Enquiries: Dr Julia Smith, Department of Accounting & Finance, julia.smith@strath.ac.uk;  Applications to: Sharon Jamieson, sharon.jamieson@strath.ac.uk

Deadline: 1 September 2013

Funding: UK/EU fees are covered,plus an annual stipend of £13,762.

Research: This studentship involves an empirical study of firms operating in the Third Sector. Often called social enterprises, their main goal is to provide some kind of social benefit to their stakeholders, rather than to seek primarily pecuniary benefits. As such, a social enterprise encounters differing needs and expectations, which impact upon their management, control, reporting and accountability requirements. It is not clear that current reporting regulations, as designed for profit-maximising firms, are relevant to Third Sector organisations. Furthermore, in order to achieve the goals set out above, they need to ‘think outside the box’, by taking an entrepreneurial attitude towards work, and generating new and inspirational ideas. This project aims to investigate current practice in Third Sector organisations in the UK. It will gather information from and examine the large body of evidence that exists in the form of secondary source data; it will involve empirical fieldwork through face-to-face interviews with third sector workers; and it will be supported by questionnaire survey and analysis.

Requirements: The ideal applicant would have a first class Honours degree in Accounting or Accounting with a cognate discipline.

To apply click on the ‘Apply’ button below.