Roya Manuela Akhavan and Dimitar Zvezdov
Gaining a better understanding of various actors’ information demands and developing suitable approaches to fulfilling them is key in managing sustainability performance in supply…
Abstract
Purpose
Gaining a better understanding of various actors’ information demands and developing suitable approaches to fulfilling them is key in managing sustainability performance in supply chains. Sustainability thereby creates different levels of uncertainty and equivocality. This paper investigates the challenges in managing sustainability information flows along several nodes in the supply chain.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple case study approach explores the various sustainability information needs along different nodes of supply chains. For this, three automotive triads are investigated, each comprising an original equipment manufacturer, a first-tier supplier and a second-tier supplier.
Findings
The results reveal that fulfilling information demands presents a substantial challenge to each of the three actors, albeit a different one in each case: whereas focal companies seek to figure out what information may be relevant to sustainability performance, their direct suppliers struggle to develop suitable approaches for enabling second-tier suppliers to generate and provide such information.
Practical implications
Depending on the level of uncertainty and equivocality, companies are supported in approaching sustainability information needs by applying individual or collective processing mechanisms. Decisions on such mechanisms and organisational structure can help to allocate resources according to the degree of challenges to achieve a fit between information needs and mechanisms.
Social implications
Reducing uncertainty and equivocality related to sustainability information provides a powerful approach to improving the sustainability performance along supply chains.
Originality/value
Having identified sustainability information challenges, the paper analyses and develops a typology of potentially useful approaches.
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Stefan Schaltegger and Dimitar Zvezdov
Accountants’ involvement in environmental and sustainability management has merely been investigated to date. With the continuous take-up of sustainability issues by companies and…
Abstract
Purpose
Accountants’ involvement in environmental and sustainability management has merely been investigated to date. With the continuous take-up of sustainability issues by companies and with the growing experience companies gain in dealing with this topic, this chapter raises the question whether accountants are involved in a way different than previously reported and if yes, what their role is in social accounting practice.
Methodology
Based on 58 interviews with corporate practitioners, this chapter firstly explores the roles involved in the social accounting practice in companies which are considered to be leading in sustainability reporting in the United Kingdom and Germany. Secondly, the role of professional accountants is analysed from a power theory perspective.
Findings
The main findings suggest that professional accountants are partially involved in social accounting practice but mainly exert a gatekeeping role between sustainability managers and higher management.
Practical implications
Investigating the observed behaviour empirically can help improve social accounting. Should it turn out that the accountants have no other option but to act like gatekeepers, accounting education will play a major role in overcoming this deficiency in the pursuit of improved sustainability knowledge and performance. If, on the other hand, it is the defensive stance of accounting professionals and the fear of losing power in corporate structures which motivates them to act as gatekeepers, mechanisms to motivate them to cooperate should be researched.
Value of chapter
The chapter empirically investigates and discusses the accountant’s contribution to sustainability information management. This can help overcome organisational challenges impeding companies to successfully implement sustainability measures.
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Stefan Schaltegger and Dimitar Zvezdov
This paper aims to, with the continuous take-up of sustainability issues by companies and with the growing experience companies gain in dealing with this topic, raise the question…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to, with the continuous take-up of sustainability issues by companies and with the growing experience companies gain in dealing with this topic, raise the question of whether accountants are involved in the corporate practice of managing sustainability information, and if yes, what their role is. The actual involvement of accountants in corporate environmental and sustainability management has merely been investigated to date.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 58 in-depth interviews with corporate practitioners, this paper, first, explores the roles in the sustainability accounting practice in companies which are considered to be leading in sustainability reporting in the UK and Germany. Second, the role of accountants is analysed from a power theory perspective.
Findings
The main findings suggest that accountants are partially involved in sustainability accounting practice but mainly exert a gate-keeping role between sustainability managers and higher management. The findings raise questions of how to better involve accountants in earlier steps of the sustainability management accounting process.
Research limitations/implications
The explorative research is based on interviews in European companies considered to be among the leaders in sustainability reporting.
Practical implications
Empirically investigating the role of accountants can help improve sustainability accounting practice and education. Should it turn out that the accountants have no other option but to act as gatekeepers, accounting education will play a major role in overcoming this deficiency in the pursuit of improved sustainability knowledge and performance. If, on the other hand, it is the defensive stance of accountants and the fear of losing power in corporate structures which motivates them to act as gatekeepers, mechanisms to motivate them to cooperate should be researched.
Social implications
The paper empirically investigates and discusses the accountant’s contribution to sustainability information management. This can help overcome organisational challenges impeding companies to successfully implement sustainability measures.
Originality/value
The paper investigates and discusses the accountant’s contribution to sustainability information management. The empirical analysis is based on a framework to identify different roles in sustainability accounting. Two possible development paths for a stronger constructive involvement of accountants are identified – to improve sustainability education for accountants if lack of sustainability knowledge is a major obstacle, and/or to improve incentives and structures motivating accountants to contribute with their information management expertise on all steps of the sustainability accounting process.
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Stefan Schaltegger, Delphine Gibassier and Dimitar Zvezdov
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the body of literature on environmental management accounting (EMA) and provides a quantitative overview of the academic as well as the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the body of literature on environmental management accounting (EMA) and provides a quantitative overview of the academic as well as the professional literature constituting the field. By doing so, the paper discusses whether EMA has developed as a discipline.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a database containing 814 (396 of them published in academic journals) publications in English, German and French with a publication date prior to 2012 a bibliometric analysis is conducted. Data on the publications, journals, authors and citations were collected, double‐checked and examined by applying bibliometric measures.
Findings
The bibliometric analysis identifies trends in EMA research publications which show that EMA has developed as a young discipline, but is still faces challenges to get better established in mainstream accounting and management research. Although the publication number is growing, a substantial part of the publications have been published outside mainstream accounting journals in non‐accounting journals, books and reports. A recent trend towards establishing specialised environmental (and sustainability) accounting journals is also rendered apparent. The low number of highly cited publications of few authors, however, indicates that EMA is still to become a mainstream field of research.
Originality/value
The paper discusses with the help of bibliometric analysis and measures whether EMA has developed as a discipline and whether it has become part of mainstream accounting research.
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Marie-Andrée Caron and Anne Fortin
The purpose of this study is to explore the potential for technical accounting resources to help professional accountants exercise their performative agency.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the potential for technical accounting resources to help professional accountants exercise their performative agency.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors combine the integrative learning theory of truth and the concept of performativity, including two approaches to sustainability education and interventions, to construct a grid for coding the technical resources provided by the UK's Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a pioneer in sustainability advocacy.
Findings
The findings suggest the dominance of the “predetermined and expert-determined” approach. They also reveal the emergence of three levels of performative topoi based on the relative presence of the “predetermined and expert-determined” and “process-of-seeking” approaches to professional interventions toward sustainability. The results show the profession's evolving contribution to the construction of actionable knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this research is that it draws on a limited corpus. In addition, the use of a binary code to represent the presence/absence of a code does not convey the code's quantitative importance.
Practical implications
The results are useful for those wanting to produce technical accounting resources that are more likely to help professionals build actionable knowledge and contribute to accountants' interventions toward sustainability.
Social implications
Findings suggest the need for reflection on how the accounting profession can best contribute to implementing sustainability in organizations.
Originality/value
Few studies deconstruct professional technical resources to see how a profession can contribute to a process of societal change.