1500 words maximum
Case study
Identify an organisation facing a crisis or involved in a public controversy (e.g., an accident, a product safety/health hazard, a scandal, an environmental disaster, or a major structural re-organisation, such as privatisation or demutualisation) and investigate how the organisation reacted to it by means of information releases (e.g., press releases, annual report, corporate social responsibility report, etc.). Use a variety of accounting theories to explain the organisation’s response to the event.
You can use the organisation’s website to download documents issued by the organisation. Please note that Tutorial 6 (Week 8) will deal with issues surrounding case study selection, data collection and analysis.
Structure of assignment
Please follow the structure provided below. Bold numbered items provide the headings and sub-headings for your essay. Bulleted items provide a short description of the type of content expected in each section and sub-section.
IntroductionDiscussion of concepts and theories used to analyse the case [20 marks]The caseContextBackground information about the case [10 marks]DataDescription of corporate disclosure vehicles chosen for analysis (i.e., press releases, annual reports, CSR reports, etc.) [10 marks]MethodologyDiscussion of the categories of analysis used to analyse the corporate texts (e.g., text length, themes, impression management strategies, etc.) [15 marks]FindingsSummary of findings of your analysis [35 marks]ConclusionDiscussion of findings in context of theory and prior literature [10 marks]
Requirements:
This case study count 25% towards your final mark. It has two components:
A group presentation of your case study during Tutorials 7 and 8 (Weeks 9 and 10) which counts 5% towards your final mark. The presentation needs to cover all elements of Section 2 above (i.e., context, data, and methodology). The presentation should be based on 5-6 slides and last for 5-10 minutes.An individual written assignment to be submitted by Friday, 18th December 2015 which counts 20% towards your final mark. Please note that you need to upload an electronic copy on blackboard by Friday, 18th December 2015. Please refer to the Bangor University guide on How to submit a Turnitin assignment guide for students: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/itservices/lt/helpsheets/turnitin/turnitin_guide_students.pdf.
Word limit
The word limit is 1,500 words maximum. The case study should include a list of references containing all the materials you have consulted and cited. References in the references section should be mentioned in the text and vice versa.
