Quiz No.

2
MGT 301 - Research Tools and Techniques
BS (BA)
Total Marks: 15 (5 for each question)

Case 2
Media climate change reporting and environmental disclosure patterns in the low-cost airline
industry in the twenty-first century
Emma was now at the start of her final year of her business and accounting degree. This was a
four-year degree, with a placement year in the third year. Emma had been on placement in the
finance and administration function of a budget airline company. Now, back at university, she
was concerned that The project proposal form was due for submission in three weeks’ time. The
proposal comprised a draft title, outline of the research topic including research question, aims
and objectives, introduction to academic literature including the proposed theoretical base,
research method and consideration of ethical issues, likely timescale and an assessment of the
resources that would be needed. The proposal was the first formally assessed part of the research
project and was the key document that would be used to allocate an appropriate project
supervisor. Emma reflected on her second year and final year modules and also what she had
been involved with on her placement. During her placement Emma had mainly been helping in
the production of the monthly management accounts and was responsible for checking the
landing charges levied by airports against each inbound flight. The placement year had been very
busy as the airline had enjoyed rapid growth and now flew to 24 destinations compared to 14 just
two years ago. Emma thought about all of these but could only feel that this was a job and how
could she turn any aspect of that into a research project. Emma now wished that she had done
something different during that year that would give her a topic area. Although she knew people
at the airline that she could interview or who would fill in questionnaires for her, the problem
remained about what? Again, when she thought about her course and the modules she had
studied, Emma could not really think of an area to turn into a suitable project and panic began to
set in. Three weeks to think about and write a proposal now seemed impossible. She had
performed very well in her second year modules, but all of the accounting modules focused on
technical aspects of accounting and financial reporting. Whilst Emma knew she was good at
these aspects of accounting she wanted to try and identify a topic that was more in the news, and
one that would link to both her placement experience and her course. She wanted to use the
project in presentations for a job and was hoping to work in the airline or travel industry as a
trainee accountant.
One of the final year modules that Emma was studying, ‘Contemporary Issues in Accounting’
covered aspects of corporate governance, social responsibility, whistle-blowing and ethics. There
was a guest lecture that week given by a professor of ethics examining the issue of
environmental accounting. The lecture highlighted the increased environmental disclosure that
had taken place over the last decade as public companies sought to reassure stakeholders who
were concerned about the adverse environmental impact caused by business. The lecture went
into specific details, citing Deegan et al. (2000 and 2002), who had examined the oil and mining
industries. This research showed how environmental disclosures had increased following adverse
events such as oil spillages or pollution that had been widely reported in the media. The
professor ended the lecture raising the issue of global warming and business responsibility, with
the news that Prince Charles had not attended the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi
due to the level of carbon waste from the associated flights for him and his entourage.
Emma was pleased that she had attended the lecture, an obvious research topic was right in front
of her! She thought of the airline industry and the problem of global warming and carbon
omissions and wondered what companies in that industry were saying about those issues in their
annual reports. She immediately looked up the annual reports for her placement company for the
last five years which were all available as pdf documents on their corporate website. Quickly
looking at the environmental section it was clear that there had been a significant increase in its
content over that period. Emma was not surprised there had been an increase in disclosure as this
was a common and already well observed trend. However it was a good starting point. She read
the articles that the professor had referred to in his lecture, Deegan et al. (2000) and Deegan et al.
(2002). From these articles she also referred to Patten (1992) and Gray et al. (1995). Looking on
the electronic journal search she also found more recent articles on environmental disclosure
such as Campbell et al. (2006) and Murray et al. (2006). They was certainly plenty of literature
in the area. Emma focused on the earlier articles by Deegan et al. and Patten and arranged an
appointment with one of the accounting tutors to discuss these and her ideas for the research
proposal. The meeting was scheduled for the week before the proposal was due to be submitted,
so Emma prepared some outline notes to take to the meeting from which she hoped to finalize
proposal. Emma had the following main points listed for the meeting:
• Increase in her placement company’s environmental disclosure over the past five years.
• Look for same trends in all airline companies.
• Quantify levels of environmental disclosure.
• Relate to increase in disclosure trends from literature.
• Get news stories about omissions and carbon foot-printing.
• Interview placement company employees about their views.
The meeting with the tutor went well and the tutor was supportive of the general topic area, but
Emma was surprised by how much further work she had still to do to formulate the proposal.
Emma had told her tutor about the guest lecture, the annual report disclosures she already had
identified, the articles and the link between the increased disclosure and global warming issues.
The tutor asked Emma how she would be able to link the disclosure with the press stories and
show that it was not just a coincidence. The only news stories Emma had so far collected all
related to the past 12 months. Emma needed to think about this aspect in more depth. The tutor
also asked Emma if she had any ideas about a possible theoretical base that could be relevant for
the research. From the articles, Emma said that legitimacy theory would be used as this had been
the theoretical framework within the articles. Again, the tutor raised concerns for Emma to think
about to clearly establish that a legitimacy problem existed that could then be used to explain the
increase in associated disclosure. Towards the end of the meeting the tutor also questioned
Emma as to why she wanted to carry out interviews.
Emma felt that having worked in the industry, she could get access to some of the management
and that it would be useful for her research. The tutor acknowledged the possible access but
questioned whether the interviews were really needed for the research and what value they were
adding.
Over the next week, Emma tried to address the issues raised by the tutor. To show the increase in
news stories associated with airlines and global warming, Emma had found out how to use one
of the online media databases that would allow her to search for news stories by year by key
words and groups of key words. Emma had already read one month’s coverage and had coded
the content into good, bad or neutral news. She had also started to collate the increased number
of flights and destinations covered by the low-cost airlines over the years of her study. Emma
had decided to narrow her focus onto this part of the industry rather than the whole airline
industry. The biggest issue related to the need for interviews. It surprised her that she did not
need to carry them out as she had always thought that doing this would be better for her research.
She decided not to do them and to rely on desk-based research using the media coverage and
annual report disclosures.
The topic area was now clear in her mind to investigate the change in environmental disclosure
over time by low cost airlines. She was pleased to narrow the focus rather than have to research
the whole industry, and due to the growth of such airlines this seemed a sensible approach. The
most pleasing part of the process was that Emma also knew why she was looking at the
disclosure and how she would try and explain its change over time. Having some idea of the
theory base also filled Emma with confidence to proceed and she was now really looking
forward to getting started for real.
The research topic and the proposal were handed in. The proposal was titled: Media Climate
Change Reporting and Environmental Disclosure Patterns in the Low-Cost Airline Industry in
the Twenty-First Century.

Questions

1 Why is it important that your research can be related to a relevant theory base, and when
furing the project does the theoretical framework need to be identified?
2 Do you think that Emma is right to restrict her project to only low-cost airlines, rather than the
whole industry or a comparison with another sector? Give reasons for your answer.

3 Do you think Emma was correct in her decision not to carry out interviews? Give reasons for
your answer. If she were to change her mind, are there any ethical issues that would need to be
addressed?

References

Campbell, D.J., Moore, G. and Shrives, P.J. (2006) ‘Cross-sectional effects in community
disclosure’, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 96–114.
Deegan, C., Rankin, M. and Voght, P. (2000) ‘Firms’ disclosure reactions to major social
incidents: Australian evidence’, Accounting Forum, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 101–30.
Deegan, C., M. Rankin and Tobin J. (2002) ‘An examination of the corporate social and
environmental disclosures of BHP from 1983–1997: A test of legitimacy theory’, Accounting,
Auditing and Accountability Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 312–43.
Gray, R.H., Kouhy, R. and Lavers, S. (1995) ‘Corporate social and environmental reporting: a
review of the literature and a longitudinal study of UK disclosure’, Accounting, Auditing &
Accountability Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 47–7.
Murray, A., Sinclair, D. Power, D. and Gray, R. (2006) ‘Do financial markets care about social
and environmental disclosure? Further evidence from the UK’, Accounting, Auditing &
Accountability Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 228–55.
Patten, D.M. (1992) ‘Intra-industry environmental disclosure in response to the Alaskan oil spill:
a note on legitimacy theory’, Accounting, Organisations and Society, Vol. 17, pp. 471–75.

Good Luck!