Part 1: Chapter 1 of text book

Summaries (Saunders et al, 2009): 1) Characteristics of business and management research Research have 2 phrases : systematic way and to find out thing (Ghauri & Gronhaig 2005) i) The systematic collection of data ii) The systematic interpretation of data iii) Clear purpose of research being carried out 2) Purpose of basic research i) Improve understanding of particular business or management problem ii) Results in solution to problem iii) New knowledge limited to problem iv) Findings of practical relevance and value to manager(s) in organisation(s) 3) Research methods i) Formulation of research topic in stage 2 ii) Critical review of literature in stage 3 Critique (Greener 2008). 1) Characteristics of business and management research i) The characteristic is identical The relevancy and understanding of people, who are interviewed to the questions, enable a fair and systematic collection of data. The analysis (interpretation) must be taken with importance to enable that the flow of research moving to the right direction.

The questions asked must be valid and fair (clear), relating directly to the need of information.

2) Purpose of basic research i) The purposes can easily flow to the academic research but to apply on business is not easy research in business, the researcher need to understand different aspects attributed to a problem in the changing environment like timing, people, products and services. However, the researcher will impact the research as the latter may input the wrong perception to the research method. Also different researchers in different expertise may use different approach to start the research objectives. Theoretical ideas and simple numerical survey are normally underpinned when comes to application to practice

3) Research methods i) Not agreed with the flow of methods - Formulation of topic should not be in stage 2 as it is too early to determine the broad idea to the problem and improvement, until the end of the research. The topic will become obvious or clearer. - The literature searches should happen after new questions or ideas are highlighted and before the final report. When more questions and ideas are prompted, literature researches will provide in-depth knowledge and answers from doubts. This will also create more questions and ideas generated from studies of literatures and more literature reviews are required till the researcher is satisfied with the final report.

Referencing Saunders Mark, Lewis Philip, Thornhill Adrian. (2009) Research methods for business students. 5th edn. Italy: Pearson Education Greener Sue (2009) Business Research Methods. Denmark: Ventus Publishing www.academy-british.co.uk/Library.../introduction-to-research-methods.pdf

Part 2: Paper 1 of hand out notes

Summaries: The objective of this article was to determine whether management accounting techniques were properly applied in the bread industry (Middelberg & Rooyen, 2009). An empirical test was done on Bakery As financial viability of its 5 delivery routes, and concluded that Bakery As costs are classify accurately and the MS Excel model can be used by food manufacturing to determine the financial viability of their delivery routes (Middelberg & Rooyen, 2009).

Critique: Good Comments: 1. Proper referencing and bibliography were included in the above article. 2. The research processes were applied by the authors and the following items can be found in the article: a. Clear clarification of research objective b. Literature review c. Analyse of data using quantitative methods. (Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill, 2009) Bad Comments: 1. The content of the article - The authors mentioned that their research consist of 2 phases which include literature review and empirical study (Middelberg & Rooyen, 2009). However, the authors didnt list down clearly which part of the reports is under the empirical analysis. This may cause confusion to the reader as which are the most important parts of the reports needed to be go through in detail. 2. Literature review - There were no linkages between the articles that being review. Furthermore, the authors did not list down any agreements or disagreements between the independent researchers on their researched topic.

3. Definition of terms - The authors used more than 1 page of the article to explain the definition of each accounting terms. They have defeat the purpose of a research article, as readers are interested in data collected, analysis, conclusion that being derived and not definition of accounting terms. 4. Research objectives - The authors had repeated its objectives by giving a brief explanation in the research objectives and a details explanation in the summaries. This may confuse the reader. 5. Calculation of delivery route segment margin - The formula to calculate the various costs should be included in the appendices and not the article and it is more understandable. 6. Tables of analysis ( pg 42-43) - An article with many numbers but without explanation are not useful to the readers, because not all readers are accounting trained. They may not understand what does each number represented. Therefore, an explanation of the cause on the increased or decreased in the amount is necessary. - For better understanding, the author can use graph to show the differences in net sales, contribution margin and segment margin for the 5 routes. The table on the detail calculation of 5 routes should be included in the appendices.