Research topics and projects
Find a topic you can investigate and see what our students are researching in the QUT Business School.
Within each area of interest, you can find open topics at your study level: PhD, Masters, Honours or the Vacation Research Experience Scheme (VRES) for eligible undergraduates.
Choosing a topic does not exempt applicants from providing a full research proposal in the application.
104 matching student topics
Displaying 1 - 12 of 104 matching student topics
Blockchain technology and its implications for accounting
Blockchain technology is anticipated to further disrupt the digital economy of today. Blockchain is a distributed database technology and is the underlying technical platform for digital cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Blockchain has the potential to profoundly impact accounting and the underlying financial transactions it represents, yet there is very little research exploring the implications for accounting and the profession. This research seeks to investigate how blockchain technology may impact a particular aspect of accounting such as financial accounting or audit …
- Centre/School
- School of Accountancy
Fraudulent Financial Reporting in China
The project aims to explore the factors associated with fraudulent financial reporting in China. The mechanism of corporate governance and external audit in mitigating fraud will also be investigated in this setting.If you are interested in researching this topic as part of a Master of Philosophy (Accountancy), and you are applying to commence your degree in Semester 1, 2018, you may be eligible for our School of Accountancy Accelerate Scholarship. …
- Centre/School
- School of Accountancy
Corporate board gender diversity and accounting conservatism
Female representation on boards has grown worldwide. There is a stream of study that investigates the relationship between board composition and financial reporting quality. However, there is little evidence on whether corporate board gender diversity is associated with one of the most important financial reporting quality metrics-accounting conservatism.The objective of this proposed study is to investigate the relation between corporate board gender diversity and accounting conservatism in the Australian context.If you are interested in researching this topic as part of …
- Centre/School
- School of Accountancy
Agricultural Cooperatives: considering performance and accountability
Cooperatives are unusual organizational structures, as they are highly democratic in nature (one member + one vote) and their successful operation involves delivery of environmental, business and social outcomes. Internationally, cooperatives are the 'normal' form of social enterprise, however in the Australian context they are considerably under researched legal form. In order to operate successful, cooperatives need to take into consideration the needs of multiple stakeholders, not the least their members and communities which they function to benefit. This thesis …
- Centre/School
- School of Accountancy
- Study levels
- PhD
- Master of Philosophy
Uncertainty, Investor Sentiment and Financial Market Anomalies
The purpose of this research is to explore the roles played by uncertainty and investor sentiment in explaining financial market anomalies documented in the existing literature. The financial market anomalies of interest include, but are not limited to, the size effect, the value effect, the momentum effect, asset-related anomalies, investment-related anomalies, etc.
- Centre/School
- School of Economics and Finance
- Study levels
- PhD
- Master of Philosophy
- Honours
Quantitative and Qualitative measurement of Airline performance
The research project is two-fold. First, it incorporates quantitative and qualitative data to measure the performance of airlines (mainstream and budget carriers) using a supply-chain performance evaluation model such as Network Data Envelopment Analysis. Second, the project aims to quantify sources of inefficiencies and provide recommendations to policy makers and operations in ways to raise their efficiency levels.
- Centre/School
- School of Economics and Finance
Unpacking public relations practitioner decisions
By connecting a student to real world industry professionals, this project aims to simultaneously build student networks and explore an applied research problem around how public relations professionals make decisions about optimal strategies and tactics in campaigns.The student and research team will meet to co-design the research and undertake the following activities:Review award-winning public relations campaigns using a semantic and relational network analysis tool to identify trends and patterns in strategies and tacticsinterview the public relations professionals behind these campaigns …
- Centre/School
- School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations
Faithful Representation and the usefulness of Financial Information
Faithful Representation and Relevance are two fundamental qualities which are proposed to make financial information useful in the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting and its proposed revision. Faithful representation is further described as information which is complete, neutral and free from error. This research seeks to determine how faithful representation of financial information might be measured/determined drawing on representation theory concepts from the Information systems discipline.
- Centre/School
- School of Accountancy
- Study levels
- PhD
- Master of Philosophy
Startup Cultures
In the startup world there is much talk of culture as a unifying driver of performance. Culture research has a long history, and there are measures (albeit disputed) of organisational culture. There are also a range of studies that have investigated relationships between culture and performance. For this project, the focus is on understanding what founders and other key personnel in startups mean when they talk of culture and how they 'measure' culture.The student is expected to produce an extended …
- Centre/School
- School of Management
Developing marketing communications to increase blood donations from males
This project will analyse data already collected from male non-donors to identify the key marketing communication appeals that can be developed for different male archetypes. Specifically the aim is to identify marketing communication strategies that will effectively generate bookings to donate from current male non-donors.The student is expected to produce a draft journal article on the topic that will be co-authored with the research team. Skills employed are:Literature searchanalysis of qualitative dataacademic writing. …
- Centre/School
- School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations
A systematic review of economic modelling of negative externalities literature
Economic activity produces good and bad outputs. Whilst good output enhances quality of life, bad outputs generate negative externalities. Negative externalities can arise from, for example, pollution, noise and environmental degradation. Such production systems are inefficient, but continue to endure despite the costs.Economists (and social scientists) have begun to develop socio-economic models and use valuation techniques to understand the socio-economic issues related to negative externalities. However, such work remains scattered and the existing literature reveals that modelling techniques can be …
- Centre/School
- School of Economics and Finance
Control and collaboration in the boardroom: an observational investigation
This project aims to explore board-level attributes that favor board monitoring and resource provisioning tasks. While theoretical works (Hillman & Dalziel 2003) identify separate individual directors' attributes as predictors of monitoring (e.g. independence) or resource provisioning (e.g. background knowledge and connections), empirical evidence shows a high overlap between the two tasks (e.g. Minichilli et al 2012; Pugliese et al 2014). This counter-intuitive phenomenon is known as the 'paradox of control and collaboration' within boards (Sundaramurthy & Lewis 2003).Research activitiesThe project …
- Centre/School
- School of Accountancy