Table of Contents
Online Help on BFA715 Research Project
Task Description
We continue to explore many different types of research being undertaken in practice, and different theoretical perspectives. The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of the need for contemporary accounting research, its theoretical underpinnings, and the research methods used. It is worth 45% of students’ overall grade.
Using the feedback received on their video presentation, students will refine their proposed research project. Students will prepare a written proposal, including expected outcomes of the proposed project.
To prepare to be successful in this assessment, prior to submitting their assignment students should:
- Carefully consider the feedback they have received from various sources, including not only feedback from the marker, but also feedback they have received from their classmates and Lecturer, as well as personal reflections.
- Identify how their proposed research project can be improved, based on the feedback received. Students may even decide that the project pitched in AT2 is not viable, and propose a brand new project for AT3.
- Carefully document their personal reflections on the feedback received, so that this can be comprehensively discussed in their research proposal.
- Refine the research problem, questions, and methods as needed, based on the feedback received.
- Determine what the answer to the research question might be, why that answer is expected, and the implications of that answer.
- Ensure that all claims (apart from personal reflections on feedback) are supported by relevant literature.
Assessment Criteria
Each of the assessment criteria relate to one row in the Assessment Rubric. Ensure you review the different levels from fail to high distinction for each criteria.
- Research Proposal
You will see that the main differences between a CR, DN and HD grade relate to the depth of your discussion:
- For a CR grade you are required to explain, which means ‘to illustrate the meaning of’
- For a DN grade you are required to justify, which means ‘to provide an acceptable explanation for’
- For an HD grade your justification must be comprehensive, which means ‘covering completely or broadly’
Planning and Format
Students will prepare a research proposal for a potential research project, using either Faff’s (2015) Quantitative or Lodhia’s (2019) Qualitative Pitching Template as a guide, depending on the type of research your project will involve (qualitative or quantitative).
You can find the pitching templates, and detailed guidance on how to use them, in the following papers:
A simple template for pitching research (Faff’s Quantitative Pitch)
What about your qualitative cousins? Adapting the pitching template to qualitative research (Lodhia’s Qualitative Pitch)
The proposed research project should be designed to provide a sustainable accounting solution to an accounting research problem in a large-scale organisation. This may be an issue you have identified in the media, from your readings in the unit, or from somewhere else (e.g., your own personal experiences).
- Remember that ‘sustainability’ means different things to different people: it doesn’t just mean environmental sustainability. Therefore, your ‘sustainable accounting solution’ doesn’t have to be restricted to environmental issues. The important thing is that you identify how you are defining sustainability, and how your pitch contributes to a sustainable accounting solution.
Your proposal should follow the headings provided in the pitching templates, with the following minor amendments:
- Please IGNORE the word/page limits in the pitching template
- Please replace the FOR with your STUDENT NUMBER in the heading
- Part C (key papers) should include a MINIMUM of three quality papers, not up to three papers.
- Part ONE must include an additional section headed ‘Incorporation of Feedback’ in which you discuss how you incorporated feedback from your Research Pitch (Assessment Task 2) to improve your Research Proposal.
- Part TWO must include an additional section headed ‘Expected Outcomes’ (followed by ‘What’s New?’)
