ACC8000 Research in Accounting Practice Assignment 1 Solution 2018

This document provides a detailed solution to an assignment on research in accounting, covering topics such as plagiarism, in-text referencing, exploratory, causal, and descriptive research questions, deductive and inductive research approaches, questionnaire design, independent, dependent and control variables, hypothesis testing, treatment and control groups, and meta-analysis. The solution addresses various aspects of research methodology, including the design of effective research questions, the importance of avoiding plagiarism, the appropriate use of in-text referencing, and the application of statistical concepts in research. The document also includes a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of different research designs and the importance of controlling for extraneous variables to ensure the validity of research findings. The assignment solution emphasizes the need for careful consideration of research design and methodology to ensure the reliability and validity of research results.

RESEARCH IN ACCOUNTING
STUDENT ID:
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Question 1
a) Plagiarism constitutes as conduct in which a particular copyright material or idea which
has been produced by someone else is used by an individual without mentioning the
source and thus indicating the material as self. For the following reasons, it is required that
one must avoid plagiarism.
 Provide incentive to individuals and researchers for creating new ideas, research and
knowledge
 Give acknowledgement to the underlying effort put in by the original creator
 Also, expression of ideas through paraphrasing leads to enhanced understanding and
hence fosters learning.
b) The requirement of the in-text referencing arises for highlighting those ideas or content
that have been taken from someone else and also provide credit to the original creator.
Even though a bibliography at the end may acknowledge the various sources, but the in-
text referencing allows the reader to be made aware of the specific material used for
producing specific texts. Also, the verification of the text is also aided since the examiner
or user can actually verify whether the given source does highlight what is mentioned in
the text. Besides, in text referencing also provides option to the examiner or user to study
about a particular aspect in detail by referring to the source.
c) I) As per Done (2018, p.7), the experience of studying in a university is comparable to
attending a smorgasbord restaurant.
ii) “To have a good experience at a smorgasbord restaurant, you need to get out of your
chair.” (Done, 2018. p.7)
d) For the given article, the Harvard referencing would be done as follows.
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
Question 2

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a) An appropriate exploratory question based on the given scenario is as follows.
“What are the main issues or problem that the workers encounter on account of new time
keeping system introduction?”
b) An appropriate causal question based on the given scenario is as follows.
“What is the impact of the time spent by workers on the model on the warranty claims
amount?”
c) An appropriate descriptive question based on the given scenario is as follows.
“Does the warranty claims encountered for the two models (i.e. Deluxe and Standard)
highlight any significant difference?”
Question 3
In research, deductive approach indicates the approach where the starting reasoning is more
general and then it moves to specific conclusions being drawn. Therefore, premises are used
for deriving the conclusions. The use of this approach is quite common for testing of existing
theories. Also, deductive approach is often used with quantitative research i.e. where there is
data that can be utilised for testing the hypothesis that are derived from an underlying theory.
Also, there is a close association between positivism and deductive approach considering the
tendency to carry out experiments for drawing conclusions (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2015,
p. 69-70).
Inductive approach refers to a methodology where the specific acts as the starting point of the
reasoning which then is used to derive a more general conclusion. Hence, this approach is
more suitable for theory producing rather than testing the same. As a result, the inductive
approach is usually associated with qualitative research which is inclined towards being
exploratory and not descriptive in nature. Inductive approach is closely related to
constructivism which aims to understand the derivation of meanings based on human
experiences. In this, the main objective is to build theory and not to test the same. This
approach has gained immense popularity in the social sciences since deductive approach
based scientific experiments is not of much use in such subjects (Flick, 2015, p. 83-86).

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Question 4
a) The key issues are as outlined below.
 Since there does not exist a single defined time frame, hence the given choices
cannot be compared. For example, some choices consider frequency of visit in
monthly terms while the others consider the same in weekly terms. Further, there
are certain options that do not refer to any particular time frame and thus are
ambiguous.
 The wording used for the options is inappropriate as these can potentially cause
confusion owing to not being self-explanatory. The use of various phrases (for
instance, several times, very often, few times) seems confusing owing to the
subjective meanings which would lead to a lower reliability. Hence, it makes
sense that the visit frequency should be expressed in numerical terms to avoid any
confusion and thereby allow the respondents to answer the questionnaire with more
clarity and conviction.
b) The question design is not appropriate given the scenario as a mechanism to highlight the
relative frequency for the highlighted reasons for visiting library is missing. The various
options also lack prudent designing thus leading to duplication. This is quite apparent from
the two choices one dealing with books borrowing and other with books returning. If one of
the above happens, then it is logical to conclude that the other happens, and hence it makes
sense to club these two into one choice. Considering that for the given survey, a respondent
may highlight majority of the boxes, the relative importance of the reasons remained
uncaptured. Hence, the relative importance needs to be brought out for the reasons by
allowing the respondent to provide ranks in decreasing frequency to only those options which
are valid.
Question 5
a) Independent Variable – This is the variable which does not depend on other variables. As
a result in various experiments, there is alteration of independent variable and the effect on

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the dependent variable is captured. As a result, the independent variable tends to act as the
reason for bringing about change in the dependent variable (Hillier, 2016, p. 37).
b) Dependent Variable – This refers to the variable which tends to be driven by independent
variable. For experiments, this variable is used to measure the outcome when the
independent variable changes. Hence, this highlights the variable which the researcher
tends to measure in the experiments (Flick, 2015, p. 68).
c) Control Variable – This refers to the variable that remains constant in the experiment so as
to allow the researcher to analyse the dependent and independent variable relationship.
Since variations in the control variable can impact the experimental results, hence this
variable is held unchanged so that any effect in the dependent variable is only due to
independent variable related changes. Hence, the control variable during the experiment is
not of primary interest considering it is not altered (Hastie, Tibshirani and Friedman, 2011,
p. 65).
Question 6
a) Gender and ethics education/training (absence or presence) are the two independent
variable deployed in the models. However, one model also uses another independent
variable that highlights the association interaction effect between gender and ethics
education (Wang and Calvano, 2015).
b) For the models used, there are only two dependent variables that are highlighted below
(Wang and Calvano, 2015).
 Moral Judgement
 Personal Ethical Perspectives
c) H1 has indeed been written in the form of a directional hypothesis. This is apparent from
the fact that the hypothesis predicts the same which is being backed by the literature cited
i.e. moral judgement instances tend to be higher for females in comparison with males
(Flick, 2015, p. 109).

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d) H2 is expressed in alternate form which is apparent from the fact that the hypothesis which
captured the researcher’s prediction is true and represents that ethical training to
undergraduate students allow them to make more moral judgements in situations where
ethical dilemmas are involved (Wang and Calvano, 2015).
e) In H3, the interaction word refers to the fact that the simultaneous acting of the two
independent variables in the form of gender and ethics training tends to produce results
which deviate from the total sum of the above mentioned two variables. Therefore, it
becomes obvious that an interaction effect is involved which has been taken into account
(Wang and Calvano, 2015).
f) The treatment and control groups have been used for elimination of the extraneous
variable impact so that the effect of the selected treatment can be measured. For the given
situation, there are multiple sources besides ethics training that can impact the moral
judgement. Thus, the use of control group acts as a reliable reference point for objectively
determining the impact of ethics training (Wang and Calvano, 2015).
g) The participant testing is carried out after the treatment only in case of “post-test only
design”. For the study under consideration, control group and treatment group are used.
Ethics training is provided only to the treatment group and the intervention impact is then
measured by comparing with the control group so as to reveal the ethics training impact on
moral judgement.
h) Disadvantages of using a post-test design (Flick 2015, p. 125-127)
 There is the possibility of drop out for participants and the associated chance cannot
be determined.
 There may be compromise of external validity considering that complete isolation of
treatment and control group is not there.
 Since there is a possibility of the treatment and control group not being equivalent,
hence assignment bias may be present.
i) A potential problem that arises from the experiment stretching over several weeks is that
the control group and treatment group participants would not remain isolated and
interactions between these groups may have adverse impact on the validity. Further, over

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time, it is also a concern that equivalence of the two groups may not remain and hence
adversely impact validity. Additionally, there could be potential drop outs leads to further
non-equivalence between the groups and leading to adverse impact on validity.
j) Following are the advantages.
 Availability of a tested measure whose usage is quite easy
 Could potentially result in higher result validity
 Leads to improvement in existing literature and removal of shortcomings of studies
carried out in past
Following are the disadvantages.
 The measure used could potentially be unsuitable in the context applied by the
researcher or for the objective he/she aims to use.
 Use of faulty measure in the past studies could lead to continuation of the same
mistake.
 Since it is a convenient option, hence development of better measures may be
hampered.
k) The following are the control variables (Wang and Calvano, 2015).
 The enrolment status linked to business and society course
 All premeasures were absence thus ensuring that the study objective is known as
otherwise there may be impact on the responses.
l) There is impact of gender on ethical decision making considering that on average females
took more ethical decisions in situations involving ethical dilemmas in comparison to
males. The result is supported by the literature available which highlights that females
tend to have greater empathy in comparison with males. For non-business decision, the
ethics training role has been rather insignificant. However, for business decisions, the
results indicate that higher incidence of ethical decision making is exhibited by males
having ethics training while for the females, there is a decrease in ethical decision making
after receiving the ethics training (Wang and Calvano, 2015).

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m) Meta-analysis is helpful in presenting the results of various studies in a combined form.
The need for meta-analysis emerges as different studies on the same topic may lead to
different interpretations of similar observations. Thus, based on the underlying
consistency in the findings, it makes sense to combine the research data obtained from a
host of studies which may highlight the significance or insignificance of a given treatment.
This tends to improve the study validity owing to existence of a strong support from
relevant empirical studies on the topic of research (Hair et. al. 2015, p.148-150).
References

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Eriksson, P. and Kovalainen, A. (2015) Quantitative methods in business research. 3rd ed.
London: Sage Publications.
Flick, U. (2015) Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research
project. 4th ed. New York: Sage Publications.
Hair, J. F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A. H., Samouel, P., and Page, M. J. (2015) Essentials
of business research methods. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
Hastie, T., Tibshirani, R. and Friedman, J. (2011) The Elements of Statistical Learning. 4th
ed. New York: Springer Publications.
Hillier, F. (2016) Introduction to Operations Research 6th ed. New York: McGraw Hill
Publications.
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