Reference no: EM132995012

MPA509 Contemporary Accounting Theory: Research and Practice

Research Report - Question

This assessment aims to develop students' theoretical and research skills in accounting theory and corporate governance as well as their written communication skills. The students individually are fully responsible for the discussion, preparation, composition, and submission of this assignment. Failure by a student to complete and submit will result in receiving a zero (0) mark weighting for this assessment task.

Statement:
"Over the past decades, interest in corporate governance practices has increased as a direct result of highly publicised cases of corporate misconduct and concerns over the management of corporation" (Rankin et al 2018, p.202). It is also viewed that corporate governance suffers from being a multilevel concept which differs between the country (or economic) and individual levels. As such, there is an emergence of corporate governance reforms in various countries, which have created significant implications for auditors and increased responsibilities for accounting professionals. Accordingly, in this assignment students are required to write a research report on corporate governance and related literature. They also need to carry out research regarding corporate governance disclosures on two companies listed in the Australian Stock Exchange.

Requirement:

This Individual Assignment is comprised of two parts:

Part A: Research on critical evaluation the topic of corporate governance (1500 words)

Part B: Research using corporate governance disclosures on ASX listed Companies (max 1000 words)

Assignment Questions:
There are two requirements for this research project.

Part A: writing a research report/literature review on Corporate Governance.
In this part, the research report/literature review is to be written on the role of corporate governance in accounting. Your report/review should demonstrate a wide range of aspects of corporate governance including practices in relation to corporate failure, approaches to corporate governance, roles of ASIC, Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX - USA) and CLERP 9 in Australia, independent director, ethics and integrated reporting and its reflection of international perspectives and developments. You must incorporate academic and professional research including theoretical praxis in your review.

Part B: Research on corporate governance characteristics on the selected two ASX listed companies. In this part, your investigation should cover at least the following research questions:
1. Identify and contrast how the two sample companies disclose their corporate governance strategies, policies, and practices. (i.e., approaches considered)
2. Identify and compute the following corporate governance indicators from the collected/downloaded annual reports for the selected/respective two companies:
a) Total number of directors (i.e., board size).
b) Percentage of non-executive directors.
c) Percentage of independent directors.
d) The name of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and/or Chairman and the summary of his/her statement in the annual reports for the selected companies.
e) Percentage of share hold by the executive directors.
f) Percentage of shares owned by the block-holders and institutional investors.
3. Compare the corporate governance indicators of the selected two companies and discuss the effectiveness, strength, and adequacy of the corporate governance practices and principles adopted by these companies.

Attachment:- Contemporary Accounting Theory.rar