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INFOSYS 306 2022 S1 Individual Assignment
Overview
This assignment is based on the case “Cardagin: Local Mobile Rewards” (Venkatesan 2014).
Cardagin is a mobile app that provides consumers access to the loyalty programs of
merchants that participate in the Cardagin network. In addition to the case provided, you may
also watch the following two videos to understand how Cardagin operates.
The assignment will demonstrate your ability to apply the key concepts/theories of platform
businesses to real situations and to solve real-life challenges faced by the managers of
platform businesses.
Questions
Read the case “Cardagin” and answer the following questions.
1. Discuss the factors that influence merchants to (a) join Cardagin and (b) continuously
use the app (7 points)
2. Discuss the factors that influence consumers to (a) join Cardagin and (b) continuously
use the app (7 points)
3. Describe the network effects on Cardagin (7 points)
4. Which side does Cardagin charge? Comment on the appropriateness of this
monetization strategy. (4 points)
5. Suppose that the budget at Cardagin allows it to only acquire one side, do you
recommend that Cardagin should focus on acquiring more merchants or more
consumers to the platform? Justify your decision. (5 points)
Requirements
1. There is no word/page requirement. Your grade is not determined by the length of the
answers. What matters is the quality. Please refer to Grading and Marking Rubrics for
more details.
2. The Cardagin case does not need to be referenced.
3. No references are expected for this assignment. However, if there are references in
your answers, please use the APA format.
4. The assignment is due on Canvas at 11.59 pm on 8 April 2022.
5. Late submissions will receive a penalty. The penalty will follow the general practice
of the university.
Guidelines
1. Answer the questions directly. Introduction and conclusion are not needed.
2. Your answers to the questions should draw on the information provided by the case,
the knowledge of platform businesses covered in the lectures, and logical thinking and
analysis.
3. Critical thinking and problem-solving abilities are important for all the questions. The
questions also assess different aspects of your learning and ability. Questions 1 and 2
2
focus more on your ability to extract and process information of the case and your
understanding of the general business operations and consumer behaviors. Questions
3-5 focus more on your ability to apply the knowledge of platform businesses to real
situations and make decisions to solve real-world business issues.
Grading and Indicative Marking Rubrics
1. The assignment carries 30 points and is worth 15% of your total course marks.
2. There are no right or wrong answers. Your grades will be determined by
a. Whether you can derive key information from the case;
b. How logical and thoughtful you are in approaching the questions;
c. How well you organize and integrate the information of the case and your own
ideas;
d. Whether your answers are relevant to the questions;
e. Whether there are flaws in your reasoning and justifications;
f. Whether you can consider the issues by having a big picture and without
omitting important information
g. Whether you effectively present your ideas/solutions/arguments in a clear
structure.
Points Performance Evaluation Criteria
(75%~100%)
*30
Excellent • Excellent knowledge and understanding of the case
• Excellent ability to concisely and accurately extract the
essence of the content
• Excellent presentation of own thoughts, opinions and
learnings based on the content
• Clear logic and reasoning with sufficient justification
and argumentation
• Excellent ability to organize and structure the content,
allowing readers to follow the logic easily
• Excellent and professional writing
(50%~74%)
*30
Good • Generally, good knowledge and understanding of the
case, though there are a couple of points missed or less
well developed
• Good ability to extract the essence of the content,
though some points could be further developed and
elaborated
• Good presentation of own thoughts, opinions and
learnings based on the content though some aspects
could be further developed or supported with better
justifications
• Good logic and reasoning with justification and
argumentation, but there are a few logic flaws
• Good ability to organize and structure the content,
though the logic could be further improved
• Overall good writing ability
(25%~49%)
*30
Adequate • Demonstrates adequate knowledge and understanding of
the case, though some important content is missing or
not developed
3
Points Performance Evaluation Criteria
• Only repeat the information in the case but own ideas
are not adequately presented
• Logic and reasoning are unclear. Justification and
argumentation are inadequate
• The content is just presented piecemeal, without
sufficient content organization
• Barely OK writing ability
(0~24%)*30 Poor • Inaccurate knowledge and understanding of the case
• Unsatisfactory summary of the case. Own thoughts and
analysis are missing.
• No content organization and flow
• Writing is hard to follow
