Purpose: The purpose of this assessment is designed to allow students to develop the expertise necessary to formulate practical and usable research questions to resolve business problems and add to business knowledge. This assessment relates to learning outcomes a, c and d.

Value: 15% Due Date: Week 5 – 11:59 pm Saturday of Week 5. Submission: Upload a soft copy to Moodle and Turnitin via Moodle links Topic: Research plan

Task Details: This research plan will set a basis for the remaining assessment (assessments 3 and 4). Following consultation with the lecturer or tutor, you should identify problem which may be answered by research (you will be guided towards a suitable research problem/question in tutorial during week 2 to week 5 (inclusive).

Given the importance of relevance to Accounting in BUS707, please note that the research topics must be accounting-based topics. Some of the initial suggestions for the topics are:

• Analysis of significant project in the students’ work experiences, such as:

-Accounting standards

-Accounting regulation in Australia

-Accounting and/or Auditing ethics

-Use of financial rations in corporate accounting

-Multidimensional performance assessment, for example, using the balanced scorecard to evaluate performance on financial and non-financial bases

• The effect of accounting information and auditing on the design of organisation, and on the ensuing behaviour of individuals and groups.

• Accountants and/or auditors’ responsibilities and contributions toward corporate governance
• Application of accounting and economic research to a specific business problem i.e sustainability initiative
• Forensic Accounting
• Technology implementation in accounting and finance

• Innovation in accounting and its impact to business
• Impact of organizational culture on the procedure and technique of accounting
• Research-based on cases reported by the courts, ASIC, APRA, ASC

Note: Topics may also be identified from the suggestion for further research from articles published in relevant journals articles. The list of topics above are only initial suggestions and will be refined and expanded in discussion with tutors/research supervisors.

The research plan should be presented in the following structure:

Contents	Length (word counts)
Project title: a brief descriptive summary of the proposed research topic.	Max. 50 words
Research Overview and Justification: a brief summary to justify why the research topic is important to be investigated. You need to provide evidence (theoretical and empirical evidence – from past research).	300 words
Research Questions and Research Objectives – present the research questions and objectives in bullet points.	100 – 150 words
Initial Literature Review: choose 3 articles relevant to your topic and then write 1 short paragraph summary of the articles and link the content back to the research questions.	250 words
Significance/Contribution of the research project: Discuss the important of this research and how it will contribute theoretically and empirically	250 words

Marks out of 15 will be awarded based on how well the following criteria is addressed:

Criteria	% Marks
Research Overview and Justification: provide an understanding of the background of the research in respect to significance and clarity	30%
Research Question and Research Objectives: identify research questions and research objectives relevance to the problem identify in research background.	20%
Initial Literature Review: present a foundation of literature review by choosing three relevant articles and summarise the articles.	30%
Significance of the research: demonstrate the theoretical and managerial contribution of this research.	10%
References and referencing skills: Present the research plan in a professional manner with correct referencing	10%

• Submission Details: Individual Assessment. Word limit: 1,000 words (±10%) (excluding reference list). You need to state the word count of the assessment on the cover page.
• The response should be professional in Arial 10pt or Times New Roman 12pt, single space.
• Harvard (Anglia) style referencing. Submission deadline Week 5 – Sunday by 11.59 pm.
• Softcopy to be uploaded Turnitin via Moodle links.

Note: A full Marking Rubric will be provided below and also available in Moodle.

Marking Rubric Assessment 2: Research Plan – 15%

Criteria	Fail (0 – 49%)	Pass (50 – 64%)	Credit (65 – 74%)	Distinction (75 – 84%)	High Distinction (85 – 100%)
Research Overview and Justification (30 marks)	Research overview is highly unclear and irrelevant with the title of the research.	Research overview is unclear; however, it is relevant with the title of the research, however, no theoretical and empirical justification are	Research overview is clear, and it is relevant with the title of the research, however, it is	Research overview is very clear and relevant with the title of the research. It is also supported by relevant	Research overview is very clear and suitable with faultless and integrated explanation of relevance to the title of the research. It is
Research Question and Research Objectives (20 marks)	Research questions and research objectives are incomplete or insufficiently presented or inappropriate for the topic or vague and too many to cover within	Research questions and research objectives are complete or sufficiently presented and appropriate for the topic, however, there are too many questions to cover within the	Research questions and research objectives are effectively presented, most the questions are relevant with the topic however,	Research questions and research objectives are effectively presented. Most of the questions are relevant with the topic and the number of the questions are reasonable within the	Research questions and research objectives are effectively presented. All of the questions are relevant with the topic and the number of the questions are suitable within the research time constrain
Initial Literature Review (30 marks)	The initial review is not well developed with respect to the effectiveness of the choice of articles and the summary	The initial review is somewhat developed with respect to the effectiveness of the choice of articles and the summary	The initial review is well developed with respect to the effectiveness of the choice of articles and the summary	The initial review is very well developed with respect to the effectiveness of the choice of articles and the summary	The initial review is expertly developed with respect to the effectiveness of the keywords and the choice of articles and the summary
Significance/Contribution of the research (10 marks)	There is no discussion on the significance/ contribution of the research from both managerial and theoretical perspective.	There is discussion on the significance/ contribution of the research however, it is only from either managerial OR theoretical perspective.	There is discussion on the significance/ contribution of the research from both managerial & theoretical perspective and the discussion is reasonable	There is discussion on the significance/ contribution of the research from both managerial & theoretical perspective and the discussion is good	There is discussion on the significance/ contribution of the research from both managerial & theoretical perspective and the discussion is excellent.
Reference and referencing skills (10 marks)	The plan has less than 3 references and they do not meet the minimum requirement (2010 onward peer- reviewed articles) and has no in- text citations	The plan has minimum 3 references but some of them do not meet the minimum requirement (2010 onward peer- reviewed articles) and has less than four in- text citation	The plan has more than 3 references and most them meet the minimum requirement (2010 onward peer- reviewed articles),	The plan has more than references and most them meet the minimum requirement (2010 onward peer- reviewed articles), and most in-text citation are used.	The plan has four references and all of them meet the minimum requirement (2010 onward peer-reviewed articles), and most in- text citation are used.
Total mark out of 100
Assessment mark: / 15	Comment: