ACC620 Research Proposal: Analyzing Factors in Carbon Reduction Firms

This ACC620 research proposal investigates the factors influencing carbon emission reduction in firms, addressing the question of why some firms achieve greater carbon reductions than others. It highlights the practical motivation of reducing the negative impact of increased carbon emissions on health and the environment, along with the theoretical motivation of contributing to existing research and applying stakeholder theory. The literature review examines the impact of carbon regulations, corporate social responsibility, carbon pricing mechanisms, and risk management procedures on carbon emission. The proposal presents a conceptual framework linking internal prices, climate change responsibility, risk management, incentives, and regulations to carbon emission reduction, and formulates hypotheses to test these relationships. The research utilizes a secondary research approach to explore these factors and their potential for helping organizations meet carbon reduction targets.

ACC620 Contemporary Issues in Accounting
Semester 2 2018
Research Proposal
Student Name:
Title:
Submission Date:
(Note that the due date is Friday Week 6, 5pm via SafeAssign)
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.
1

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Practical Motivation...................................................................................................................3
Theoretical Motivation...............................................................................................................3
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................4
Hypotheses.................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................7
Appendix....................................................................................................................................9
2

Introduction
Clearly and concisely define your issue. Capture the reader’s attention, why is the research
and the theoretical basis that you have adopted important. Work on the introduction every
week but complete it last.
This research focuses on the carbon footprints or the total emissions that are caused because
of an organization, event or product. (Ologun & Wara, 2014). Carbon foot prints are
expressed equivalent to carbon do oxide. Footprints of an organization will help in
understanding the major sources of carbon or the factors that lead to higher carbon emission.
This research will focus on the question "Why have some firms achieved greater carbon
reductions than others". This research will focus on determining the factors that will help
some firms in achieving the target of reducing their overall carbon emission. A secondary
research will be conducted for determining the ways that can help in reducing the carbon
emission.
Practical Motivation
One of the major practical motivations of this research is an increase in the level of carbon
footprints along with the negative impact of increased carbon emission on the health and
environment. (Bhautmage et al., 2015)An increase in the carbon foot prints has a significant
impact on temperature, vegetation and climate. In addition the health of people is also
negatively affected with the increase in the carbon emission. There is a need to determine
ways that are helping organizations in reducing their carbon emission.
Theoretical Motivation
There are a number of researches that have been conducted on the impact of increased carbon
emission on the health and environment along with ways that can be adopted to reduce the
3

carbon footprints. This particular research is one of the efforts to fill the gap in the researches
in this area. The research will also focus on one of the important theories given by Dr. F.
Edward Freeman in his book “Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach.” The theory
suggests that stakeholders are the ones who are involved, influenced or affected by the
operations of an organization. The major stakeholders include the customers, employees,
vendors, suppliers etc. According to the theory, the real success of a company is only said to
be achieved when all its stakeholders are satisfied. This research will focus on how the
reduction in carbon emission helps in satisfying the stakeholders of the companies.
(Boubaker et al., 2014).
Literature Review
There are studies that have indicated the use of regulations in organizations regarding the
carbon emission so as to reduce the level of carbon foot prints. For example, Li et al. (2015)
conducted a study on the impact of carbon regulations on the supply chain efforts of reducing
the overall carbon emission. The findings of the authors indicate that there is an urgent need
to reduce the carbon emissions with the help of feasible carbon regulations. The findings of
the study indicated that the carbon regulations will help in lowering the carbon emission. (Li
et al., 2015). Unsworth et al. (2016) conducted a study to determine the responsibility of a
corporation in terms of climate changes. The findings of the study indicated that
organizations are responsible for dealing with the issue of climatic changes by supporting the
regulatory practices (Unsworth et al., 2016). This study indicated that managing the climatic
changes should be involved in the overall business strategy. The study conducted by Allen &
Craig, (2016) indicates that managing climatic changes is a corporate social responsibility of
an organization rather than just a voluntary luxury. The findings of the study also stated that
4

organizations that have made climate management a CSR strategy are helping in reducing the
overall emission along with improving the company’s image.
Tang and Demeritt (2017) also conducted a study on Climate Change and Mandatory Carbon
Reporting. The findings of the study indicate that climatic threats are the major threats to
organizations because of the increase in the carbon footprints. Carbon reporting influences
the overall business performance along with the reducing the carbon emissions. The
disclosure requirements also help in improving the social responsibility and the
environmental performance (Tang & Demeritt, 2018).
Liu et al. (2018) conducted a study on the impact of carbon pricing mechanism as a
controlling measure. The findings of the study indicated that carbon prices are one of the
effective ways that can help in reducing the carbon emission. The authors indicated that the
carbon prices should be increased with the carbon emission (Liu et al., 2018). Kumarasiri and
Jubb (2016) also conducted a study on risk management of the carbon emission. The findings
of the study indicated that regulations have an impact on the level of carbon emissions. The
study further indicates that merely following the disclosure compliance is not enough for
reducing the carbon emission. For this purpose the authors have also highlighted the use of
accounting professionals and accounting techniques (Kumarasiri & Jubb, 2016).
Another major study conducted in the area of reducing the carbon emissions is the study
conducted by Demertzidis et al. (2016). The authors indicated that traditional risk
management focuses on the financial risks and their impact on the overall value of the asset
portfolio. The traditional risk management however fails to cover major change risks. The
author supports the notion that risk management of the climatic risks such as reputational
risks and physical risks can help in reducing the carbon emissions in organizations
(Demertzidis et al., 2015).
5

Carbon emission
reduction
Responsibility of
climate change
Risk management
procedures
Internal prices
Regulations
Incentives
The study conducted by Lundqvist and Kasa (2016) indicated that one way to reduce the
carbon emission is to place a fee or price on the carbon emission. The fees on carbon
emission will be an economic incentive that will encourage people to reduce the overall
emission of carbon. An increase in the fees for carbon emission will encourage organizations
to adopt and invest in sustainable energy technologies. The short term incentives such as
dividends can also help in reducing the carbon emission (Lundqvist & Kasa, 2017). Similarly
the findings of the study conducted by Gramkow et al. (2017) indicated that the use of
incentives and fiscal policies in the developing countries will have a significant impact on
lowering of the carbon emission. Lubchenco et al. (2016) also indicated that incentivesand
norms can help in reducing the carbon emission. The above literature review has provided a
view on the factors and steps that can help in reducing the carbon emissions in an
organization.
Conceptual framework
6

The above conceptual framework indicates the dependent and independent variables of the
study. The dependent variable of the study is Carbon emission reduction that is positively
related with the independent variables of the study such as – internal prices, responsibility of
climate change, risk management prices, incentives and regulations.
Hypotheses
The hypotheses developed on the basis of the literature review presented above are given
below:
H1: The responsibility of climate change in the organization helps in reducing the carbon
emission.
H2: Risk management procedures in the organization help in reducing the carbon emission.
H3: Regulations in the organization help in reducing the carbon emission.
H4: Incentives in the organization helps in reducing the carbon emission.
H5: Internal prices in the organization help in reducing the carbon emission.
H5: Risk management procedures in the organization help in reducing the carbon emission.
References
Allen, M.W. & Craig, C.A., 2016. Rethinking corporate social responsibility in the age of
climate change: a communication perspective. International Journal of Corporate Social
Responsibility, 1(1), pp.1-12.
Bhautmage, Tembhurkar, Sable, S. & Adarsh, 2015. Carbon Footprint for Transportation
Activities of An. Journal of Energy, Environment & Carbon Credits, 5(1), pp.9-19.
Boubaker, L., Djebabra, M. & Saadi, S., 2014. Contribution of stakeholder theory in the
management of environmental quality of Algerian firms: Case study of the Sonatrach Group,
Algeria. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 25(3), pp.335-51.
Demertzidis, N. et al., 2015. A benchmarking framework to evaluate business climate change
risks: A practical tool suitable for investors decision-making process. Climate Risk
Management, 10, pp.95-105.
7

Gramkow, Camila & Anger-Kraavi, A., 2017. Could fiscal policies induce green innovation
in developing countries? The case of Brazilian manufacturing sectors. Journal of Climate
Policy, 18(2), pp.246-57.
Kumarasiri, J. & Jubb, C., 2016. Carbon emission risks and management accounting:
Australian evidence. Accounting Research Journal, 29(2), pp.137-53.
Li, X., Shi, D., Li, Y. & Zhen, X., 2015. Impact of Carbon Regulations on the Supply Chain
with Carbon Reduction Effort. In IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics:
Systems.
Liu, Q. et al., 2018. Carbon emission scenarios of China's power sector: Impact of controlling
measures and carbon pricing mechanism. Advances in Climate Change Research, 9(1),
pp.27-33.
Lubchenco, J., Cerny-Chipman, E.B., Reimer, J.N. & Levin, S.A., 2016. The right incentives
enable ocean sustainability successes and provide hope for the future. In Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. USA, 2016.
Lundqvist, L.J. & Kasa, S., 2017. Between national soft regulations and strong economic
incentives: local climate and energy strategies in Sweden. Journal of Environmental Planning
and Management, 60(6), pp.1092-111.
Ologun, O.O. & Wara, S., 2014. Carbon Footprint Evaluation and Reduction as a Climate
Change Mitigation Tool - Case Study of Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Ogun.
International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, 4(1), pp.176-81.
Tang, S. & Demeritt, D., 2018. Climate Change and Mandatory Carbon Reporting: Impacts
on Business Process and Performance. Business Stratgey and the Environament, 27(4),
pp.437-55.
Unsworth, K.L., Russell, S.V. & Davis, M.C., 2016. Is dealing with climate change a
corporation's responsibility? A social contract perspective. Frontiers in psychology, 7,
p.1212.
8

Appendix
Table – Annotated Bibliography for Selected Articles
Author Date Title Journal Type of
Paper
If
empirical
, research
method
and
sample
If
empirical,
dependent
and
independen
t variables
Summary of
contribution
to the research
question
Myria W.
Allen and
Christopher
A. Craig
2016 “Reduction in
Carbon Emissions
Intensity and
Impact on Export
Competitiveness:
Evidence from
Indian
Manufacturing
Firms”
Journal of
Internatio
nal
Commerc
e,
Economic
s and
Policy
Empirical Regressi
on and
correlatio
n
CO2
emissions
intensity
The findings
of study
indicated that
large firms
and capital
intensive
firms achieve
a high level of
decline in
their carbon
emission.
Oluwakore
de
Olakunle
Ologun and
Samuel
Wara
2014 “Carbon Footprint
Evaluation and
Reduction as a
Climate Change
Mitigation Tool -
Case Study of
Federal University
of Agriculture
Abeokuta, Ogun
State, Nigeria”
Internatio
nal
Journal of
Renewabl
e Energy
Research
Theoretica
l
The findings
indicated that
awareness
programs
helped in
reducing the
carbon
emission.
Samuel
Tang and
David
Demeritt
2017 “Climate Change
and Mandatory
Carbon Reporting:
Impacts on
Business Process
and Performance”
Business
Strategy
and the
environme
nt
Empirical Interview
s and
survey
(n=176)
The finding of
the study
indicated that
disclosure
requirements
and incentives
can help in
reducing the
carbon
9

emission.
Kerrie L.
Unsworth,
Sally V.
Russell,
and
Matthew C.
Davis
2016 “Is dealing with
climate change a
corporation’s
responsibility? A
social contract
perspective”
Front
Psycholog
y
Empirical Survey
(n=1066)
The findings
of the study
indicate that
carbon
emission
should be the
responsibility
and business
strategy of an
organization.
Qiang Liu,
Xiao-Qi
Zheng, Xu-
Chen Zhao,
Yi Chen,
and Oleg
Lugovoy
2018 “Carbon emission
scenarios of china's
power sector:
impact of
controlling
measures and
carbon pricing
mechanism”
Advances
in climate
change
research
Empirical The findings
of the study
indicated that
prices on
carbon
emission will
help in
reducing the
carbon
emission.
10