ACCT5015 Contemporary Issues In Accounting Management Assignment

Subject Code & Title :-  ACCT5015 Contemporary Issues In Accounting Management
Assessment Type :-  Assignment
This Major Assignment aims to take you through the process of preparing a research report.
The skills you develop will help you to gain confidence and facility in using research instruments a better understanding of the disciplinary criteria, and a sense of how scholars use resources for their research. This research assignment is an opportunity for you to develop an ability to synthesize, analyse, and interpret information by using appropriate disciplinary content with the appropriate methodology.
ACCT5015 Contemporary Issues In Accounting Management Assignment

Assignment Background:
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched by the United Nations in 2015. This initiative has drawn considerable attention in practice and research because of the critical importance of sustainable development. With 17 holistic goals and 169 targets the SDG agenda aims to stimulate action in areas that are of critical importance for humanity and the planet including hunger poverty inequality health and well-being clean energy and quality education (United Nations, 2015). There is growing evidence that businesses are embedding the relevant SDGs into their business practices to address social and environmental impacts.

PwC (2022) in its recent survey reported that global investors consider social and environmental related outcomes such as effective corporate governance and greenhouse gas emissions reduction among their top five priorities for businesses to deliver.

Despite the growing focus on the sustainability performance of companies 81% of the investors are willing to accept only a 1 percentage point or smaller reduction in returns to advance ESG objectives that are relevant to the business as well as are capable of generating a positive impact on society (PwC, 2022).

More over the survey reported that a number of investors were especially unyielding and would not accept any decline in returns at all. Although a consensus has emerged in recent years that sustainability issues are crucially important for the corporate world such findings raise an ethical dilemma for companies in particular what should companies do about investors who won’t accept lower returns to further sustainability goals?

ACCT5015 Contemporary Issues In Accounting Management Assignment

Assignment Task Description
The accounting firm for which you work (this is just a pretend, most students are not currently working for an accounting firm, use your imagination to make up a name and research report template for your accounting firm has been approached by a client, who intends to adopt and report on United Nation’s SDGs given the critical importance of sustainability issues. However after reading the PwC report (2022), the client is facing an ethical dilemma as to whether or not to adopt the SDGs. Therefore the client has asked your accounting firm to prepare a research report evaluating factors affecting the adoption of SDGs and the current state of SDG reporting practice in the industry.

Note: Please assume that your client operates in an environmentally sensitive industry where the demand for sustainability information is high however have never reported on sustainability issues. Please use your imagination for the client’s industry, name and relevant sustainability issues.

Your task is to prepare a research report to address the issues raised by the client including:
1. With reference to existing academic and professional literature critically analyse whether the SDG agenda constitutes a relevant business and accounting issue.

Consider critically evaluating the merits and demerits of adopting and reporting on SDGs and justify your answer with reference to existing evidence.

2. PwC’s (2022) study refers to CEO’s dilemma, i.e., the choice between committing to sustainability goals and the impact on its return. Explain the ethical dilemma that might be faced by the companies in committing to sustainability goals.

3. To provide insights into the current SDG reporting practices to the client, select any 3 companies in your client’s industry. Download their latest sustainability reports and critically evaluate the nature and extent of reporting on SDGs. Which of the theories considered in Topic 3 best explains the approach taken in the 3 companies selected? Justify your answer with reference to the disclosures made and extant academic literature.

4.Identify relevant SDGs for your client and justify their relevance. Who are the key stakeholders for these SDGs? Are their interests aligned or in conflict? Explain.

5. What are the practical and ethical challenges associated with the adoption of SDGs by businesses? Who will encounter these challenges? How do you think these challenges could be over come?

ACCT5015 Contemporary Issues In Accounting Management Assignment

Your submission concerning this assessment should take the form of a formal report.

Thus the research report should include:
• A cover or title page.
• An executive summary.
• A table of contents.
• A formal introduction.
• The main section is broken down into numbered sections and sub-sections.
• Conclusion with recommendations if appropriate.
• Reference list.
• Appendices (if relevant)

ACCT5015 Contemporary Issues In Accounting Management Assignment

Guidance:
• Your final report should be 3,000 words in length excluding the cover page executive summary table of contents reference list and appendices.
• Referencing is essential. Your research report must be correctly referenced using the APA Referencing style. Failure to adhere to this requirement may result in the assignment being referred to the Academic Integrity Officer for investigation and possible penalties being incurred.
• The assignment must be written in your own words. Remember that changing a few words does not make a quote a paraphrase or “in your own words”. It is still a quote and must have quotation marks ‘‘around it and an in-text reference.

If you do manage to summarise or paraphrase ideas from somewhere it does not need quotation marks but it must still have an in-text reference as it is not your idea