The course introduces students into research in sustainability accounting with a particular focus on empirical accounting research.

The course starts with a brief introduction into the field including an overview of the main research paradigms that have shaped its development. This introduction provides students with the basis for contextualizing the academic literature in this field.

Next, seminal papers are assigned to the students that are then presented and discussed in the plenum. By this means, students obtain an overview of important research themes and questions in sustainability accounting. In the discussions, we will particularly focus on the research-design choices and the contribution(s) of the papers to the literature.

Students who complete this course have gained a general understanding of the field, including the role of different research paradigms.

Moreover, students have gained the ability to contextualize research in the field, critically reflect on specific research designs and evaluate the contribution(s) of papers.

Students can use this knowledge for their own research projects when identifying research ideas and designing empirical analyses.

Students must attend at least 80 percent of the sessions to pass the course.

The course is conducted using a seminar format. Thus, students are expected to take an active part in discussing and evaluating the required readings and therefore be familiar with those readings.

Depending on the number of participants and the length of the papers, one to two papers are assigned to each student who then acts as discussion leader. The discussion leader will prepare a two-page summary before the course starts. In addition, the task of the discussion leader consists of summarizing the paper, highlighting the contribution, and pointing out/discussing some critical research design choices.

In preparation for the course, students are asked to:

• Carefully work through the required readings
• Prepare a two-page summary and a presentation of the assigned papers

For the presentations, students are asked to:

• Lead the class discussion of the assigned paper
• Contribute to class discussions

The course language is English.

For the assigned papers, students are required to (i) submit a written report before class summarizing and critically discussing the papers and to (ii) present the assigned papers during class.

All students are expected to read the required papers and actively participate in class discussions.

The grading is based on the following:

• In-class participation: 20%
• Summary report(s): 40%
• Presentation(s): 40%

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