WHEN STUDENT FIELD CASE RESEARCH GOES AWRY: THE UNDISCOVERED “LANDMARK” FORUM

Abstract

Student field research has become an extremely popular instructional methodology employed both in undergraduate and graduate business programs and may be part of a traditional course or as a separate course of study This paper is a real life disguised case study which documents two MBA graduate students’ attempt to perform field research (a traditional strategic analysis of a firm) in a graduate capstone course.  The firm they select is the Landmark Forum, a privately held firm in the personal development industry. The case documents the problems they encounter obtaining both primary and secondary research for the firm and ends with the students addressing the options available to them to resolve the problem.