Module ECOS4011: ACCOUNTING THEORY

Department: Business School (Economics and Finance) [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

ECOS4011: ACCOUNTING THEORY

Tied To

• N401: Management Accounting
• N402: Financial Accounting

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations

Aims

• acquire and demonstrate a specialist knowledge and understanding of the different theories of financial accounting
• appreciate the arguments for and against the existence of accounting regulation
• develop a critical understanding of the rationales for regulation
• understand the relevance to the accounting standard setting process of potential economic and social impacts arising from accounting regulation
• critically assess accounting practices
• understand and critically assess theoretical issues and recent developments in accounting

Content

• The financial reporting environment
• The regulation of financial accounting
• Conceptual framework projects
• Positive accounting theories
• Systems oriented theories
• Social and environmental factors in financial reporting
• Critical perspectives on accounting
• Methodological issues in experimental and market-based accounting research

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students should have a specialist knowledge and critical understanding of:
• Accounting regulation.
• Positivist approaches to accounting theory, including decision theory and agency theory.
• How stakeholders’ perceptions can influence the disclosure policies of an organisation (as represented by systems oriented theories such as legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory and institutional theory).
• Various theoretical perspectives that can explain why organisations might voluntarily elect to provide publicly available information about their social and environmental performance.
• How disclosure (or non-disclosure) of information can be construed to be an important strategy to promote and legitimise particular social orders, and maintain the power and wealth of elites.

• By the end of the module students should be able to:
• Identify, explain and critically evaluate various projects aimed at developing an accounting conceptual framework.
• Appreciate differences in methodological approaches to address research questions.

• Written communication
• Planning, Organisation and Time Management
• Problem-solving and analytical skills
• Computer literacy
• Summarising and critically assessing professional reports, statements and academic articles

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Learning will be facilitated by lectures, seminars and support for private study.
• Formative assessment will be by means of preparation of a written assignment (1,500 words maximum).
• Summative assessment will comprise a written examination to test students’ subject-specific knowledge and understanding, and a written assignment requiring students to undertake a critical evaluation of the different accounting theories and their linkages to different research methodologies.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

Students will receive written comments on a formative written assignment of 1500 words. Additional formative assessment, and feedback, may take a number of forms such as oral feedback on work prepared by students for seminars; answers to questions either discussed during a seminar, or posted on DUO; discussions with teaching staff during consultation hours, or via e-mail.