Assignment Brief The objectives of the course to learn how to read published articles in the field to learn general skills of writing your dissertation to learn how to solve real-life problems in a structural way to learn h

Assignment Brief

• The objectives of the course
  • to learn how to read published articles in the field
  • to learn general skills of writing your dissertation
  • to learn how to solve real-life problems in a structural way
  • to learn how to conduct an independent research

Introduction

• Outline of the course
  • Research process
  • Research proposal and literature review
  • Inductive research and data collection
  • Deductive research and data collection
  • Types of data and descriptive statistics
  • Basics of hypothesis testing
  • Hypothesis testing, a test of association
  • Regression analysis
  • Meta-Analysis
  • Event study in Accounting & Finance

Lecture 1 Research process

• What is research?
• Features of research in Accounting & Finance
• Types of research
• The philosophical issues of research
• From the observed problem to research questions
• The process of conducting research
• Two examples

Lecture 1 Research process

What is research?

To do research is to provide an answer to a question or to find a solution for a practical problem

Management-oriented research vs. academic research

Applied (empirical) research vs. Fundamental  (theoretical) research

Quantitative vs. qualitative research

Lecture 1

Research process

• Features of research in Accounting and finance
• Social sciences
• Multidisciplinary
• Theory-led research vs Problem-centered research
• Practitioner research vs Academic research
• Positive vs Interpretive

Lecture 1

Research process

• Types of research
• Reporting: to present what it is
• Descriptive: to summarize what you observed
• Explanatory: to explain the phenomenon (theory)
• Predictive: to predict what will be

Q: think about an example, you can do research at different levels on the same topic

Lecture 1

Research process

Example: explanatory & predictive research

Productivity = Constant + a₀*Working arrangement +error

Consumption = Constant + a₁*Income + error

From explanatory research to obtain “a”,

From predictive research to forecast the level of consumption next year given the expected income in next year.

Lecture 1

Research process

• The philosophical issues of research
  • The assumption about the nature of social reality

(ontological )

• objectivism
• constructivism (subjective)

• The assumption about the nature of knowledge

(epistemological)

• positivism
• interpretivism

Q: What about the conflict between Economics and Management Science?

Q: Is it possible to combine them?