How to Find a Strong IB Business Management IA Topic
Choosing the right topic for your IB Business Management Internal Assessment (IA) is one of the most important steps in creating a high-scoring report. A well-chosen IA topic helps you focus your research, apply business tools effectively, and demonstrate critical thinking. This guide explains how to find a strong, researchable IA idea that aligns with IB requirements.
Why Your IA Topic Matters
Your IA topic determines the direction of your entire report. A good topic will:
- Be specific, focused, and manageable within the IA word limit
- Link clearly to a real business decision or issue
- Allow the application of business tools, concepts, and theories
- Enable meaningful analysis and evaluation
Choosing a vague or overly broad topic can make it difficult to meet IB criteria, apply appropriate tools, or provide focused analysis.
How to Find a Strong IA Topic
Focus on a Real Business You Can Research
Select a business or organization that you can access for primary or secondary data. This could be:
- A local business willing to share information
- A company where you can conduct interviews or surveys
- A well-documented public company with accessible reports
Having access to data ensures that your IA is evidence-based and credible.
Identify a Clear Business Decision or Issue
Your IA should center on a decision the business is facing. Examples include:
- Revising pricing to increase profit margins
- Introducing a new product or service
- Expanding into a new market
- Changing operational processes to improve efficiency
A clear decision focus allows you to apply business tools and frameworks meaningfully.
Align with IB Key Concepts
Choose a topic that connects to at least one of IB’s key business concepts:
- Change
- Creativity
- Ethics
- Sustainability
This ensures your IA meets IB expectations and allows deeper analysis.
Apply Business Tools and Theories
Strong topics allow for the application of business tools such as:
- SWOT analysis
- PESTLE analysis
- Break-even analysis
- Decision trees
- Ansoff’s Matrix
- Porter’s Five Forces
Make sure your topic enables the use of at least one or two tools to support your analysis.
Use the SMART Criteria
Good IA topics follow the SMART criteria:
- Specific: Focus on a defined issue or decision
- Measurable: Involve outcomes you can quantify or analyze
- Achievable: Can be completed with available resources and data
- Relevant: Important to the business and linked to course concepts
- Time-bound: Focused on a decision with a clear timeframe
SMART topics help ensure your IA stays focused and manageable.
Examples of Strong IA Topic Ideas
Here are examples of focused, researchable IA ideas:
- Should a local café introduce fair-trade coffee despite higher costs?
- Can a retail business improve profit margins by 10% by revising pricing strategy?
- Should a small tech company outsource customer support to reduce costs?
- How might switching to remote work for 40% of staff impact productivity?
- Should a family-owned restaurant launch food delivery services post-COVID?
These examples center on real decisions and allow the application of business theory.
Top Resources for Generating IA Ideas
There are several reliable resources that provide excellent topic ideas and inspiration:
- Diploma Collective’s IA topic guide explains why certain topics score well and includes examples linked to key concepts like change and ethics.
- TutorChase offers over 60 example IA ideas covering areas like sustainability, digital transformation, and strategy.
- TopicSuggestions.com and Tychr provide broad lists of ideas across marketing, finance, HR, and operations.
- RevisionDojo offers an exclusive Business Management IA library, including topic examples, templates, and exemplar commentaries designed to help you choose a focused, high-scoring IA topic.
Final Tips
When selecting your IA topic:
- Avoid choosing a topic that is too broad or general.
- Make sure you have access to data or stakeholders needed for your research.
- Link your topic to a real business decision rather than a vague area of interest.
- Think carefully about how you will apply business tools and theories to support your analysis.
By using these strategies and exploring high-quality resources like the RevisionDojo IA library, you can identify a strong topic that sets the foundation for a well-developed and high-scoring IB Business Management IA.
