ACC3170 Individual Coursework Assignment I (40% of final mark)

Write an individual essay, which should about 2,000 and should not exceed 2,500 words (excluding
appendices and bibliographies):

Critically evaluate the role of ONE of following mechanisms in corporate governance and firm
performance: 1) Non-executive directors; 2) Executive incentives; 3) Internal Control; and 4)
Institutional Investors. Requirements are as follows:

1) Critically discuss a theoretical framework that you believe represents the most appropriate explicit
framework for the chosen corporate governance mechanism.

2) Briefly describe the key points of those UK regulatory codes of conduct relevant to your chosen topic.

3) Critically evaluate the roles and the effectiveness of the mechanism, drawing on theories, academic
research findings (3 academic papers at a minimum), real life examples (a minimum of one case, news
or/and other sources).

4) Make your own recommendations in terms of how the mechanism could work better.

5) The essay should be well organised and clearly presented.

 Structure your essay with sub-headings, following the exact order of the requirements, adding a
brief introduction and a conclusion.
 Ideas and arguments should be logically laid out.
 References/sources should be properly cited in the text (Harvard style of citation recommended),
with full bibliographies provided at the end of the essay.
 Pay attention to format and overall readability
- Font size Times New Roman 12
- Line space 1
 Your Essay should be about 2,000 words but not more than 2,500 words.

Deadline: Submit your essay in word file (not PDF) via the Turn-it-in link in Assessment Folder by
Monday 8th January 11:55pm.

Feedback:
- One-to-one feedback sessions will be available (after seminar sessions) in Weeks 6-12
- Drafts of CWI can be submitted to Dropbox available on MyLearning page. Please check your
handbook (Learner Planer on pp21-23 of the module Handbook).
- Detailed feedback will be provided on each draft twice only.

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ACC3170 Individual Coursework Assignment
MARKING CRITERIA FOR COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT I
Criteria (Total mark 100%) Mark Comments
(1) Choose and critically evaluate and discuss an appropriate theoretical
framework for the selected corporate governance mechanism (30%)

(2) Briefly describe the background to the creation of the mechanism and
the relevant documents (10%)

(3) Critically evaluate the roles and the effectiveness of the mechanism,
with various supporting evidence (35%)

(4) Present your:

- Concluding remarks Discuss/summarise the key findings and
observations from your examples
- Recommendations Based on your key observations/findings (of
your examples) provide suggestions on how the mechanism could
work better
(10%)

(5)
- Organisation and presentation of the essay; Introduction and conclusion;
(5%)
- Flow of arguments and coherence of the whole essay (5%)
- References to literature and sources of information are properly cited both
in the text and in the bibliographies (5%)

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ACC3170 Individual Coursework Assignment
How to structure your essay (Individual Coursework I)
Cover page
Introduction
Theoretical
perspective/s
(30%)
(2) Choose and critically
evaluate and discuss an
appropriate theoretical
framework for the
selected corporate
governance mechanism.
Background to
regulatory codes (10%)
2. Briefly describe the key
points of those UK
regulatory codes of conduct
relevant to your chosen
topic.
Description of The
roles and effectiveness
of [your chosen topic]
(35%)
Module Name/Code
Your Name and ID
Your chosen CG topic
Must outline scope of your essay
Provide a brief background to your chosen topic in couple of sentences.
Then, include couple of sentences on how you have structured the essay.
Your chosen theoretical framework should include one or maximum two
theories. Your chosen theoretical framework should include one or
maximum two theories. Later on in the essay, where you are evaluate
examples, you have to use (some of) the key assumptions/arguments of
your chosen theories to some aspects of what went wrong in your chosen
examples of corporate failures/distress.
One common theory that is used and is relevant to all cases of corporate
failures and distress is the ‘agency’ theory. The choice of your other theory
should depend on: i. which CG governance topic you have chosen; ii.
whether you can use the key assumptions/arguments of this theory when
evaluating your examples later on.
You can use one theory only (agency theory) as long as long you don’t
miss evaluating some of the key observation/s in your examples later on.
If you choose two theories, you should be able to just why the need for two
theories (i.e. what is it that one theory does not do, hence the reason for
choosing another theory). By doing so, you will be critically evaluating
your chosen theories.
You need to refer to seminal studies (scholarly) references for each theory
Magazine/newspaper articles and publications from professional bodies
will not be accepted nor will sources such as wikipidia, Investopedia.
You should cover those (mainly UK) corporate governance codes that have
covered some of the key aspects of your chosen topic. The key aspects of
each report should be covered in couple or sentences (not more than 3 to 4
sentences.
You are expected to include couple of relevant CG regulatory reports.
Cover each report succinctly and to the point. Avoid giving unnecessary
information. Concentrate only on those relevant reports and those of their
aspects that are relevant to your chosen topics and later on, you can use
when evaluating your examples.
You need to do this section by including a number of aspects: (5%)
a. In one or two paragraphs, you should include a review of three CG
aspects (for example board size, personal attribute of the directors, board
diversity etc) that are relevant to the examples that you have chosen and
will be evaluating later on in this section. For each aspect, you need to
find one recent scholarly reference (please see my video on how to find
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ACC3170 Individual Coursework Assignment
 Critically evaluate the roles
and the effectiveness of the
mechanism, with various
supporting evidence.
Conclusion and
recommendations
(10%)
Make your own
recommendations in terms
of how the mechanism could
work better
References (or
Bibliography)
The remaining 15% is allocated as follows:
 Organisation and presentation of the essay; Introduction and conclusion; (5%)
 Flow of arguments and coherence of the whole essay (5%)
 References to literature and sources of information are properly cited both in the text and in the
bibliographies (5%)
recent scholar articles and how to reference correctly). By RECENT, we
mean no later than 2016/7. Later on, you will use some of the key points
from these article to evaluate your evidence.
For each article, you need to read the abstract, the introduction and
conclusion. Select only key and relevant points that you can use in your
essay (when evaluating your examples). (5%)
b. Evaluation of your chosen examples (Examining examples using the key
arguments from your chosen theory and using some of the scholarly
debates from your chosen scholarly articles are regarded as critical
evaluation of evidence and is the essential part of this section):
i. Say what happened in each case - what the key CG events were that
lead to corporate governance failures or corporate distress. Should be
mainly related to your chose topic, for example, internal control
(max one paragraph). For this, You are allowed to use articles from
national newspapers (The Guardian, The Financial times, The Times,
etc).
ii. Evaluation from your chosen theoretical perspectives (linking some
of the key assumptions and arguments of your chosen theories to
some of the key aspects of your chosen examples). You can
explicitly mention the theory here
iii. Link some the findings of at least three scholarly studies that you
discuss at the beginning of this section (in one or two paragraphs)
with some of the observations from your chosen examples.
iv. How do you link what happened in your chosen examples to UK CG
regulatory codes of conduct (that you discussed in ‘Background to
regulatory codes’ section/paragraph). In other words, which
regulatory codes can you refer to.
(25%)
Concluding remarks:
Discuss/summarise the key findings and observations from your examples
Recommendations: Based on your key observations/findings (of your
examples) provide suggestions on how the mechanism could work better
All the references that you have used the essay should be included in the
bibliography using Harvard referencing style.
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ACC3170 Individual Coursework Assignment
GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1. The module leader reserve the right to invite a student for an oral examination of the final
submission. Each student is expected to be able to discuss and answer questions about all aspects
of the coursework submission and provide all the original sources that have been used for the
submission.

2. The assignment must be prepared in report format (typed and 1.5 spaced on plain A4 paper), so
write succinctly! The above content requirements will form chapters to the report which must also
contain a cover page (with the name of the company, group members’ names and IDs), an Index
and References etc.

3. The coursework must not exceed the word limit. You are not allowed to use tables and charts or
figures for this essay.

4. Refer to all sources correctly. Correct referencing is essential and failure to do so can be treated as
Academic Misconduct (i.e., plagiarism and the work will be referred to the Academic Registry).

5. You must submit the final version of your coursework assignment via turn-it-in by the deadline. A
similarities report will not be made available to students. Instead, students are strongly advised to
make sure that they have correctly referenced all the sources (please see previous point).

6. In case of resits/deferrals, students must get in touch with the module leader to receive feedback on
drafts of their mark and ensure that they submission meets the requirements.

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ACC3170 Individual Coursework Assignment
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ACC3170 Individual Coursework Assignment