Impact of Accounting Practices on Climatic Changes - CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING ISSUES ACC620

This research proposal aims to investigate the impact of accounting practices on climatic changes. The study will focus on the contemporary accounting issues in ACC620. From the literature review, it could be concluded that company faces failure situation due to certain risk factor. These risks can be created due to changes in climate. These risks could affect the sustainability of an organization in the market. The conceptual model shows that accounting practices such as tracking climate change performance measures/KPIs, Monitoring compliances with climate change policy and regulation, and Carbon footprint calculation have an impact on climatic change. The research method includes mixed research design, probability sampling method, and data collection through primary and secondary sources. The time plan is also provided to complete the research study.

MGT723 Research Project
Assessment Task 1: Research Proposal
Student Name:XXX
Your assigned research topic*: Impact of accounting practices on climatic changes
Draft Research Question:
What is the meaning and concept of accounting practices and climatic changes?
What is the impact of accounting practices on climatic change?
What is the accounting strategy to overcome the climatic changes?
Title: CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING ISSUES ACC620
Submission Date:XXX
Acknowledgement:
I certify that I have carefully reviewed the university’s academic misconduct policy. I
understand that the source of ideas must be referenced and that quotation marks and a
reference are required when directly quoting anyone else’s words.
* In ACC620 you were assigned to a theoretical perspective (Agency Theory, Stakeholder
Theory, or Legitimacy Theory)
Unless otherwise approved by the course coordinator, all students will be considering the
general issue of the Voluntary Disclosure of Environmental Performance.

Literature Review - Summary
From the literature review, it could be concluded that company faces failure situation due to
certain risk factor. These risks can be created due to changes in climate. These risks could
affect the sustainability of an organization in the market. Agency issue could exist within an
organization because of unaligned shareholder’s goal and manager of the corporation (Eccles,
et. al., 2012). It is required for a business that it complies with the corporate governance to
identify the problem with regards to changes in climate. It is also evaluated that relationship
amid two variables like climatic issue and accounting concept could create the organizational
issue (Clark and Crawford, 2012). Further, stakeholders of the company give their more
financial contribution to maintain the ethical environment and long-term sustainability within
an organization. As a result, it aids to deal with the climate changes.
It could be also summarized that if the company accountant focuses on the changes
cautiously then barriers could be overcome and opportunities could be grabbed by the
organization. Further, an accountant can handle the climate change situation by using the
appropriate accounting strategy like performance evaluation and measures accounting
records. Furthermore, management accountant should understand the concern appropriately,
which has created within an organization due to climate changes (Luo, et. al., 2012). As a
result, it would be beneficial to take corrective measure in an organization. The department of
accounting can also determine the ROI with the intention of investing in the project, which is
undertaking for development in climate. Therefore, the benchmark for the company in against
of sustainability could be built within an organization. It could be concluded that company
should make right balance amid the short-term expectation of consumers and investors as
they are the major source of funding (Milne and Gray, 2013). In such circumstances, climatic
changes are depended variable and accounting practices are the independent variable, as
accounting practices focus on the rules and regulation executed by the organization. These
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rules and regulation are related with the regulating the climatic changes. It could be also
summarized that involvement of finance professional can control the alteration in climate as
they have the ability to induce the higher authority for the company (Bryant and Davis,
2012). They have also competencies to take more tangible steps for controlling the carbon
emission and other activities, which could persuade the climate changes.
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Carbon footprint calculation
Accounting practices
Tracking climate change performance measures/
Monitoring compliances with climate change policy and regulation
Climatic changes
Conceptual Model:
From the above conceptual model, it could be concluded that there are certain accounting
practices such as tracking climate change performance measures/KPIs, Monitoring
compliances with climate change policy and regulation, and Carbon footprint calculation.
These accounting practices have impact on the climatic change. This model is supported by
the view of Cotter and Najah (2012), as it stated that accounting practice focuses on
measuring technique, the idea of cost saving, low carbon emission to control the changes in
climate. As a result, it could be interpreted that climatic changes are depending on the
accounting practices of an organization.
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Hypotheses
The following hypotheses will be used to accomplish the main aim and objectives of
research:
Hypothesis 1
H0: There is no significant relationship between Carbon footprint calculation of Austra and
climate changes
H1: There is a significant relationship between Carbon footprint calculation of Austra and
climate changes
Hypothesis 2
H0: There is no significant relationship between tracking climate change performance
measures/KPIs of Austra and climate changes
H1: There is a significant relationship between tracking climate change performance
measures/KPIs of Austra and climate changes
Hypothesis 3
H0: There is no significant relationship between Monitoring compliances with climate
change policy and regulation of Austra and climate changes
H1: There is a significant relationship between Monitoring compliances with climate change
policy and regulation of Austra and climate changes
Proxy Measures for Theoretical Constructs
Theoretical
Construct
Proxy measure Dependent (DV),
Independent (IV),
or Control Variable
(CV)
Source
Agency theory Stakeholder
theory
Climatic changes are
dependent variable
(DV) and
Accounting practices
are Independent
variable (IV)
(AghaKouchak, et. al., 2012).
Tracking climate
change
Sustainability
reporting
Climatic changes are
dependent variable
(Cotter and Najah, 2012).
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performance
measures/KPIs
(external) (DV) and
Accounting practices
are Independent
variable (IV)
Carbon footprint
calculation
Monitoring
compliances
with climate
change policy
and regulation
Climatic changes are
dependent variable
(DV) and
Accounting practices
are Independent
variable (IV)
(Bryant and Davis, 2012).
Research Method:
Research philosophy and approach
For this research, positivism research philosophy will be selected due to objective nature of
research issue. It will be also selected to pool the real facts and phenomenon regarding
research concern. This philosophy will be also used to carry out effective research by
gathering the real facts and figures. In addition, the deductive approach will be used to
formulate the hypothesis associated with research concern. After formulating the hypothesis,
the theory will be developed regarding the research issue to accomplish the aim and objective
of the research.
Research design and Type
Mixed research design will be used to attain the aim and objectives of this research. This
method would be chosen as it contains the features of both qualitative and quantitative
research design to collect the data. In this way, qualitative data will be selected via literature
review as well as quantitative data will be chosen by survey through a questionnaire. Further,
qualitative research design would be beneficial to gain the conceptual understanding about
the impact of accounting on climate changes. In addition, quantitative research design will be
selected to gather the quantitative information with regards to research concern. Along with
this, causal research design will be chosen to assess the relationship between two variables
i.e. accounting practices of Austra and climate changes.
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Data collection method
For this research, both primary and secondary data collection method will be used to gather
the information regarding research issue. These methods would be beneficial to reach the
reliable and valid conclusion. In such case, primary data will be collected through survey
through a questionnaire. This method would be beneficial to capture the first-hand
information. Moreover, secondary data will be collected via different sources such as books,
journal articles, and online publications. This secondary information would be beneficial to
pool the authentic information in minimum time.
Sampling process
Probability sampling method will be chosen to select the samples from a large number of
populations on a random basis. Under this sampling method, random sampling method will
be used to provide equal chances to participants. For this research, 2 finance manager and 5
clerks will be selected as a sample size from the finance department of Austra.
Time plan
Time plan is exercised to provide the framework for completing the research study. It
demonstrates the different practices, which will be applied to accomplish the aim and
objectives of research in the particular time period (Taylor, et. al., 2015). The following
research plan would be applied to meet the aim and objectives of research:
Table 1: Time plan for investigation
The following chart demonstrates the pictorial depiction with regards to the action plan. It is
executed to demonstrate how the research activities would be completed systematically. The
given below table depicts the time plan for this investigation:
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Activities that would be applied Days for research completion
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Research topic selection
Construct the aim and objective regarding
research
Data pooling through data collection
methods
Design of survey through questionnaire
Sample selection with appropriate tool
Data assessment and discussion
Final drafting
Submission of report
As per the table, it could be described that collection of facts and figures, and research
findings would take more time as compared to other practices, which would be applied in the
research process.
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References:
AghaKouchak, A., Easterling, D., Hsu, K., Schubert, S., and Sorooshian, S. (Eds.). (2012)
Extremes in a changing climate: detection, analysis, and uncertainty (Vol. 65). USA:
Springer.
Bryant, P., and Davis, C. (2012) Regulated change effects on boards of directors: A look at
agency theory and resource dependency theory, Academy of Strategic Management
Journal, 11(2), P. 125[Online]. Available from
http://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/asmjvol11no22012.pdf#page=9[Accessed on
26th August 2017].
Clark, C. E., and Crawford, E. P. (2012) Influencing climate change policy: The effect of
shareholder pressure and firm environmental performance, Business, and Society, 51(1),
pp. 148-175.
Cotter, J., and Najah, M. M. (2012) Institutional investor influence on global climate change
disclosure practices, Australian journal of management, 37(2), pp. 169-187. [Online].
Available from https://eprints.usq.edu.au/20766/2/Cotter_Najah_USF2011_PV.pdf
[Accessed on 26th August 2017]
Eccles, R. G., Krzus, M. P., Rogers, J., and Serafeim, G. (2012) The need for sector‐specific
Evidence from the CDP Global 500 report, Journal of International Financial Finance,
24(2), pp. 65-71.
Luo, L., Lan, Y. C., and Tang, Q. (2012) Corporate incentives to disclose carbon information:
Management and Accounting, 23(2), pp. 93-120.
Milne, M. J., and Gray, R. (2013) W (h) either ecology? The triple bottom line, the global
reporting initiative, and corporate sustainability reporting, Journal of business ethics,
118(1), pp. 13-29.
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Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., and DeVault, M. (2015) Introduction to qualitative research
methods: A guidebook and resource. UK: John Wiley and Sons.
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Appendix:
Activities that would be applied Days for research completion
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Research topic selection
Construct the aim and objective regarding
research
Data pooling through data collection
methods
Design of survey through questionnaire
Sample selection with an appropriate tool
Data assessment and discussion
Final drafting
Submission of report
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