Accounting and Finance Research Project Assessment Brief

This module seeks to blend the practical and theoretical aspects of the Accounting and Finance Research Project. In particular, it covers the range of research philosophies, approaches, strategies, choices, techniques and procedures.

There is no Assessment Brief for the Level 6 Accounting and Finance Research Project Module. This Handbook acts as the Assessment Brief for first sit, resubmission and resit.

The project is divided into two assessment submissions:

• Research Project Proposal (submitted Friday Week 10 of Semester 1)

• Research Project (submitted in April, at the end of Semester 2)

3. Teaching contact hours

There are in total 25 teaching contact hours allocated for the Accounting and Finance Research Project. These are delivered through:

Lectures - will provide a broad outline structure for each topic to be covered. Lectures offer a good way of covering a lot of information and, more importantly, of conveying ideas to many people at once. Seminars - will enable students to solve problems within their private study time and present their solution to the seminar group. It will enable students to explore further the topics introduced in the lecture.

Learning sets – will provide students with the opportunity to develop their own research ideas (inspired by lectures and seminar input) in a group environment, thereby allowing peer input and review. Individual supervision – will provide students with the opportunity to work on a one-to-one basis with their allocated supervisor.

Research Project Proposal Learning Outcomes

The Learning Outcomes of the Research Project Proposal are that you will be able to:

• Demonstrate a detailed, critical and research-informed knowledge and understanding of an area of Accounting and/or Finance chosen by the student

• Demonstrate knowledge of synthesis, critical evaluation and critical analysis

• Produce a proposal on an identifiable Accounting and/or Finance research problem based on a feasible research question

• Critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of alternative research designs and how best to execute a basic research project

The grade is provisional until confirmed by the relevant assessment board(s). Your work will be marked in grades rather than percentages. This is considered to deliver the most accurate and fair outcomes for students. Each assessment that you undertake will be assessed using the common grading system. Information about the grading system can be found in your Student Handbook, Section 13.

The Research Proposal should be submitted using the Accounting and Finance Research Proposal Form. This form is downloadable from the Accounting and Finance Project module area in Canvas.

Assessment Submissions

The Accounting and Finance Research Proposal Form is comprised of two sections:

• The Proposal Template

• The Ethical Review Form

You are required to complete both sections; together, these form the Accounting and Finance Research Project Proposal.

The proposal form has a consent form for participant(s) to sign if you are conducting research with individual participants.

If you are conducting research directly with a company, you will need to provide evidence of consent (a signature from a senior manager in the company) to authorise you to carry out your research.

The broad areas students can consider for the generation of a specific topic are:

• Environmental, Social and Sustainability Reporting - costs versus benefits to key stakeholders.

• A three-year financial and business performance evaluation and analysis of an organisation.

• Big Four UK Accounting Firms and the range of services they offer from audit, advisory, tax and consultancy – overlapping of duties and payment of excessive fees has led to conflict of interest and reporting of scandals.

• A critical analysis of current environment tax in the UK, and how it could be improved to ensure sustainable use of the environment.

• The impact of recent tax changes (i.e. Income tax, National Insurance and Corporation tax) on small businesses both self-employed or limited company. The impact of Tax avoidance activity on the UK economy, and corresponding antiavoidance strategies.

• A critical evaluation of additional stamp duty on buy-to-let and the second home ownership market.

• An examination of the impact of Marginal Tax rates on employees’ decisions to work or not to work.

• Reduced and Zero-rating value-added tax items cause the UK Government significant loss of revenue. Should they instead impose a fixed rate value added tax on all purchases in order to collect as much tax as possible and to improve fiscal neutrality? What will the implications of doing so be?

• An analysis and evaluation of the management of an organisation’s short and longterm finance over a three-year period.

Accounting and Finance Research Project Handbook LSBM307 – 2020-21 Page 5

• A critical analysis and evaluation of an organisation and two of its competitors’ dividend policies over a 3-year period.

• Impact of capital structure on a firm’s performance

• Determinants of capital structure

• Impact of dividend policy on a firm’s performance

• Determinants of dividend policy

• Impact of working capital management on a firm’s performance

• Determinants of working capital management

• Impact of corporate governance mechanisms on a firm’s performance

If you have an alternative area in mind for your research (in an area not covered above), please discuss this with your Learning Set tutor or your Course Leader.

This section is a preliminary literature review. You need to identify credible key texts (books, articles, websites) you will be using to support the achievement of your aims and objectives. (+700 words) You need to include texts that present differing points of view/arguments on your topic. Strong academic work presents argument and counterargument and uses critical evaluation to draw conclusions. The Preliminary Literature Review should include texts that:

• Provide a brief historical perspective of your topic

• Show how your project relates to literature in your topic area in general

• Highlight the importance of research in this area/the lack of research in this area

• Can be grouped into authors who hold similar opinions on your topic

• Help define and limit your topic (it is important to be clear about what you are not going to research)

? Methodology

You need to outline the types of research that you intend to do to collect the data (primary and secondary), to explore your research aim and meet your objectives. Key areas you need to consider are:

• Inductive or deductive research

• Primary and/or secondary research

• Quantitative and/or qualitative research

• Data collection methods

o Structured/semi-structured interviews

o Focus groups

o The size of your dataset

• Sampling methodology

• Data analysis

• Presentation of your findings

• Ethical considerations

To show you have addressed any ethical considerations relating to your research, you will need to complete the Ethical Review Form included in the Research Project Proposal form.