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Governance and Sustainability

ACFI3423 Governance and Sustainability 2019/20
Academic Essay Brief
The Academic Essay is the second element of assessment for this module, which
is 100% coursework-based.
The essay is designed to enable you to demonstrate your understanding of the basic
Governance and Sustainability materials, the extra work you have put into researching
the essay topic(s) and how analytical you have been in selecting and commenting on the
materials you have used in the essay.
The submission should demonstrate that you have immersed yourself in the course
material, that you have carried out wider reading and that you have done some thinking
on your own. The essay questions have not been treated at length in class to allow you
to develop and demonstrate these skills.
You will be expected to use relevant academic literature and advance textbooks for the
module as sources, and to carry out wider reading. Students are required to submit the essay through
TURNITIN (via Blackboard). It is the student’s responsibility to retain a copy of the
assignment and evidence of submission.
Anonymous marking will be implemented for the academic essay and you are required to
only use your Student ID Number on the submission.
The word limit for the case study is 2,250 words +/- 10%.
All of the usual University regulations (please refer to the module handbook) apply with
regard to the late submission of work and plagiarism.
REQUIREMENT
In their paper, Varenova, Sammy and Combs (2013: 203) concluded that: “In spite of
having integrated [sustainability] into their strategy and employed social responsibilities
as their commercial opportunities and competitive advantage, companies still hesitate as
to the nature of the impact of [sustainability] on [corporate financial performance]. They
tend however to agree that it’s more likely that [sustainability] will not be to the detriment
of their financial success and it’s possible to be both profitable and socially responsible.
However, given that companies adhere to the narrow view of stakeholders, it’s likely that
they undertake only those [sustainability] activities that increase or at least do not
decrease their profitability.”
You are required to write an academic essay that:
1. discusses the importance of corporate sustainability;
2. discusses the role of stakeholders in corporate sustainability; and
3. critically evaluates the importance of stakeholder-partnerships in corporate
sustainability.
2 | skoma/g&s/academicessay/ 19-20
ALLOCATION OF MARKS
Total marks available are 100. The distribution of marks is as follows:
Marks
Structure (5 marks for introduction). 10
Discussion of the importance of corporate sustainability that is adequately
supported by appropriate citations (academic references). 25
Discussion of the role of stakeholders in corporate sustainability that is
adequately supported by appropriate citations (academic references). 25

Critical and evaluative account of the importance of stakeholderpartnerships in corporate sustainability
that is adequately supported by
appropriate citations (academic references).
25
Reasoned conclusions that are informed by arguments in the essay. 5
References 10
Total 100
Note:
An effective structure helps your argument to unfold clearly to the reader, and as noted
by Abrams (2000): “Writing an academic essay means fashioning a coherent set of ideas
into an argument. Because essays are essentially linear—they offer one idea at a time—
they must present their ideas in the order that makes most sense to a reader. Successfully
structuring an essay means attending to a reader’s logic.