weaknesses and reflect on how they might have affected the validity of your analysis and conclusions.

9. Use qualitative and quantitative research methods

Qualitative research methods focus on the “why” and “how” of business phenomena. You can collect non-numerical data through interviews, case studies, focus groups, content analysis of company reports or media articles, etc. For example, an interview with a small business owner can reveal why they chose a specific digital marketing approach.

Quantitative research methods alone are not enough for a successful Business Management Extended Essay. However, they can help you explore complex issues and provide a context for certain business decisions. When investigating an organisational culture or consumer preferences, numbers alone may not tell the full story.

Quantitative methods, in contrast, deal with numbers and measurements and answer “how much” or “how many” questions. Common methods include surveys with closed-ended questions, financial ratio analysis, and statistical evaluations of performance metrics. Let’s say you want to discuss the effectiveness of a marketing campaign; sales data before and after it can help provide evidence for your analysis.

Both methods can have their place in your Business Management research. Quantitative data provides solid, measurable evidence. On the flip side, they overlook the human side of business decisions. Qualitative data can offer the insights you’re lacking. Together, these methods create a fuller picture.

10. Gain feedback from your EE supervisor

As you know, you will have a minimum of three meetings with your EE supervisor. Their purpose is to guide you in the right direction and help you avoid wrong turns. An experienced supervisor has seen hundreds of Extended Essays, meaning they can easily spot the potential for a top mark or flaws that may prevent you from achieving it. For this reason, their feedback is one of the most powerful resources.

The first session with your EE supervisor is typically about your topic and research question. They should be able to pinpoint if you are targeting an area that is too broad or too narrow, or if your research question requires refinement. At this stage, you should also have your outline – make sure to provide it for review as well. If your supervisor deems it necessary to introduce any key changes, don’t ignore their suggestions. Otherwise, you might face the need for a major overhaul later, when you have already invested a lot of your time and effort.

The second meeting typically takes place after you submit your first draft. At this stage, your supervisor receives a detailed picture of what you investigated and how. If they notice any major flaws (such as weak evidence, poor source choice, lack of critical thinking, etc.), you must address them thoroughly in your subsequent revisions. Ignoring feedback at this point may result in serious deductions to your final grade.

By the third obligatory session, you shouldn’t leave any suggestions from the supervisor unaddressed. This is your final chance to meet all the EE requirements, including formatting and structure.

When meeting with your supervisor, you shouldn’t just wait till they deliver their feedback. The best way to go is to take a more proactive position, i.e. ask questions about your work. But make sure they are specific. Instead of ‘Is my essay good?’, you can ask ‘Does my analysis of this case study make sense?’ or ‘Is my use of business terminology accurate here?’. This way, you have an opportunity to fix the rough spots that your supervisor may have overlooked.

11. Write a deep reflection

Your IB Business Management journey doesn’t end as soon as you submit the final draft. There is one more writing assignment you need to complete – The Reflections on Planning and Progress Form (RPPF). Its purpose is to show your growth as a student as you gain new experiences through the research process.

The RPPF requires you to write three reflections totalling around 500 words:

Initial Reflection is about your starting point, topic and research question, and early plans;
Interim Reflection should discuss your progress, challenges, any shifts in your methodology, how you selected your sources, etc.
Final Reflection should sum up what you have learned. Additionally, you need to specify your limitations (such as outdated data). Acknowledging these issues proves you understand that the research process isn’t without its flaws.

Apart from this, it is important to show how you could improve your investigation. Using up-to-date data, interviewing decision-makers or stakeholders, gaining access to additional resources, applying a different set of business models for analysis – these are just a few examples of how you can boost your credibility. And don’t forget to specify how exactly these improvements could affect your results.

Common mistakes in the IB Business Management EE and how to avoid them

Such a big piece of research as an Extended Essay is usually riddled with stumbling blocks. They will trip you up and hurt your score if you’re not careful enough. Thankfully, these pitfalls are avoidable when you know where they lie.

Below, we identified five common Business Management Extended Essay mistakes and ways to avoid them:

A vague or overly broad research question. Questions such as ‘Why is the Company’s Marketing Successful?’ are not focused enough to be profoundly answered in 4,000 words. Instead, you need to narrow down your question and make it measurable. Questions starting with ‘To what extent’ or ‘How effectively’ work best. It makes sense to add some time or space frames to focus the scope of your research. So, you can take your initial idea and transform it into this: ‘To what extent has Company X’s digital marketing strategy driven sales growth in 2023–2024?’.
A flawed or unclear methodology. Relying on just a few data sources (especially with questionable value) or picking unsuitable business models will undermine your essay’s credibility. To avoid this issue, try to use a variety of sources and methods. Primary and secondary, theoretical (textbooks or journal publications) and real-world data (case studies and company reports), qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (statistics) methods – a mixture of sources and approaches is the best way to go.
Lack of analysis. It is a mistake to just describe your findings. ‘Company’s sales grew by 10%’ is not exactly the analysis examiners are looking for. You need to actually explain what this figure means. You may attribute it to an effective marketing strategy, but make sure to add evidence to your claims.
Poor structure and lack of coherence. An extended essay that jumps between ideas without clear sections or logical flow will inevitably confuse readers. That’s why a clear plan outlining key sections and, if necessary, subheadings (for instance, for every analytical tool) is a must. Along with this, you need to make sure that each paragraph has a logical flow and is linked back to your research question.
Inconsistent or missing citations. Forgetting to cite sources properly can lead to plagiarism concerns. Potential consequences are not just missed marks but a failed External Essay, without which you can’t obtain your IB diploma. Hence, for every piece of data, images, ideas, and content, you need to cite its source using the format your school recommends.

Of course, there can be more pitfalls than this. Writing more than 4,000 words, misapplying business tools, an overcomplicated, jargon-heavy language, or, vice versa, the lack of proper terminology, neglecting the RPPF – these and many other (luckily, preventable) mistakes can lower your score.

Find a tutor to help you write a strong IB Business Management EE

The process of writing your IB Business Management EE can take months. If, at some point, you get off course, it will take so much effort to get back on track. We’ve seen students who had to start all over again after the first revision round. That’s because they failed to conduct a thorough analysis and support their arguments with evidence. Many students fear this may happen to them as well.

Luckily, this is an avoidable situation. You just need to carefully follow these EE writing tips and the guidance of your supervisor. However, you will only have three sessions with them. Otherwise, you are on your own. But what if we tell you that you can benefit from focused support throughout the entire process?

At TutorsPlus, we pride ourselves on our team of tutors – all of them are certified teachers with vast experience in international schools. Moreover, some of our IB Business Management tutors are also EE supervisors. Who can better explain all the dos and don’ts than a person who has seen dozens of Extended Essays and knows exactly what brings high marks?

We are looking forward to helping you with every aspect of your IB Management Extended Essay. You can reach out to TutorsPlus at +41 22 731 8148 or and get the support you need to succeed.

By Sara Lloyd

Sara has been an education consultant for TutorsPlus for 15 years, and is an expert on international IB education. She is also a parent of two lively children.