Question 1

The Accounting Standard AASB 138 Intangible Assets requires Australian companies to expense research expenditure instead of treating it as an asset.

Required

a) Construct three hypotheses based on each of the three major components of Positive Accounting Theory to predict which companies are more likely to prefer to recognise research expenditure as an asset, rather than being required to treat the related expenditure as an expense.

b) Suggest how a researcher might test these hypotheses.