Accounting for Sustainable Societies (MANBCU301620233V)
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Accounting for Sustainable Societies: Summary of lectures & articles
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Course
Accounting for Sustainable Societies (MANBCU301620233V)
Institution
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
Summary of the course 'Accounting for Sustainable Societies'. This course used to be 'Topics in Business Economics'. Contains contents of all lectures, as well as all the required articles.
Accounting for Sustainable Societies (MANBCU301620233V)
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Accounting for Sustainable Societies
Summary of All Lectures and Required Papers
Radboud University Nijmegen
Yoël Guijt
, Lecture 1 — Introduction
Origin of Accounting Theory:
> Accounting theory relies often on other disciplines (economics, psychology, organ. behavior)
> Agency theory, institutional theory, behavioral accounting theory, contingency theory, etc
A simplistic theory example:
> What constitutes a psychological theory?
> Describes a behavior, it makes predictions about future behaviors, must have evidence
to support the idea, it must be testable
Theory, Hypothesis and more:
> Theory: A formal set of ideas, intended to explain why something happens or exists
> Hypothesis: Idea/explanation of something that is based on a few known facts but has not yet
been proven to be true or correct
> Proposition: Similar to hypothesis, but the link cannot be veri ed by experiment
> Theorem: Rule or principle, especially in mathematics, that can be proven to be true
> Law: Generalized rule, especially in natural sciences, form of mathematical statement
Basic levels of research:
1. Description: Collection and reporting data (observations) and basic statistics
2. Classi cation: Grouping (clustering) of data based on similarities or di erences
3. Explanation: Make sense of the data by attempting to explain relationships (our causality)
Generally concerned with the ‘Why?’
4. Prediction: Provide models that allow testable predictions for (future) events
Some more distinctions:
> Deductive reasoning: From theory to observation
> Inductive reasoning: From observation to theory
Con rmatory:
> Test a priori hypothesis
> Normally based on existing study
> Stringent research restrictions
> Deals with knowns/unknowns
Exploratory:
> Generates a posteriori hypothesis
> Discovers new knowledge
> Less stringent research restrictions
> Deals with unknowns
Accounting+:
> Also for sustainability, Education/Professional
development, Theories/philosophy of accounting, Accounting in the digital age
> There’s more than numbers!
Lecture 2 — Formulating a Research Question and Developing Hypotheses
(Kinney)
The Kinney Three paragraphs:
> What > Why > How
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,The Predictive validity framework:
> Hypotheses: Based on theories, often from literature or earlier research
> Associations and causations
Kinney Three Paragraphs:
> What
> What is the problem? What are you trying to nd out?
> Why
> Why is it important? To whom? Practical or Theoretical importance? Can I help rms,
persons, future researchers, can someone build on what I nd?
> How
> Methodology —> How will it be solved? How will it be done?
Example:
> What: The way management reacts to social media criticism How do investors react?
> Why: We know much about traditional communication channels, but not on social media.
Important for companies reputation on how to react to criticism
> How: Experiment in which participants receive scenario and answer questions about
their perceptions of the rm and their decisions
What: Research Question:
> Should be ‘Clear, focused and concise’
> Minimize misinterpretation, speci c enough to be covered in the paper, not about personal
opinions and you already know the possible answers (for falsi cation/veri cation)
> Manage the scope of the research questions
>> Often not a whole new, hugely creative, paper is expected; only a twist to what is known
> Building on previous knowledge, not creating completely new ones!
Examples:
> What: Digitalization and its in uence on the decision making of management accountants
> Why: Investors, rms, CEOs, etc can be helped with this insight. Is there a gap in the literature?
> How: By which observations, data, etc? Empirical (archival, survey, experiment) or maybe only
theoretical?
— Operationalization Process —
Data:
> Types of Variables:
> Collected variables: Originating from naturally-occurring or human-managed data
> Generated variables: Only available because researchers want it (they made it)
> Types of Settings:
> Uncontrolled set: Setting has other potentially in uential variables besides the ones
being studied
> Controlled set: Setting restricts itself to the study of the variables of interest and not
others
Types of Research:
Types of Validity:
> Internal: Variables are the right ones/you don’t miss anything
> External: The concepts you want to study are logical
> Construct: Variables should be a good measure of your
concept
fi fl fi fi fi fl fi fi fi fi
, Types of Relations:
> Association: A <-> B This is a relation/correlation
> Causation: A -> B or B -> A This is an e ect on the other variables
— Hypotheses / Operationalization Process —
What is a theory?
> A conceptual window to look at the overly complex observable world
> Theories help build a plausible answer to the research questions (hypotheses)
> Theories form our collective body of knowledge
> Help us account for observable phenomena, but they aren’t representative of some objective
truth or reality
> Theories can be accepted without believing its concept are real or true; it is enough that they
are useful in explaining observable phenomena
>>> We prefer theories that can account for more observable phenomena!
Hypotheses:
> We test theories for empirical adequacy between variables (is it the relation we expected)
>>> A good hypothesis is falsi able, meaning that empirical evidence should be able to
contradict it. If your hypothesis can’t be proven wrong, it is not useful!
Moderation:
> MO changes the relationships between A and B
Mediation:
> ME drives/explains the relationships between A and B
Lecture 3 — Methodological and Theoretical Challenges in Qualitative
Research
What is qualitative research?
> A method of inquiry to explore and understand the underlying motivations, attitudes, ad
experiences of individuals or groups. More subjective and aims to provide a deeper
understanding of the social and cultural context
Key characteristics of qualitative research include:
1. Open-ended and exible: Open-ended questions and allows for exibility in data
collection and analysis
2. Contextual and holistic: Seeks to understand phenomena within their natural settings,
taking into accounting the broader context which they occur
3. Subjective and interpretation: Active role in the research process, interpretation of data is
subjective, in uenced by the researchers perspectives
What are the philosophical assumptions?
> How we perceive the world around us; Scholars may adopt themselves with paradigm or adopt
a mixed-methods approach the combines multiple paradigms
> Implicit choices of paradigm in uences the:
> Research Questions // Methodologies // Interpretation of ndings
> Coexistence of paradigms re ect the diverse ways in which researchers seek to understand,
explain and improve accounting practices within the broader socio-economic context
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