Dissertation and IS report effort profile

Characteristics of the research workload/ learning process: 
*evolutionary prototyping
* More effort at the early phase of the project

Adv Dip Mgt Accounting lecture 2 Jan 21 2018

Adv Dip Mgt Accounting lecture 2 Jan 21 (Sunday) 2018


1. For a start, a revision of  the "cost object" concept (video); a slide on its basic ideas.

2. The following notes will be covered:

1. Direct vs indirect cost (2 pages); also note the different types of cost assignment.; the concept with regard to product cost (slide).
2. Prime costs and conversion costs (1 page); a diagram for clarification.
3. Specific cost terms - explanation (3 pages)
4. Cost classification (2 pages)
5. Cost classification II (2 pages)
6. Part 2 note on cost driver (3 pages); some ABC examples.
7. Cost behavior calculation examples (2 pages); a closer look at the concept of fixed cost (video), considering the factor of relevant range.
8. Breakeven analysis (6 pages): the formulas;  [a related YouTube video]; breakeven analysis (b) margin of safety (2 pages) [a related YouTube video]; also note breakeven analysis diagram and two examples: example 1; example 2. {Note that breakeven analysis is covered in a slightly broader topic called CVP analysis}.
9. Part 2 exercises on cost terms [Questions and answers]

Some more complicated concepts to consider:
(1) What is avoidable fixed cost (video)?
(2) What are committed and discretionary fixed costs (video)?
(3) Estimate mixed costs with the high-low method (video)?

3. Videos to review in class

• Cost of goods manufactured; a diagram on an example.
• Cost of goods sold; a diagram on its template.
• Some ideas on absorption costing; an illustrative diagram

4. Due to some doc processing errors, a few of the docs will only be distributed to the class on Jan. 21, 2018. The docs can also be found in Facebook subject group.

Correlation analysis - file structure and sample size

Correlation analysis - file structure and sample size consideration - lecture note

Typology of plagiarism and related practices

Typology of plagiarism and related practices

Prepared by Joseph, K.K. Ho Dated: January 15, 2018

Using Ho, J.K.K. 2017. "A survey study of perceptions on the scholar-practitioner notion: The Hong Kong case" Joseph KK Ho e-resources blog December 1 (url address: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2017/12/a-survey-study-of-perceptions-on.html).

Type 1: classical plagiarism: no quotation marks and no citations

E.g.  content coming  from http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2017/12/a-survey-study-of-perceptions-on.html:

Scholar-practitioners are people who are intellectually competent as well as active in pursuing and sharing theoretical knowledge with high practical value to others (Ho, 2014a). For them, scholar-practitioner is their professional identity. Some writers as well as universities that promote their Ph.D. and D.B.A. programmes also specify that scholar-practitioners should hold a doctorate degree (Ho, 2014a). The reason is that these programmes provide vigorous education on research methods and intellectual learning in business management, e.g., Chan (2008), to produce scholar-leaders (Cafolla, 2012). Dwelling on scholar-practitioners in business management, Ho (2014a) points out that, being active in both the academic and business communities creates unique complexity to the career development and work-life balance of scholar-practitioners, e.g., experience of role conflicts. Such complexity facing scholar-practitioners has been studied in the academic literature under four main topics (Ho, 2014a): (i) the profiles and career development patterns of scholar-practitioner, (ii) the role conflicts and professional development challenges, (iii) ways to bridge knowledge-action gap in management, and (iv) formulation of appropriate approaches and contents of business management education. In this regard, a closely related research theme is on the work-life balance management in managerial intellectual learning (Ho, 2014d). 

Type 2: near-plagiarism: Quotation marks added but no citations:

"Scholar-practitioners are people who are intellectually competent as well as active in pursuing and sharing theoretical knowledge with high practical value to others (Ho, 2014a). For them, scholar-practitioner is their professional identity. Some writers as well as universities that promote their Ph.D. and D.B.A. programmes also specify that scholar-practitioners should hold a doctorate degree (Ho, 2014a). The reason is that these programmes provide vigorous education on research methods and intellectual learning in business management, e.g., Chan (2008), to produce scholar-leaders (Cafolla, 2012). Dwelling on scholar-practitioners in business management, Ho (2014a) points out that, being active in both the academic and business communities creates unique complexity to the career development and work-life balance of scholar-practitioners, e.g., experience of role conflicts. Such complexity facing scholar-practitioners has been studied in the academic literature under four main topics (Ho, 2014a): (i) the profiles and career development patterns of scholar-practitioner, (ii) the role conflicts and professional development challenges, (iii) ways to bridge knowledge-action gap in management, and (iv) formulation of appropriate approaches and contents of business management education. In this regard, a closely related research theme is on the work-life balance management in managerial intellectual learning (Ho, 2014d)".

Type 3a: Abuse of quotation I: Quotation marks and citations provided, but the size of the copied content large; a few instances

"Scholar-practitioners are people who are intellectually competent as well as active in pursuing and sharing theoretical knowledge with high practical value to others (Ho, 2014a). For them, scholar-practitioner is their professional identity. Some writers as well as universities that promote their Ph.D. and D.B.A. programmes also specify that scholar-practitioners should hold a doctorate degree (Ho, 2014a). The reason is that these programmes provide vigorous education on research methods and intellectual learning in business management, e.g., Chan (2008), to produce scholar-leaders (Cafolla, 2012). Dwelling on scholar-practitioners in business management, Ho (2014a) points out that, being active in both the academic and business communities creates unique complexity to the career development and work-life balance of scholar-practitioners, e.g., experience of role conflicts. Such complexity facing scholar-practitioners has been studied in the academic literature under four main topics (Ho, 2014a): (i) the profiles and career development patterns of scholar-practitioner, (ii) the role conflicts and professional development challenges, (iii) ways to bridge knowledge-action gap in management, and (iv) formulation of appropriate approaches and contents of business management education. In this regard, a closely related research theme is on the work-life balance management in managerial intellectual learning (Ho, 2014d)" (Ho, 2017).

Type 3b: Abuse of quotation I: Quotation marks and citations provided, but the size of the copied content large; many instances

Implications of plagiarism and related  practice types

Implications	Type 1		Type 2		Type 3
Turnitin report: Coloring of copied content	Yes		No		No
Effect on similarity score of Turnitin	Increase		NIL		NIL
No. of instances	Small	Large	Small	Large	Small	Large
Impact on plagiarism judgement (provisional rating[1]): (0: not serious 5: very serious)	4	5	3	4	2	3

Meaning of citation (re: http://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-citation)

A "citation" is the way you tell your readers that certain material in your work came from another source. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again, including:

• information about the author
• the title of the work
• the name and location of the company that published your copy of the source
• the date your copy was published
• the page numbers of the material you are borrowing

---

[1] Rating on them could be revised from time to time for different institutions

Some examples of interpretation of p-values in hypothesis testing

Some examples of interpretation of p-values in hypothesis testing - as a reference for Independent Study:

Comments on the statistics

x variables	b value and [comments]	p-value and [comments]
Gender (x1)	0.0842 [Gender has slightly positive correlation with the y variable.]	0.5552 (or 27.7620% on each side) [With the critical value of 5% (or 2.5% on each side), the null hypothesis that the b value be zero is not rejected.]
Age group (x2)	-0.0171 [Age group has very weak positive correlation with the y variable.]	0.0591 (or 2.9563% on each side) [With the critical value of 5% (or 2.5% on each side), the null hypothesis that the b value be zero is not rejected.]
Education background (x3)	-0.1401 [Education background has weak negative correlation with the y variable.]	0.22385 (or 11.1925% on each side) [With the critical value of 5% (or 2.5% on each side), the null hypothesis that the b value be zero is not rejected.]
Self-perceived social class (x4)	0.0079 [Self-perceived social class has some negative correlation with the y variable.]	0.9547 (or 47.7361% on each side) [With the critical value of 5% (or 2.5% on each side), the null hypothesis that the b value be zero is not rejected.]
Familiarity with the HKATRP (x5)	-0.1302 [Familiarity with the HKATRP has weak negative correlation with the y variable.]	0.2464 (or 12.3221% on each side) [With the critical value of 5% (or 2.5% on each side), the null hypothesis that the b value be zero is not rejected.]
Confidence in project management competence of AAHK (x6)	0.5169 [Confidence in project management competence of AAHK has some positive correlation with the y variable.]	0.0002 (or 0.012% on each side) [With the critical value of 5% (or 2.5% on each side), the null hypothesis that the b value be zero is rejected.]
Confidence that a satisfactory airspace arrangement will be worked out (x7)	0.2081  [Confidence that a satisfactory airspace arrangement will be worked out has some positive correlation with the y variable.]	0.1382 (or 6.9107% on each side) [With the critical value of 5% (or 2.5% on each side), the null hypothesis that the b value be zero is not rejected.]
Perceived sufficiency of project information released (x8)	0.0346 [Perceived sufficiency of project information released has some positive correlation with the y variable.]	0.8438 (or 42.1908% on each side) [With the critical value of 5% (or 2.5% on each side), the null hypothesis that the b value be zero is not rejected.]

Reference

An article on airport runway survey with multiple-regression analysis

Main items to cover in an Independent Study proposal Jan 2018

Main items to cover in an IS proposal [1,000 words, excluding the contents of "preliminary reference list" and "title of the report"] for Jan 2018

Title that should closely mirror the content of your proposal

1. Introduction containing:

·      Problem or issue that is going to be addressed.

·      What is going to be included and what is going to be excluded (scope of the study)

·      Purpose of the study –who will the research benefit and its unique features.

·      Why you have selected the topic.

·      Research Questions/ Hypotheses.

·      Theoretical perspective

2.  Review of the literature:

·      Indicates the literature base for the work and seminal works.

·      This section may be used to justify the proposed research, e.g. it may identify a gap in the literature

3. The proposed research method

·      Overall research method, e.g. quantitative research on certain secondary data to test certain hypothesis and answer certain research questions

·      Data gathering approach, e.g. secondary data from what data sources, target sample and sample size

·      Data analysis approach, e.g. correlation analysis on secondary data, hypothesis-testing.

·      Ethical and aspect aspects of the research method to be used

4. Action plan

·      A time schedule for the research.

A preliminary reference list

***** As a proposal, it does not have findings, analysis, conclusions and recommendations; this is because the project is still at the planning stage.

Ways to formulate an Accounting and Finance topic

Ways to formulate an Accounting and Finance topic in Independent study:

1. Study academic journals to practice intelligent copying;

2. Formulate a research theme as follows:
a. An evaluation of influencing factors on ___________. (e.g. capital structure, dividend policy, etc) for the __________ sector(s) (e.g. manufacturing, retail sectors, etc)
b. An evaluation of how _________ (e.g. interest rate, exchange rate movement, capital structure) 
affects the financial performance of companies in the ________ industries.
c. An evaluation of how the gender composition of board of directors affect _______  [dividend payout ratio or capital structure] of companies in the __________ industries.
d. A comparison of how ______  (e.g. capital structure) influences ______ (e.g. earning per share) between the manufacturing and banking sectors in Hong Kong.

The chosen topic chiefly reflects the research philosophy of positivism (a related video on research philosophy).


3. Options to consider in the formulation of topics:  
a. company profiles (e.g. family business, large-cap/ small cap companies, established companies, young companies) 
b. board of directors profile, 
c. economic factors, (e.g. interest rate, inflation rate, GDP growth rate, exchange rate movement, commodity price movements)
d. financial ratios (e.g., gearing ratios, liquidity ratios)
e. industry sectors (e.g. banking, property development, etc) , 
f. specific events and programmes (e.g., financial crisis, corporate governance scandals, taxation policy change, CSR programmes, ISO programmes, merger and acquisition).

4. Topic formulation for IS should also take into consideration the following concepts:
a. hypothesis
b. independent and dependent variables
c. correlation analysis
d. literature review that informs (a), (b), (c) discussion.

5. An academic journal article for illustration; another one for illustration.

Ideas systemic diagramming - illustrations

Ideas systemic diagramming in the agile literature review approach (ALRA) - illustrations:


Diagram 1: related to employee turnover

Diagram 2 - related to innovation capability

Diagram 2 (resolution level 0)

Diagram 2.1 (resolution level 1): a lower level systemic diagram on the component of "Innovation capability strategy" in Diagram 2.

The components of Diagram 2.1 consist of ideas gathered from literature review and recorded in study notes on the chosen topics.

The research-practice relevance gap (RPRG) issue in the management field: a brief note

The research-practice relevance gap (RPRG) issue in the management field:  a brief note

Prepared by Joseph, K.K. Ho Dated: January 1, 2018

1. The basic nature of the research-practice relevance gap (RPRG) issue

From the outset, management study, as Vicari (2013) reminds us, was "undoubtedly linked to managerial practices". This is buttressed by the assumption that "using scientific findings is a good thing for managerial problem-solving and decision-making" (Vermeylen, 2014). However, in the management field, there has been a recurring topic on "limited application of research by practice" (Fox and Groesser, 2016). This topic points to the research-practice relevance gap (RPRG). The RPRG issue has been haunting the management field. Specifically, academic research works can be criticised as "difficult, partial and limited in use, fragmented, and unapproachable" (Vanderlinde and van Braak, 2010). In the same vein, Wilkerson (1999) says that research content "frequently does not mirror the things managers do, read, and talk about, and the stilted style of much academic writing is rather foreign to many practitioners more accustomed to reading popular business press books and magazines". In this regard, the nature of the research-practice relevance gap issue (including management research, which is the main focus on this article)  can be viewed from two perspectives:

Firstly, from the practitioners' standpoint, the issue is not simply that "findings from ..... academic .... studies are not useful for practitioners" (Vicari, 2013), but that (i) "academic management research, under scientific pretense, actually diffuses theories that are not only irrelevant but also have a negative effect on good management practices and on society" (Vicari, 2013) and (ii) "scholars have not done enough to assist organizations improve their management practices" (Fox and Groesser, 2016). This is underlined by the observation that "the percentage of managers and consultants who regularly read academic literature is somewhat limited" (Vicari, 2013).

Secondly, from the academic researchers' perspective, the main concern is "how to increase the actual and perceived relevance of their research to managers and practitioners while, at the same time, not sacrificing their work's rigor and breadth" (Wilkerson, 1999).

2. The underling contributing factors to the research-practice relevance gap (RPRG) issue

The nature of the research-practice relevance gap concern is explicated by the following four contributing factors originating from the practitioner and academic worlds:

I. From the practitioner world

a.      Practitioners do not have the skills to use research results (Vanderlinde and van Braak, 2010);

II. From the academic world

b.      Researchers' preferred views on knowledge and theory to be pursued are different from that of practitioners (Vanderlinde and van Braak, 2010). Echoing this observation, Vermeylen (2014) notes that researchers and practitioners "belong to separate discourse communities with very different perspectives and ideologies and these differences impede utilization";

c.       Researchers' priority in allocation of resources and time on research topics and issues is different from that of practitioners (Vanderlinde and van Braak, 2010); for examples, "once research has been published in a prestigious academic journal, its authors move on to the next study" (Vanderlinde and van Braak, 2010) and researchers "handle too few questions of practical relevance" (Vanderlinde and van Braak, 2010). More specifically, "the academic system is also closed, dominated by the mechanism of publishing in high prestige journals demanding theory and facts, which necessarily have a conservative approach, mechanisms of promotion and remuneration based on publishing in high-ranking journals and on the number and quality of citations" (Vicari, 2013);

d.     The production of scientific knowledge, including that in social sciences, e.g., business management, "requires that the researcher’s sole objective is precisely knowledge and nothing else" (Vicari, 2013). However, it contributes to the problem that "research and related curricula are long on theory and rigor but short on information directly applicable to managerial success" (Wilkerson, 1999).

3. Some recommendations to cope with the research-practice relevance gap (RPRG) issue

a.      It has been suggested that researchers should "increase engagement more with practitioners" and "be more proactive in their choices of research topics" (Fox and Groesser, 2016);

b.      For practitioners to conduct applied business research to address real-world management problems, they are advised to be more agile in their literature review practices by adopting the agile literature review approach (ALRA) (Ho, 2018).

References

Fox, S. and S.N. Groesser. 2016. "Reframing the relevance of research to practice" European Management Journal 34: 457-465.

Ho J.K.K. 2018. "On the agile literature review approach for practising managers: a proposal" Systems Research and Behavioral Science Wiley [to be published].

Vanderlinde, R. and J. van Braak. 2010. "The gap between educational research and practice: views of teachers, school leaders, intermediaries and researchers" British Educational Research Journal 36(2) Routledge: 99–316.

Vermeylen, S. 2014. "The Theory–Practice Gap: Redefining Relevance" In A Focused Issue on Building New Competences in Dynamic Environments. Published online: 29: 271-335 [https://doi.org/10.1108/S1744-211720140000007010].

Vicari, S. 2013. "Is the Problem Only Ours? A Question of Relevance in Management Research" European Management Review 10: 173–181.

Vicari, S. 2013. "Is the Problem Only Ours? A Question of Relevance in Management Research" European Management Review 10: 173–181.

Wilkerson, J.M. 1999. "On research relevance, professors’ “real world” experience, and management development: are we closing the gap?" Journal of Management Development 18(7): 598-613 [https://doi.org/10.1108/02621719910284459].