A finished DBA-960 Topic 7 firm disguise test example, testing a coatings producer's site description against industry readers and revising attributes, events and role labels until the firm cannot be identified. Searches like "dba 960 topic 7 assignment example", "dba960 topic 7 sample" and "dba-960 topic 7 example" land here.
What a finished DBA-960 Topic 7 firm disguise test looks like
The finished test begins with the site description as first drafted and lists every attribute in it that could point to the firm: headcount, region, product line, market position, a plant expansion covered by the trade press and the chief executive's public remarks on pricing. Each attribute is then judged against the argument. Some are needed, such as the firm's mid-sized scale relative to its customers, and are kept in generalized form. Others, like the expansion, add nothing and are removed. A few nonessential details are altered, with a note in the methods chapter saying so. Participant roles get the same treatment, since the firm has one technical director and a quotation attributed to that title would name her. Two readers from the coatings industry, outside the firm, then attempt to identify it.
How a DBA-960 Topic 7 example is structured
The test runs in five parts. The first reproduces the draft site description and marks each identifying attribute within it. The second is a table assessing each attribute for its necessity to the argument and its power to identify, with a decision beside it: keep, generalize, remove or alter with disclosure. A third part applies the same method to participant roles, merging unique titles into broader groups such as senior technical staff before any quotation is attributed. The fourth part reports the reader test: two industry readers outside the firm, briefed with the firm's permission and bound to confidentiality, attempt identification, and one succeeds from the combination of product line and region, which prompts a second revision and a retest. The last part records the level of description agreed with the firm and states the residual risk that remains for participants.
Every identifying attribute marked
The draft description is read line by line for anything that could point to the firm, including trade press coverage that no internal reader would think of as identifying.
Necessity weighed against identifiability
Each attribute is kept, generalized, removed or altered according to what the argument needs, so disguise never strips out the context the findings depend on.
Unique titles merged into groups
A firm with one technical director cannot quote that title safely, so roles are grouped before any quotation is attributed to a participant.
Industry readers asked to identify
Two readers from the sector, briefed with permission and bound to confidentiality, attempt to name the firm, and a successful identification triggers revision and a second test.
Residual risk stated for participants
The test closes by admitting that no disguise is certain in a small niche and describing what that remaining risk means for the people quoted.
Where marks go in DBA-960 Topic 7
Disguises fail most often because they remove the firm's name and leave everything that identifies it, a regional producer with a stated headcount and product line being recognizable to exactly the sector readers the dissertation is written for. Candidates also lose credit for testing the disguise themselves, since an insider cannot unknow the firm and is the worst judge of what an outsider could infer. Another common gap is attending to the organization and forgetting participants, whose unique titles identify them even when the firm is well hidden. Altered details introduced without disclosure mislead readers about the setting. Some papers overcorrect and generalize the firm until the findings lose the context that made them meaningful. A test that never records what was agreed with the organization leaves the level of description open to dispute after publication.
Get a DBA-960 Topic 7 example written to your instructions
Send the DBA-960 Topic 7 instructions and your classroom rubric. We write a custom structural example to them, showing a site description tested against industry readers, in 24 to 48 hours, and the first one is free. A dissertation is the candidate's own work: we never write chapters for a reader, and your IRB application, site permission letters, committee correspondence and signatures remain yours.
DBA-960 Topic 7 questions, answered
Is removing the company name enough to disguise it?
Rarely. In a concentrated industry, a combination of region, size, product line and a publicized event can single out a firm for people who work in that industry, who are also the dissertation's most likely readers. The example lists every such attribute, decides which the argument needs and generalizes or removes the rest, then asks industry readers outside the firm to attempt an identification.
Can I change details to protect the organization?
Nonessential details can be altered if the methods chapter says that alteration occurred, so readers know the description is not exact. Details the findings depend on should be generalized rather than changed, since altering them would misrepresent the setting. The example alters a few peripheral facts, discloses the practice and keeps the firm's scale relative to its customers because the argument rests on it.
How do I protect participants whose titles are unique?
Group titles before attributing any quotation, so a role held by one person becomes part of a broader category such as senior technical staff. Where even the category is small, consider whether the quotation is needed at all. The example merges roles across the firm and states the residual risk plainly, because in a small niche no disguise is certain.