Research in Accounting Practice: Plagiarism, Research Questions, Approaches, Variables, and Hypotheses

This article discusses plagiarism, research questions, approaches, variables, and hypotheses in accounting practice. It covers topics such as in-text citations, deductive and inductive approaches, control variables, and the use of prior studies. The article also includes a table of contents and references.

Running head: RESEARCH IN ACCOUNTING PRACTICE
Research in accounting practice
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author note

1RESEARCH IN ACCOUNTING PRACTICE
Table of Contents
Answer 1:...................................................................................................................................2
a..............................................................................................................................................2
b..............................................................................................................................................2
c..............................................................................................................................................2
(i)........................................................................................................................................2
(ii).......................................................................................................................................2
d..............................................................................................................................................3
Answer 2:...................................................................................................................................3
a..............................................................................................................................................3
b..............................................................................................................................................3
c..............................................................................................................................................3
Answer 3:...................................................................................................................................3
Answer 4:...................................................................................................................................4
a..............................................................................................................................................4
b..............................................................................................................................................4
Answer 5:...................................................................................................................................4
a..............................................................................................................................................4
b..............................................................................................................................................5
c..............................................................................................................................................5
Answer 6:...................................................................................................................................5
a..............................................................................................................................................5
b..............................................................................................................................................6
c..............................................................................................................................................6
d..............................................................................................................................................6
e..............................................................................................................................................6
f..............................................................................................................................................7
g..............................................................................................................................................7
h..............................................................................................................................................7
i...............................................................................................................................................8
j...............................................................................................................................................8
k..............................................................................................................................................8
l...............................................................................................................................................8
m.............................................................................................................................................9
References:...........................................................................................................................10

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Answer 1:
a.
Plagiarism is a complex and serious issue in academic writing, which can arise while
writing a report or assignment if a student use thought or ideas of another writer, without
giving deemed acknowledgement (Angélil-Carter 2014). To avoid plagiarism student need to
provide his or her genuine work. While incorporating views of other writer it need to be
represented in his own words and through providing required acknowledgment from where
the idea has been sourced plagiarism can be avoided.
b.
While writing report or assignment a researcher uses various ideas and views of the
previous writers. In-text citations are used to acknowledge the ideas or work of other writer
(Zhao and Strotmann 2016).
c.
(i)
Attending smorgasbord restaurant and university study is almost same where lot of
supportive resources are accessible to the students. However, to succeed in the university life
one need to get out of his chair and look around what is available just like the restaurant
where good food can be availed through roaming around and looking into food on offer
(Done 2018).
(ii)
According to the Done (2018) “one should not be like the person who sits at the table of
restaurant and wonder why hey is hungry”. To succeed in university like one has to roam
around and look for good resource just like restaurant.

3RESEARCH IN ACCOUNTING PRACTICE
d.
Daff, L., De Lange, P. and Jackling, B., 2012. A comparison of generic skills and emotional
intelligence in accounting education. Issues in Accounting Education, 27(3), pp.627-646.
Answer 2:
a.
Exploratory research question:
 Is there any difference between the average number of warranty claim per month for
the deluxe and standard model?
 What is the main problem faced by the workers with the new system?
b.
Causal research question:
o Which of the two model of robotic vacuum cleaner is having increased number of
warranty claims post rise in production?
o What are the major issues that are being faced by the workers with the new system?
c.
Descriptive research question:
 What is the difference between the warranty claim of deluxe and standard model
before and after rising sales?
 What issue of the new system is problematic to the workers?
Answer 3:
Deductive approach of research is aimed to test theory that initiates with hypothesis.
Contrary to this, inductive approach is concerned about fabricating new theory form the
existing data, while considering the results of the previous researches (Sekaran and Bougie

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2016). According to the same resource, deductive approach is based on the positivism that
believes in existence of single truth and on the other hand inductive approach believes in
constructivism that considers reality is subjective to creation of new ideas.
Answer 4:
a.
Fred was aimed to determine how often student visit the library and for this purpose
first question is a suitable one. It is an exploratory research question which has been
performed at early stages of decision making and unstructured in its approach (Neuman
2014). Though the research question is highly ambiguous, yet it can collect the necessary data
for further studies.
b.
In second instance Fred was aimed to find out student’s reason for visiting the library.
However, Fred has asked “what services do you use when you visit the library” that will not
provide desirable answer for the researchable. Researcher was aimed to find the reason for
visiting library and rather asking it through inductive approach Fred chose exploratory
research question, which is highly ambiguous and may not provide desired result (Cheong,
Hallihan and Shu 2014).
Answer 5:
a.
Independent variable:
It is type of variable that can be controlled or changes in a scientific experiment,
which showcase the reason or cause for a conclusion. It is used by the experimenter as the
tool to test the dependent variable of a test and through change in the independent variable

5RESEARCH IN ACCOUNTING PRACTICE
researcher try to assess the level of association between the dependent and independent
variable (Ary et al. 2018).
b.
Dependent variable:
Dependent variable is another variable of the scientific research, which is dependent
upon the other independent variable and other factors. If there is change in the dependent
variable due to change in independent variable, then it can be said that there is level of
association between the two variable (Robson and McCartan 2016). And if not change then it
can be infers that there is not association between the two variables.
c.
Control variable:
It is third type of variable utilized in a scientific experiment. Control variable are
those variable, which does not change throughout the experiment and assessing this is not the
primary focus of the experimenter (Mason 2017). However, utilizing the control variable
researcher ensure ceteris paribus situation during testing and allow the test to assess the level
of association between the dependent and independent variable properly.
Answer 6:
a.
Independent variables:
 Age
 GPA
 Gender
 Business ethics course

6RESEARCH IN ACCOUNTING PRACTICE
b.
Dependent variables:
 Business related ethical decision
 Non business ethical decision
 Personal ethical perspectives
c.
H1 is the directional hypothesis that predict the difference between the views of two
variable of the sample population (Beck and Andrews 2017). The researcher has inferred the
hypothesis from the result of the previous researches and thus it can be stated that it is
directional hypothesis.
d.
According to the null hypothesis theory, if the researcher predicts there is no
relationship between the measured phenomena, then it can be stated as null hypothesis
(Morey et al. 2014). However, if the researcher predict there is relationship between the
variables, then it ought to be alternative hypothesis. Thus, H1 hypothesis has been written in
alternative format because the researcher has depicted that the female undergraduate business
students make moral judgements ethical dilemmas compared to male undergraduate business
student.
e.
According to the researchers, gender has high association with the business ethics
education and in the consecutive hypothesis they have mentioned the same (Wang and
Calvano 2015). As mentioned in the H3a female students who have business ethics training
make moral judgements in ample amount compared to male counterparts. Through the
interaction word, researchers has tried to showcase that the association between the two

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variables depending upon the gender. In the b,c and d hypothesis under H3 utilizing the
interact word, the researchers have highlighted the different perspective of the moral
judgement by the undergraduate students who have business ethics training.
f.
Treatment and control group are integral part of the research work. A control group is
utilized as the baseline measure and it is identical to the other subjects, which are being
examined by the researcher with the hope that is does not get same treatment as the treatment
group receive (Henwood 2014). In the selected research work, the researchers applied the
treatment and control groups to outline the contrast among the business students who does
not have business ethics training that of to those who have received business ethics training.
g.
It is measure of ensuring that a research has a high level of internal validity and it
does not influence the respondents. According to the selected research work, the researchers
has used the “posttest-only” design so as to ensure that there is no premeasures because it can
affect the respondents.
h.
1. One of the major concern of the “posttest-only” researches is that it may reveal the
objective of the study to the respondents and it can influence the views of the
researchers (Wang and Calvano 2015).
2. Secondly the “posttest-only” can affect the social desirability on ethical decisions.
The research is aimed to the gender difference and thus utilizing the posttest-only can
provide misleading information from the respondent.
3. Thirdly “posttest-only” can provide only positive result because the respondents may
guess the objective of the research.

8RESEARCH IN ACCOUNTING PRACTICE
i.
the study showcase interesting outcome form the research, however, due to long time
of research have provided potential problems to the validity of experiment. One of the major
issue that has arisen in front of the researches is the development of the ethical outcomes over
time through development of the moral compass (Wang and Calvano 2015). Though meta-
analysis has highlighted mixed result between the two factors, however in reality they are
closely associated. Next to this the research has failed to consider the role of full-time
instructors, thus it can bring in some amount of variation in the finding of the research.
j.
Advantage of using prior studies:
 Helps the researcher to determine alternative hypothesis
 Aids the researcher to determine the level of association between the different
variables
Disadvantage of using prior studies:
 Over the time results of the prior studies remain same, whereas the real scenario may
get altered
 Validity of the findings over the time of prior researches starts to fall
k.
Control variables:
 GPA
 Age

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l.
According to the finding of the selected research work, there is no direct relation
between the business ethics and gender, however interactive effective between the variables
was significant, which highlights that H3 has been accepted. However, when it comes to the
idealism, then there is significant amount of correlation between the gender and business
ethics (Wang and Calvano 2015).
m.
In case of disagreement with the hypothesis meta-analysis is being used by the researchers. In
order to combine the results of multiple studies so as to enhance the power and better off the
estimates while resolve the issue of uncertainty (Comita et al. 2014).

10RESEARCH IN ACCOUNTING PRACTICE
References:
Angélil-Carter, S., 2014. Stolen language?: Plagiarism in writing. Routledge.
Ary, D., Jacobs, L.C., Irvine, C.K.S. and Walker, D., 2018. Introduction to research in
education. Cengage Learning.
Beck, J. and Andrews, K., 2017. Introduction. In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of
Animal Minds (pp. 1-10). Routledge.
Cheong, H., Hallihan, G. and Shu, L.H., 2014. Understanding analogical reasoning in
biomimetic design: An inductive approach. In Design computing and cognition'12 (pp. 21-
39). Springer, Dordrecht.
Comita, L.S., Queenborough, S.A., Murphy, S.J., Eck, J.L., Xu, K., Krishnadas, M.,
Beckman, N. and Zhu, Y., 2014. Testing predictions of the Janzen–Connell hypothesis: a
meta‐analysis of experimental evidence for distance‐and density‐dependent seed and seedling
survival. Journal of Ecology, 102(4), pp.845-856.
Daff, L., De Lange, P. and Jackling, B., 2012. A comparison of generic skills and emotional
intelligence in accounting education. Issues in Accounting Education, 27(3), pp.627-645.
Done, W., 2018. How to succeed at your studies. Melbourne: Good Books Ltd, p.7.
Henwood, K., 2014. Qualitative research. Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, pp.1611-
1614.
Mason, J., 2017. Qualitative researching. Sage.
Morey, R.D., Rouder, J.N., Verhagen, J. and Wagenmakers, E.J., 2014. Why hypothesis tests
are essential for psychological science: A comment on Cumming. Psychological
science, 25(6), pp.1289-90.
Neuman, L.W., 2014. Social research methods. Pearson Education Limited.
Robson, C. and McCartan, K., 2016. Real world research. John Wiley & Sons.

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Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Wang, L.C. and Calvano, L., 2015. Is business ethics education effective? An analysis of
gender, personal ethical perspectives, and moral judgment. Journal of Business
Ethics, 126(4), pp.591-602.
Zhao, D. and Strotmann, A., 2016. Dimensions and uncertainties of author citation rankings:
Lessons learned from frequency‐weighted in‐text citation counting. Journal of the
Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(3), pp.671-682.