First Reflection 

I first had brainstormed the ideas that I had a keen interest in such as the structure of market and companies. After this, I had selected Business Management subject for my EE to research on merger topic, however, I didn’t feel much inclined towards this subject and topic that I was for Economics which is also the subject preferred for my career. Therefore, I further brainstormed the ideas that I had for Economics and ultimately chose to research on the market structure that Millenium market, Surat follows because I was sure I would enjoy learning and gaining knowledge about this topic practically as well as theoretically. However, there were some problems which I faced during the topic selection. The first problem that I encountered was, I didn’t have a clear outline of my topic. Secondly, my RQ and my colleague’s RQ were similar which raised the question of overlapping which could then be problematic when IB examiner monitors. Therefore, to get a clear picture of my topic and resolve the above problems, I used thinking, research and communication skills in order to prepare an outline of my EE which consisted of the resources and methods that I was going to use for my primary (survey and interviews) and secondary research (Economics Textbook).

Second Reflection 

I have finished all my research on the Millennium Market. I know the type of products sold, rough market size of the firms with information about their entry and exit in the Millennium Market. I have a fair idea of the market structure it is following. One challenge I faced during the research was collecting the primary information on market size. The method through which I was doing this, required me to visit the market for 14 days continuously. However, the market is located at a distance of 30 mins from my home. Therefore, I changed my method a bit and included help from the staff members working there to complete the research. One thing I learned during this was the dedication and patience with communication and self-management skills that are required in order to get the right information for the research. Furthermore, my conceptual understanding of economics has developed with the real-life visualization that I saw of the theoretical model of market structure.

Third Reflection 

My hypothesis has been fairly proven by the research undertaken. And, I believe this was due to the amount of information that I was able to gather. Although, I would like to research more on the type of profits the firms gain in the short and long run in order to get a better idea of the market structure, which however was not done due to the lack of time. Also, if I were to use a different methodology for calculating the market share of firms, I would possibly get a different outcome which may then change the conclusion. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed my topic, that if I was further given a chance I would love to research it more.