Accounting and Finance MSc

The module covers:

• investment, capital structure and divident decisions from a shareholder value perspective
• capital market behaviour (background)
• mergers
• real options

The module will cover lectures within each the following two areas:

1. Current issues in financial accounting and reporting
2. Current issues in management accounting

Indicative topic areas include:

• Corporate governance and accountability
• Current issues in auditing
• Measurement issues
• Current issues in taxation
• Changing nature of management accounting
• Contemporary management accounting techniques
• Case study research in management accounting

The module aims to equip you with an understanding of econometric techniques relevant to accounting and finance. Examples of topics covered include statistical distribution theory, and analysing different data sets (time series, cross-sectional, and panel data) using multivariate regression.

Equity, fixed income and derivative securities will be considered individually and portfolios. These will be presented as extensions of previously studied material as well as new topics.

Among individual security classes topics will be:

• Equities: Mean-variance efficient portfolios, CAPM, dividend discount valuation
• Fixed Income: Basic bond terminology and valuation, interest rate term structure and forward rates, duration, convexity and hedging
• Derivatives: Common options, real options
• Principles of financial derivative valuation and analytic and numerical methods for valuation

The module prepares you to analyse the financial performance of companies, to assess their prospects and to estimate their valuation.

The module is structured primarily from the point of view of investors and analysts, rather than from a company perspective. The module teaches you both theoretical and practical understanding of the financial performance of companies, and how to apply it for valuation.

The module aims to allow you to synthesise, apply, and extend the knowledge you have gained in the taught component of the programme by engaging in primary data collection. Through investigating a current research topic and gathering original data, you will develop a deeper theoretical and practical understanding of contemporary issues in your area, while also enhancing your research, communication, and data analysis skills.

The Business Project requires students, working as groups, to undertake research in a topic which is relevant to business, management, marketing, finance, accounting, or information system. You must choose their research topic that is relevant to your named degree programme. The specific topic is subject to a formal approval process.

The module is intended for you to apply knowledge, concepts, skills, and techniques, acquired during the taught stage of your programme to real-world, business scenarios. You will be presented with real-word business problems for which you are required to review relevant literature, conduct research, analyse data, and formulate viable solutions.

The module will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Positive accounting theory
• Creative accounting
• Earnings quality
• Financial statement fraud
• Intangibles
• Audit
• Corporate governance
• Accounting standard (IFRS)
• Taxation
• Sustainability reporting

This module is aimed at giving you an understanding of behaviour in an economic context. You will learn the use of methods to measure economic preferences as: trust, risk, cooperation, social preferences and social identity. These measures are used in economics and finance to explain human behaviour and decision-making processes. In addition to this you will “play” games in the classroom to get a first hand impression of the structure and meaning of the games used in the lectures.

Together we will understand how rational behaviour predictions conflict with human “bounded rational” decision making. You will analyse studies of bounded rational behaviour, labour markets, asset markets, experimental behavioural finance, social dilemmas, preferences, public goods, reciprocity, bargaining and contests.

The module starts with early phase of a typical firm’s life cycle with discussion of the role of venture capital in mentoring and leading them to possible exits including Initial public offerings. These will be followed by an in-depth analysis of financial markets with diversity of financial claims issued by both young and matured companies.

The module will then also explore corporate restructuring and financial decisions leading to analysis of corporate breakup transactions (divestitures, spinoffs, equity carve outs, tracking stocks), leveraged recapitalizations, and leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and study the value-drivers behind them with both theoretical framework and empirical analysis linking current events. It will also discuss factors that determine cross-border takeover, and the influence of cross-border M&As on corporate shareholders' wealth and corporate governance.

Finally topics dealing with corporate social responsibility and its value-enhancing capabilities and the link between corporate political connections (managers, board members, shareholders) and corporate financing activities will be discussed in detail from both theoretical and empirical perspectives.

The module covers:

• The nature and perspectives of corporate governance
• Corporate control and ownership across the world
• Taxonomies of CG systems and CG mechanisms
• Shareholder power: Individuals and institutions
• External influences on corporate governance: The market for corporate control
• The role of the board: Executives and non-executives
• Executive remuneration and governance
• Government and governance: The regulatory role
• Corporate governance: A review of the domain

The module provides an introduction to modern econometric techniques for modelling financial data. It covers relatively advanced econometric techniques such as dynamic panel data modelling, generalised methods of moments, discrete choices models and modelling volatility via ARCH/GARCH models.

This module examines:

• exchange rates and FX markets
• FX market efficiency
• real exchange rate and purchasing power parity
• exchange rate determination
• exchange rate forecasting
• FX predictability: Statistical significance and economic value
• FX volatility strategies
• global equity analysis
• global performance evaluation

This module will cover some or all of the following:

• Introduction to management accounting and control
• Management Accounting and Control Systems (MACSs) and technology
• MACSs and strategy
• MACSs and innovation
• MACSs in multinational organisations
• Inter-organisational MACSs
• MACSs in developing countries
• MACSs in public sector organisations
• MACSs and sustainability
• Methodological issues in management accounting research

SAP S/4 HANA is an in-memory platform for doing real-time analytics and for deploying real-time applications. This module includes:

• an introduction and overview of SAP S/4 HANA and Fundamentals of Financial Reporting
• journal entries
• business processes
• enterprise resource planning system
• data security to protect corporate information and comply with regulatory requirements
• auditing activity in SAP S/4 HANA system