Part (c) for 7 marks required an evaluation of the reliability of financial and non-financial data from internal and external sources. This has been a common topic in past examinations and performance in this question was unexpectedly poor.

Many candidates seem unaware of what constitutes internal and external sources and surprisingly many consider audited, financial data to be amongst the least reliable sources. Possibly as a result of these weaknesses, the markers saw numerous answers that discussed only the type of information that both parties to the alliance would need without discussing its reliability.

Future candidates should prepare to focus their answer on the area required in the question, for example, by understanding the difference between performance measurement and management.