International Finance and Responsible Management

This module is designed for business students to develop a non-technical understanding of the key aspects of corporate financial theory and practice. The module covers the core aspects of raising capital and determining financing, though to investing capital in major corporate decisions, and finally returning value to shareholders. Specifically you will study in the module; Sustainable Value Management, Stock Market Efficiency, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Portfolio Theory, International Cost of Capital, Capital Structure Decisions, Dividend Policy, Corporate Valuation and International Merger & Acquisition activity. The module has a focus on business responsibility of all of those areas, concentrating on professional codes of conduct in areas such as the banking industry, accounting and similar finance areas, and the types of dilemmas that graduates could face in professional practice. This module will develop you as a critical and reflective practitioner. In the module you will become more aware of the issues that responsible businesses face when attempting to implement financial concepts and theories into practice. On completion of this module you will have produced a reflective learning journal (in the form of a Blog) based on your evaluation of theory to real world scenarios. As part of that journal will have watched and reflected on appropriate financial documentaries and movies which explore responsible financial management issues. Finally you will be apply your academic knowledge to a real world case and be able to critically evaluate the tensions between the financial academic theories as a responsible business attempts to maximise shareholder wealth. critically evaluate the tensions between the financial academic theories as a responsible business attempts to maximise shareholder wealth.

Contemporary Corporate Reporting

You will learn how to read and critically interpret both the financial information and narrative content of company reports. To do this, you will study the theory and context of corporate reporting, including ethical issues, and the international framework for reporting, as well as very practical techniques such as ratio analysis. Building on the calculation of ratios studied in previous modules, you will use ratios to help you analyse a company’s performance by selecting appropriate comparators and considering the figures in the context of a company’s industry and its business strategy. You will also consider the role of integrated reporting and sustainability reporting. You will study impression management theories and apply these to evaluate how companies present themselves in their corporate reports.

• ◈ Regulatory and ethical framework, including the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting
• ◈ Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) and convergence towards International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• ◈ The constituent elements of financial statements: balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, statements of changes in equity, notes to the accounts and accounting policies, and how to interpret these
• ◈ Other elements of the annual report, such as the corporate governance report and auditor’s report, and how to interpret these
• ◈ Progress in integrated reporting and sustainability reporting
• ◈ Efficient market hypothesis, and how the market views the information in corporate reports
• ◈ Impression management in corporate reporting
• ◈ Current issues arising

Strategic Management Accounting

On this module you will develop an understanding of the nature of Strategic Management Accounting and its use in strategic decision making, planning and control. There is emphasis on the use of information that relates to factors external to the firm, as well as non-financial and internally generated information. Historic approaches of traditional management accounting have been criticised for providing misleading information and are compared and contrasted to more modern methods of Strategic Management Accounting to assist in business decision making.

You will also gain an appreciation of the ethical issues facing the profession.

• ◈ The nature of devolved decision making
• ◈ Traditional costing vs alternative costing methods
• ◈ Issues affecting Transfer pricing
• ◈ The impact of modern manufacturing & the cost of quality
• ◈ Environmental & Sustainability factors
• ◈ The use of non-financial information & the Balanced Scorecard
• ◈ Management control systems (Budgets)
• ◈ The concept of Beyond Budgeting

On completing the module you will have an appreciation for Strategic Management Accounting and its role in the strategic management of businesses. You will be able to use that knowledge to aid businesses in the decision making process.

Dissertation

The dissertation module aims to equip you with the necessary intellectual and practical skills for undertaking an individual student-led, ethical investigation into an applied business (or the named degree) problem or issue. In addition, the dissertation aims to equip you with key transferable, employability skills, including: time management, project management, communication (written and verbal), negotiation, persuasion and influence, discovery, initiative, creativity and innovation in problem-solving, and analysis. This module provides you with the opportunity to examine, in depth, a business-management challenge of direct interest and/or that vexes you within your work or social life. Following initial weekly lectures and seminar workshops, which provide an introduction to undertaking Business-Management research, you will work with a supervisor to identify a suitable research area, to generate empirical (primary) or secondary data, to analyse this data and to draw theoretically informed conclusions.