ACC8000 Research in Accounting Practice Assignment 3, Semester 2, 2017: Due 20 October 2017
___________________________________________________________________________________
Weight: 50%, Expected words (excluding references) 2,700 – 3,100
___________________________________________________________________________________
Question 1. Internet Financial Reporting (total 12 marks)
Articles by Mitra et al. (2017) and Kuruppu et al. (2015) both investigated Internet financial reporting in their respective countries.
a. Both papers provide lists, which show the percentage of companies that make different types of disclosures. Along with providing percentages, the Sri Lankan study also provides some statistical tests (table 3, panel B, P. 81). Explain the extra information available to the reader due to the statistical tests documented in table 3.
(4 marks)
b. One study uses a sample, the other study considered the entire population. What are the advantages and disadvantages these two approaches?
(4 marks)
c. Considering your answer to b. above, explain which approach is more appropriate given the purposes of the studies?
(4 marks)
Question 2. Agency theory, stewardship and executive compensation
(total 44 marks)
a. Briefly describe the assumptions of traditional (positive) agency theory.
(5 marks)
b. What influence has agency theory had on the structuring of compensation packages?
(4 marks)
c. What has research shown concerning an employee’s attitude to risk and their desired compensation package?
(4 marks)
d. What findings have academic articles reported concerning the internal problems a company might face if executive compensation is viewed as excessive?
(5 marks)
e. Consider one assumption of agency theory and explain how it has been challenged, citing at least one academic paper.
(4 marks)
f. Discuss two alternative theories to agency theory and explain the deficiencies in agency theory that the alternative theories attempt to overcome.
(10 marks)
g. How have views of stewardship and the reporting that is required for stewardship changed over time?
(8 marks)
Four (4) marks will be allocated based on the appropriateness of your in-text references in your answers to all the requirements for question 2
(4 marks)
Question 3 Research in Auditing (total 46 marks)
a. Read the article by Kangarluie and Aalizadeh (2017) and evaluate the content of the following aspects (sections) of the article. Include in your evaluation, your comments about any issues where there are inadequacies and what could be done to improve the approach/information provided.
i. introduction and literature
(6 marks)
ii. methodology
(8 marks)
iii. hypotheses
(5 marks)
iv. results
(5 marks)
v. conclusion
(5 marks)
b. Read the article by Adeyemi and Olowookere (2011) and evaluate the, content of the following aspects (sections) of the article. Include in your evaluation, your comments about any issues where there are inadequacies and what could be done to improve the approach/information provided.
i. defining of the population
(4 marks)
ii. validation of research instrument
(5 marks)
iii. How well do be research questions and hypotheses link together?
(2 marks)
iv. Reword the research questions, so that they align with the hypotheses
(6 marks)
Bibliography of references cited above
Adeyemi, SB & Olowookere, JK 2011, 'Stakeholders' perception of audit performance gap in Nigeria', International Journal of Accounting and Financial Reporting, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 152-72.
Kangarluie, S & Aalizadeh, A 2017, 'The expectation gap in auditing', Accounting, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 19-22.
Kuruppu, N, Oyelere, P & Al-Jabri, H 2015, 'Internet financial reporting and disclosure practices of publicly traded corporations: evidence from Sri Lanka', Accounting & Taxation, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 75-91.
Mitra, RK, Hossain, DM & Mazumder, MMM 2017, 'Web-based corporate reporting: an exploratory study on the Bangladeshi companies', Middle East Journal of Business, vol. 12, no.
3, pp. 25-30.