Implementing internal environmental management and voluntary environmental disclosure: Does organisational change happen
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 21 May 2018
Issue publication date: 21 May 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent the implementation of internal environmental management and voluntary environmental information is related to organisational change.
Design/methodology/approach
Organisational change literature provided a framework for the analysis of the materials which were collected through a mixed method. Data on internal environmental management were collected through a survey, while a quality disclosure index was used to assess the quality of the environmental voluntary disclosure. Interviews were used to enhance the quantitative results interpreted according to the four pathways proposed by Tilt (2006) and characterised by several levels of internal environmental management and voluntary disclosure.
Findings
The results indicated that companies implement more internal activities than external disclosure. Environmental planning and operational practices were the most important changes carried out. When environmental management accounting and environmental disclosure were also implemented, environmental aspects were more integrated within companies, thus revealing that a more structured integration of sustainability aspects within organisational values had taken place. The results underline the importance of primarily establishing a set of internal changes, driven by environmental planning, to promote organisational change.
Research limitations/implications
The study presents a larger empirical analysis of the organisational change pathways followed by companies, showing similarities and differences among the four pathways. The results underline the importance of both dimensions for studying organisational changes. The framework of Tilt has been enriched, considering a more precise explanation of the internal aspects and adding the concept of the quality of disclosure as proxy to assess organisational change.
Originality/value
Organisational change is investigated through an extensive analysis of internal and external aspects and collecting quantitative and qualitative evidence. The analysis complements previous sustainability accounting literature focussed on the analysis of internal environmental management and external disclosure.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The Italian Ministry of Education, Universities, and Research with the PRIN Project “Strategic costs and performance management and the challenges of competitiveness and sustainability” financially supported this research. Emilio Passetti is grateful to the Università Cattolica of Milan for its financial support in conducting and publishing this research within the institutional programs for the promotion and dissemination of scientific research (the year 2017). The authors are grateful to Irene Eleonora Lisi, Giulio Greco and Silvia Pilonato for their suggestions during the review process and Alessandro Marelli for his constructive comments on the early versions of the paper. Finally, the authors thank Martino Colombo per his helpful in collecting and discussing disclosure data. The authors would also like to thank the participants at the 37th European Accounting Association Annual Congress (Tallinn, 2014), at the 5th Italian Social and Environmental Accounting Conference (Padova, 2014), and at the Social and Environmental Accounting Research Day (Trento, 2017).
Citation
Passetti, E., Cinquini, L. and Tenucci, A. (2018), "Implementing internal environmental management and voluntary environmental disclosure: Does organisational change happen", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 1145-1173. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-02-2016-2406
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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