Contemporary Issues in Accounting Research Proposal

This research proposal examines the environmental impact of Coca-Cola Amatil's practices in relation to climate change. It discusses the company's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve sustainability through various initiatives. The proposal outlines the theoretical and practical motivations behind the study, including a literature review that highlights the company's commitment to environmental responsibility. It also presents research questions and hypotheses aimed at understanding the relationship between corporate practices and climate change, ultimately seeking to identify effective strategies for mitigating environmental damage.

Contemporary Issues in Accounting
Research Proposal
Student Name:
Your assigned research question*:
Title:
Submission Date:
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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.
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Introduction:
The scope of the Climate Change Information Request program of CPD is to aim at a reduction
of emission of greenhouse gases by different enterprises (Cotter, 2012). CPD is working in close
collaboration with various companies to minimize the risks associated with climate change. This
includes identifying interested investors and collaborators, collecting the different kinds of
information pertaining to the practices that would have a positive effect on our environment and
processing this information to bring about that change. Under this program, the participating
companies provide responses to the questions designed by CPD through an Online Response
System (ORS). These efforts are especially noticeable in Australia. In particular, the Coca-Cola
Amatil Corporation is working a lot in regard to practices towards positive climate change
(www.ccamatil.com, Coca-Cola Amatil, Retieved on 22nd August 2017). Coca-Cola Amatil
Corporation is an Australian Company that’s bottles products of Coca-Cola along with various
other products. The firm is rigorously discussing its environmental impact with the stakeholders
and implementing practices to alleviate the damage. This report elaborates on the various
measures taken by this company in order to shift its practices towards the betterment of the
environment (Bell, 2009).
Practical Motivation:
The main goal of the Climate Change Information 2015 Request is to gather relevant information
on the practices and steps taken by the enterprise, stakeholders, management and investors. It
also aims to assess the specific motivations behind these practices. Coca-Cola Amatil is
considered one of the largest bottlers of ready-to-drink nonalcoholic beverages in the Asia-
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Pacific region and serves six countries. The Company serves Australia, New Zealand, Fiji,
Samoa, Indonesia and New Guinea. It has its headquarters based in North Sydney, New South
Wales, Australia. This facet of their activities has the scope of getting a bigger image, by
developing innovative and energy efficient processes of product generation. Coca-Cola Amatil
Corporation has been targeted by environmentalists in the past, and they strive to build an image
of being a bottling company that fulfills its environmental duties (Haque, 2010). Participation in
the Climate Change Information 2015 CPD and providing information regarding their practices
for a better environment will definitely pave the way for creating this image. The Company is
into manufacturing of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, Fanta, Deep Spring, Kirks, Lift,
Mother Mount, Franklin Spring Water, Powerade, Nestea, Pump, Sprite, SPC Ardmona
packaged fruit, Sprite Zero, baked beans, spaghetti, canned tomatoes and spreads. Due to
concentrated manufacturing of the facility in the entire region, it is known to cause immense
environmental impact. Regularly it discharges large amounts of pollutants into the air and water.
The company not only makes impact during manufacturing process of the beverage but also
during the distribution process. It follows traditional methods of distribution by way of trucks
and other logistics facility that makes use of fossil fuels that cause environmental impacts. Not
only does it impacts the environment from production facility but also from the distribution of
large quantities of products to nearby regions.
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Theoretical Motivation:
The Earth has witnessed extreme climatic changes over the past few years. Many of these have
been attributed to the fact that industries have not paid heed to sustainable processes, and carried
on with processed that involved an indiscriminate discharge of pollutants in the atmosphere
(Richmond, 2015). At the same time, the release of industrial and chemical waste into the
environment as soil and water has caused major environmental concerns. This has led to a great
deterioration and negative impact on the climate and natural processes. Many environmental
studies are being set up in order to create industrial production standards of utmost order so that
the deterioration can be minimized and positive changes can be brought about. The approaches
that can be successfully implemented by the enterprise constitute the theoretical motivation for
this study (Cotter, 2012). These changes and approaches are vital to manage the climate control
and prevent any further damage. They also serve as guidelines to be adhered to, when
considering a change in policies and practices that affect the environment in a negative way.
Various researchers has pointed out that a positive effect on the environment can be brought
about by filtering pollutants that are discharged into the air and water sources. Further, such
pollutants has an devastating impact on the environment and causes large scale climatic change.
Climate in Australia has been transforming rapidly in the recent years due to increasing amounts
of pollutants that are discharged into the air and water.
Literature Review - Summary
With rapid industrialisation, the new world has witnessed a tremendous scale of damage to the
environment, leading to dramatic climatic changes within a span of few years. Being a leading
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bottling company, Coca-Cola Amatil has been caught up in accusations about environmental
damage and climate deterioration owing to its practices (Borger, 2008). The scope of this
literature review examines pertinent journals sources and articles that will be able to make
positive impact on the study and provide a theoretical framework to the same. It has been in the
list of industries contributing to air pollution and greenhouse emission in Asia-Pacific region. It
is praiseworthy that the company has committed the usage of about 1% of its net profit towards
improvisation of their process that cause environmental damage. This will include changing of
policies and development of sustainable processes for energy generation. Since 2014, the
company has started compensating the carbon footprints by starting a carbon tax (Global
Reporting Initiative, 2009).
Motivation:
Practical
A plausible outcome of changing corporate practices and manufacturing processes
is the direct benefit to the environment and a decline in climate change, that has been a glaring
problem since the past few years (agenda.). Industrial giants like Coca-Cola Amatil have the
power to make a positive change and become an example to other industries by developing
practices that can tackle the issues of climate change. Coca-Cola Amatil has seen a consistent
questioning about these issues in several of its board meetings, involving the concerns of the
stakeholders. As pointed out by K. Beckmann (2012), Keeping a CPD log: RANZCP website or
AMA tracker, or both? In the journal of Australasian Psychiatry, pages 531 to 532 (Beckmann,
2012). This article cite a lot of relevant examples related to governance related processes in
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different corporations, and Coca-Cola Amatil has been featuring in the list of companies that are
constantly trying to change their climatic impact. These attempts include national as well as
international scales. By funding research in the areas related to environmental impact of
corporate practices, the Company is contributing towards creation of positive environmental
impact (www.ccamatil.com, Coca-Cola Amatil CPD , Retrieved on 22nd August 2017).
Theoretical
Literature is replete with examples of different ways by which environmental
implications of corporations and enterprises can be made to have a positive effect, but these
studies have lacked specific measures for the same effect. In particular, the article by M. C.
Fitzpatrick (2008), Climate change, plant migration, and range collapse in a global biodiversity
hotspot: the Banksia (Proteaceae) of Western Australia. In the journal Global Change Biology,
pages 1337 to 1352 (Fitzpatrick, 2008). The article stablishes the dire need of not only reducing
industry-generated damage to the environment, but also to reverse it. Coca-Cola Amatil has
worked on these gaps and is aiming for more rewarding environmental practices, as exemplified
by the two studies, namely, Diagnosing polar ice cap melting due to emissions from Coca-Cola
Amatil Corporation, and Correlation of emission from Coca-Cola Amatil Corporation and the
rise of mean temperature in Asia-Pacific region in the last two decades (AUSTRALIA, 2014).
These studies should effectively point out the various parameters in which industrial load affects
the environment and at the same time, provide counter measures to reduce and reverse the
damage.
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Conflicting previous results
Existing research records have a conflicting bottom-line regarding the possibility
of damage control and reversal by industrial practices. Some studies have focused on energy
generation by non-renewable sources of energy like combustion of fossil fuels and how it has
deteriorated the environment. At the same time, some studies have focused on processes to
garner differing processes for manufacturing, while others have focused on the ways to repair
and reverse the damage done to the environment (Carpenter, 2008). The views that support the
notion that the damage done to the environment by industries is irreversible will be in direct
conflict with the attempts of creating more sustainable practices aimed at repairing the damage.
Assigned Theory
As an information brochure, CPD strives to provide comprehensive data and information
about the efforts being taken by various companies in the area of environmental protection and
control. This information is likely to be the yardstick to measure and monitor the efficacy of such
practices. In the report “Scanning the conservation horizon: a guide to climate change
vulnerability assessment”, K. Jallow(2013) has addressed several weaknesses that need to be
taken care of in order to have progress in desired goals (Jallow, 2013).
Key theoretical constructs
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The dependent variable in the study is the climate change. There are ample
resources that describe the various paramteres and facets of the cause of climatic changes.
Among the top reasons is the indiscriminate discharge of polutants in the air, in the past.
The independent variable in the study is the emission from Coca-Cola Amatile Corporation. The
discharge of pollutants in the air, which has been a major contributor towards environmental
damage and climate change on a global scale.
The study pproposes to identify key corelations and relationship between the Independent
Variable (IV) and the Dependent Variable (DV). While Coca-Cola Amatile is definitely not the
sole reason for the damage done to the environment by discharge of pollutants during its
manufacturing process, it does reflect a major portion of this damage because of its enormity and
magnitude. Data collection from histoorial time points that coincided with major climatic shifts
will give an insight into these imapcts over time.
Another aspect of this study will deal with the effect of Coca-Cola Amatil Corporation practices
on environmental damage over time. Time is another inherent variable that needs to be included
in this study in order to gain comprehensive knowledge about the issue. This part of the study
will also address the instances where harmful chemicals and by-products were indiscriminatel
released in the environment, for example, discharge into nearby water sources.
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Conceptual Model:
Figure 1: Conceptual Model
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Hypotheses
In order to form the research hypothesis , the following Research Questions needs to be
attempted:
Research Question 1: What is the impact of Coca-Coal Amatil’s production on the climate?
Research Question 2: How can the climate change impact be strategized into business
objectives?
Research Question 3: What ways can the business prioritise risks and opportunities identified?
The Null Hypothesis (H0) of the study will assume that there will be no significant change on the
dependent variable (climate change, in this study) by changing the independent variable
Emissions from Coca-Cola Amatil, in this study.
The Alternate Hypothesis (H1) of the study will assume that changes in the independent variable
will bring about changes in the dependent variable.
The aim of the study will be to reject the H0 and validate the H1 by means of scientifically
designed analysis and deductions.
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Proxy Measures for Theoretical Constructs
Theoretical
Construct
Proxy measure Dependent (DV),
Independent (IV),
or Control
Variable (CV)
Source
Impact on Polar
Ice Cap Melting
Rising sea-levels,
reducing ice in
Antarctic region
DV-Polar Cap
Melting
IV-Emissions from
Coca-Cola Amatil
Coca-Cola Amatil CPD data
Rising
temperature near
Texas region
Temperature
measures
DV-Temperature
Records
IV-Emissions from
Coca-Cola Amatil
Scientific data measures and
collection
Research Method
The importance of adopting the correct research method is crucial for any study. This ensures tat
the conclusion arrived at is a true and complete answer to the central question of the study.
Choosing the pertinent research methodology will encompass establishment of theoretical
framework with clear specofcation of data colleciton tools such that conclusive findings are
deduced. The explorative method seems to be a good fit for this study. The method relies on data
collection, inclusive of processes and thoughts. This will allow an integration of theoretical and
practical concepts. Inductive reasoning will also have to be adopted as an integral part of the stdy
because the data collected will be largely a reflection of second party’s perceptions. The data
collected will comprise both qualitative and quantitative components in the form of website
articles, documentaries, journals, magazines etc. Accordingly, analysis techniques pertaining to
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