USE OF ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL PROCESSES

Use of accounting and financial processes

Use of accounting and financial processes

Introduction

During the last 15 years the debate on sustainability as well as on social and environmental accounting (SEA) has considerably increased. These issues have become very important subjects of, not only academic research, but also regulators' interventions throughout the world. The request to organizations for becoming more accountable and sustainable is wide, coming from not only academics and practitioners but also from analyst and the market (Adams, 2007).

The review of the publications on the subject focuses mostly on external reporting.

This paper aspires to enquire if and how MCS have a function in applying sustainable schemes within organizations and how it is set or changed in alignment to support this process. Thus, the major study inquiries are:

RQ1. How MCS support the implementation of sustainability focused strategies? How prescribed and casual controls work simultaneously in alignment to permit the accomplishment of sustainable goals as well as the integration of sustainable principle with administration culture?

RQ2. What convention of change is pursued by MCS when a strategic change in a “sustainable” main heading occurs?

Theoretical background

Social and environmental accounting research

Social and ecological accounting (SEA) has been investigated from some theoretical points of view.

While some scholars suggest a pointed distinction between a managerial (or instrumental) outlook and a radical/critical one (Gray, 2002; Owen, 2008), other perspectives could be recognize in the area of SEA study (Parker, 2005; Garriga and Garriga and Mele, 2004; Brown and Fraser, 2006).

Some comprehensive overviews of the major topics of SEA study have been supplied (Deegan, 2002, p. 286; Parker, 2005). However, it has been discerned that the development of the SEA has especially considered the assemblage of the data made for external users or, in other phrases, communal and ecological revelation (Durden, 2007; Parker, 2005; Gray, 2002, p. 689).

Adams (2004) contended that while the extant publications has mainly concentrated on why businesses report on what they manage as consider to communal and ecological matters, expanded sustainability reporting does not inevitably signify advanced accountability. Moreover, the major motivation underpinning communal describing start is often the enhancement of business likeness and integrity (Adams, 2002). This has likely directed to a gap between authorized affirmation and genuine organizational behavior.

The promise of MCS in adopting communal and ecological matters as well as in making communal and ecological data helpful for interior users in their decision-making methods is yet an under-researched locality (Berry et al., 2008; Durden, 2007; Parker, 2005). As contended by Bebbington (2007, p. 6), “if organizations are searching to report on their assistance to sustainable development, one may anticipate that there are some interior means which direct their undertakings in the direction of this goal”. In other phrases, communal describing is not sufficient since ecological and communal profiles should be integrated inside designing method, principle conclusions, and capital share and presentation evaluation.

MCS and sustainability concentrated strategies

In the accepted accounting literature, the connection between MCS and scheme has been enquired covering a very broad variety of perspectives ...