Bridging Research and Reality

Zach Duray was looking for a valuable experience to fill the summer before his junior year and was encouraged to pursue a research opportunity through a UR Summer Fellowship.

With the recommendation and guidance of his mentor and accounting professor, Dr. Abdullah Kumas, Duray’s research focused on developing a case study that students can use as part of their accounting classes at the Robins School. “We agreed that a case study would have a much bigger impact than a research paper that would likely never see the light of day,” Duray said. “I was especially grateful to have the resources available to me to develop work that peers could benefit from.” 

The case study Duray developed, Spider Business School: Understanding and Improving Cost Structure, is based around a fictional business school closely modeled after Robins. The premise is that students serve as consultants to recommend how the school can improve cost structure under the guise that overhead needs to be better-tracked.

“The case is meant to help students understand, classify, and apply cost principles and the application of overhead—core concepts of the Managerial Accounting course in which it will be used,” Duray said. Traditional textbook examples and cases predominantly feature cost structures in manufacturing industries. The case is designed to help fill this gap by providing a data-driven approach to teaching cost accounting in the service industry and enhancing practical understanding of managerial accounting. Along with the case, students are provided a data dictionary and an Excel file with over 9,000 observations to complete the case problems.

Students begin the case by categorizing costs at the fictitious school, computing direct material, labor, and overhead costs, a complex task in many industries. Their final task is to draft a consulting report to analytically evaluate and recommend an appropriate allocation base for overhead costs. Within this analysis, they calculate the cost of education on a per-student, per-class, and per-department basis, providing comprehensive insights into the institution’s cost structure.

At the end of the summer, Duray had the opportunity to present at the Society of North American Scholars (SNAS) conference. “It was a unique opportunity in the regard that I was the only undergraduate presenter. It felt great to show my work, and I received helpful feedback from other presenters,” Duray said.

Duray and Kumas also distributed the case to some of the Accounting Department faculty for feedback upon completion and will submit the case to the American Accounting Association’s (AAA) Faculty-Student Collaboration in Accounting Section, the premier community of accountants in academia, for review. They are hopeful to present at AAA’s annual meeting and for the case to become part of the organization’s repository.

Kumas has worked the case into the curriculum for his accounting course this spring. “Working with Zach has been a remarkable experience,” he said. “His sharp intellect, responsible attitude, and mature approach make him an exceptional student. His creativity stands out, consistently bringing fresh ideas and suggestions to our meetings. I also would like to express my gratitude for the Faculty Fellows Program, which provided me with the time necessary during the fall to prepare the project for inclusion in the spring semester's Managerial Accounting class."

Duray looks forward to seeing his work used in Dr. Kumas’ Managerial Accounting, a class where he is a student tutor. “I’m hopeful it will be more enjoyable than exercises from a textbook,” he said. “I take great pride that my work has been deemed useful enough to be instituted in a class at Robins.”