MBSA 1413 Accounting for Business Decision Making Assignment 2026 | UTM

d. Suspended from study for a duration specified by the Senate.

Each student is required to conduct an interview with CFO, accountant/ head of the account department/ manager or owner of the organization (including SMEs). In the interview, you are expected to explore how these organizations/ SMEs apply management accounting techniques or tools in their operation. The duration of the interview should be more than 30 minutes. You may refer to this article for reference:

Ruiz, T. N., & Collazzo, P. (2021). Management accounting use in micro and small enterprises. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 84-101.

However, it is not only restricted to this article, you can further explore the management accounting techniques or tools from various sources. The consent form and interview guide are provided in Appendix 1 and 2, respectively.

After interviewing the organization, you are required to transcribe the interview session and code it to unleash the findings from the session. An example of an interview transcription is in Appendix 3.

The report should be written in 12 Times New Roman point font, with 1.5 spacing, and between 5000-6000 words (excluding the references). The report should include the followings:

The student should also submit the following documents with the report;

1. The interviewee’s consent form (as per Appendix 1).
2. Background of the interviewee (as per Appendix 3)
3. Evidence of audio recording.
4. The interview transcription. The transcription must be in 12 Times New Roman point font and must be transcribed verbatim (following the exact word as the conversation in the audio recording). Please number the pages consecutively throughout the transcription document. Include suitable headings and tables. You can use the transcription table in Appendix 4.
5. Turnitin report (similarity index not more than 20%)

The due date for this report is 1^st February 2026 (@11.59pm). The report and the supporting documents (a-e) should be submitted via the e-learning platform.

Appendix 1

CONSENT FORM

I agree to participate in this exercise. I have been informed about the nature of the topic and the nature of my participation in this interview. I understand that my participation is voluntary, and I have been informed of my right to withdraw from the interview at any time without giving a reason. I understand that any information I provided is my own perception.

Please tick the following boxes:

Appendix 2

INTERVIEW GUIDE

Research questions:

• How do organizations/ SMEs plan their business and what type of objectives do they pursue?
• How do organizations/ SMEs determine the cost of their products and services and what type of costing systems do they use?
• What type of budgets do organizations/ SMEs prepare and how do they elaborate them?
• How do organizations/ SMEs measure their performance?

To ask if the enterprise has a business plan/strategic plan, and, in case they are having it, is it in writing? Do they have objectives and goals? How often that plan is reviewed? And do they have indicators to monitor their compliance?

In addition, ask the interviewee to talk about their business plan, and to explain what it consists of and what are its main features.

Ask the interviewee to indicate the main objective of the organization for the current year (short-term objective) and for the next three years (long-term objective).

Furthermore, ask the interviewee to explain on how they determine the costs of their products/services and the frequency with which they perform their analysis.

Next, ask about budgeting. Inquire what type of budget they prepare and please ensure that they specify it. Furthermore, get to know how they do the budget, as well as the frequency of preparing and analyzing them.

Finally, explain how they determine the performance of the business and the measures they use to determine whether the business is going well or not.

(Interview session should be done fluently with open-ended questions that arise during the discussion. The student is expected to handle the interview session and always bring back the conversation into the context of the study)

Appendix 3

THE BACKGROUND OF THE INTERVIEWEE

Appendix 4

EXAMPLE OF INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION