| Unit name | Research methods in accounting |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ACFIM0053 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Morales |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Accounting and Finance - Business School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Why is this unit important?
This unit is going to give you an introduction to qualitative research methods that will be crucial to understand and evaluate the problems you will be faced with in the rest of the units in the programme. As sustainability and accountability challenge established accounting techniques, robust research and real-life cases are useful to understand the limits and possibilities of a variety of practices. Understanding how to assess them and relate them to their social and organisational context is therefore crucial to critically appraise innovations and separate proper sustainability from greenwashing and communication strategies. To that aim, this unit introduces the knowledge and skills required for the undertaking of qualitative research in accounting with a focus on sustainability and accountability, including philosophical, practical and ethical issues. It also introduces qualitative research methods and discusses techniques for analysing and drawing sound inferences from qualitative research. This unit will enable you to gain the ability to critically read and evaluate academic research in sustainability accounting and accountability. There is a focus on application and you will learn how to put in practice the knowledge that you acquire during the lectures.
How does this unit fit within your programme of study?
This unit covers a range of techniques that are essential knowledge to be able to critically read and evaluate research. This unit is essential to all the other units in the programme as well as the dissertation. You will learn various qualitative research methods and discuss how they are applied in various case studies, which will enable you to evaluate the validity of empirical work in published academic papers. More generally, you will learn to assess claims made based on research and draw evidence-based conclusions. As such, the unit will provide you with the skills you need to be able to understand the research literature, choose the most appropriate methods for a given type of problem, and conduct valid analysis when undertaking the investigative part of the dissertations.
An overview of content
This unit begins by introducing the different qualitative research methodologies and methods commonly used in the accounting academic literature. In so doing, it considers the philosophical and ethical issues in qualitative research. Furthermore, the unit considers how qualitative methods can address specific accounting research questions. It then focuses more specifically on questions relating to accountability and sustainability.
The unit will prepare you to be able to tackle a wide range of topics in accounting, accountability and sustainability. This will enable you to get the most out of a range of optional units in TB2 and the dissertation.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
You will gain confidence in both analysing empirical research and criticising the assumptions stated by academic researchers. You will also develop applied problem-solving skills, being able to collect, analyse and critically assess empirical material, as well as discuss the theoretical assumptions made and frameworks used by others to appraise and debate questions of validly, epistemology and paradigmatic incommensurability. More broadly, this unit will foster your critical thinking and analytical problem solving.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of lectures and tutorials. A range of techniques that are essential knowledge to be able to critically read and evaluate qualitative research will be presented in the lectures. In the tutorials, cutting edge research as well as some classics will be discussed. These will include case studies that will enable you to understand and evaluate the empirical work in published academic papers. Overall, the lectures will provide a broad overview of research questions and approaches that will then be applied in more interactive sessions in the tutorials. This will help you develop critical thinking and rigorous analytic skills that are crucial for the dissertation and, beyond the course, highly valued in heavily analytical accounting jobs.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
There will formative assessment that will consist of case studies and self-assessed practice questions.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
This unit will have two forms of summative assessment:
When assessment does not go to plan
If you fail the unit overall at the first attempt you will be expected to resit all the assessments that you were unsuccessful in. Reassessment of the individual coursework will take the form of a research report (2,500 words). Reassessment of the second assessment (30%) will be an individual written discussion of an article (1,000 words), which will require to both reflect on the groupwork experience and to address learning outcomes 1 to 5.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ACFIM0053).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
