Previous research indicates that age, gender, and prior academic achievement have direct effects on students' approaches to learning and their academic performance and progression. Here an investigation is reported which explores the relationships between 60 first-year undergraduate accounting and business economics students' approaches to learning, their age, gender, prior academic achievement, and their subsequent academic performance and progression. Linear regression analyses identified the strongest predictor of first-year academic performance and progression as prior academic achievement (i.e. performance in school examinations). Cluster analysis of the six dimensions of the RASI, academic performance and progression revealed two clusters. The first cluster (labelled 'effective learner') had a 75.0% rate of progression; the second (labelled 'ineffective learner') had only an 11.7% rate of progression. 'Effective learner' scores high on Deep Approach and low on Surface Approach, while the 'ineffective learner' scores low on Deep Approach and high on Surface Approach.students' approaches to learning (SAL), Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (RASI), academic performance, progression, prior academic achievement,
This paper provides an overview of the students' approaches to learning (SAL) literature, including a review of the models, theories, and research instruments.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent and quality of voluntary intellectual capital disclosures (ICD) by professional accounting firms (PAFs) in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
The research method adopted for this study is content analysis considering the ICD in firms’ annual reports, corporate social responsibility reports, websites and recruitment materials. The sample for this research is based on 20 PAFs ranked by fee income. The paper employs institutional theory as its theoretical lens.
Findings
The findings of this paper show that ICDs vary across different forms of reports. The most frequently reported disclosure category is human capital, while the least reported category is internal capital. Monetary disclosures are most likely to relate to internal capital, while pictorial disclosures are most likely to relate to human capital.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size of the study is relatively small reflecting the extreme market concentration of accounting services in the UK and internationally. Future research can conduct a longitudinal study to capture the trend of reporting practices and consider narrative and discursive approaches to ICD.
Originality/value
No previous studies of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure have considered ICDs in professional service firms that are in themselves rich sources of human capital. Furthermore, the investigation uses a wide range of communications and assesses monetary, non-monetary, narrative and pictorial disclosures. This research extends both the IC disclosure and PAFs’ literatures.
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