July 6th to August 12th
Modality: RONA
Dr. Alisa Brink
Consider a few examples from accounting research studies that have been conducted recently at VCU:
- Eye-tracking technology was used to study how novice accountants process “dirty” data files that contain errors and poorly organized information.
- Students created word puzzles under differing conditions in a series of experiments investigating the impact of differing monetary incentives and mood states on employee creativity.
- Whistleblowing policies were analyzed using content analysis techniques. Follow-up experiments indicate certain types of language used in these policies can discourage employees’ willingness to blow the whistle.
- Through the Freedom of Information Act, detailed information about faculty salaries was obtained for thousands of individuals working at state-supported universities. Analysis of this data indicates some positive trends in providing reasonable rewards for productivity, but it also reveals some gender-based pay disparities.
- The images included in crowdfunding campaigns were analyzed using a novel machine learning approach to better understand what aspects of images influence crowdfunding investments.
As these examples illustrate, accounting research draws from a wide variety of data sources and utilizes a correspondingly wide array of data analysis methods. This course will provide an overview of accounting research and introduce students to some of these methods.
To gain experience firsthand, students in this course will be involved in the collection and analysis of data in ongoing research projects being conducted at VCU this summer.
Non-Accounting Majors Welcome!Have you ever considered pursuing a PhD in a business discipline?
This course would be appropriate for
any business major who is interested in learning more about the types of research conducted by business faculty. While approached from an accounting perspective, the data analysis methods discussed in this course will generalize to the research conducted in other business disciplines. We will also focus on research topics that appeal to a broad audience (e.g., whistleblowing, creativity research, studying the impact of visual images when combined with financial information).
If you have questions, feel free to reach out to Dr. Alisa Brink: agbrink@vcu.edu 