BUS707- Applied Business Research

Assessment 2: Research Plan

This assessment is designed to allow students to develop the expertise necessary to formulate practical and usable research questions to resolve business problems and add to business knowledge, taking into consideration existing literature and any ethical considerations. It is the essential start to constructing and justifying a proposal for conducting independent research question. This assessment relates to Learning Outcomes a, c and d

This research plan will set as a basis for Research Proposal in Assessment 4.

Following consultation with the lecturer or tutor, you should identify a problem which may be answered by research – you will be guided towards a suitable research problem in tutorials during weeks 2 – 5 (inclusive).

Task:

Based on the problem identified, you should identify relevant sub-problems, research questions, and provide a brief background to the research question, why it is an issue, and what outcomes the research may produce. Literature review plan & data collection plan.  A brief discussion of any ethical considerations should be included.

Given the importance of relevance to Accounting in BUS707, please note that the research topics must be accounting-based topics. Some of the initial suggestions for the topics are:

?Analysis of significant project in the students’ work experiences, such as:

?Accounting standards

?Accounting regulation in Australia

?Accounting and/or Auditing ethics

?Use of financial rations in corporate accounting

?Multidimensional performance assessment, for example, using the balanced scorecard to evaluate performance on financial and non-financial bases

?The effect of accounting information and auditing on the design of organisation, and on the ensuing behaviour of individuals and groups.

?Accountants and/or auditors’ responsibilities and contributions toward corporate governance

?Application of accounting and economic research to a specific business problem i.e sustainability initiative

?Forensic Accounting

?Technology implementation in accounting and finance

?Innovation in accounting and its impact to business

?Impact of organisational culture on the procedure and technique of accounting

?Research based on cases reported by the courts, ASIC, APRA, ASC 

Note:

?Topics may also be identified from the suggestion for further research from articles published in relevant journal articles

?The list of topics above are only initial suggestions and will be refined and expanded in discussion with tutors/research supervisors.

The research plan should addresses the following information:

1. Suggested research title

2. Partner organisation (if applicable)

3. Underlying research problem

4. Research Objectives

5. Research Questions

6. Literature (source and keywords)

7. Data collection plan

8. Ethical Consideration