Taking a ‘Parallax View’ on What We Now Know about CSEAR?†

PurposeTo investigate, analyse and critique contemporary research in social and environmental accounting.Design/methodology/approachAn analysis and critique of the social and environmental accountability (SEA) research field since the late 1980s. The study revisits two key prior seminal papers on the field, examines the remit for SEA researchers' focus on practice and policy and offers an empirical analysis of the profile of SEA publication.FindingsTheories are identified in two groups: augmentation and heartland theories. These have been more deductively than inductively generated, evidencing limited attention to field‐based engagement. An alternative to the elusive all‐embracing unitary SEA theory is presented. Researchers' concerns with capture of the SEA field is critiqued and an alternative researcher engagement orientation is offered. Environmental research dominates more recent SEA published output, the dominant methodological approach is literature‐based theorising, and national practices/comparisons and regulations are leading topic areas occupying researchers.Research limitations/implicationsAnalysis of publishing patterns including the balance between social and environmental accountability research, research methodologies employed and SEA topics addressed is largely confined to four leading interdisciplinary accounting research journals.Practical implicationsThe paper argues for greater SEA researcher engagement with SEA practice and involvement in SEA policy contributions.Originality/valueThe paper offers a contemporary assemblage and critique of the multiple theoretical perspectives applied to the SEA field and offers insights into the range and predominance of research methods and topics within the published SEA field.

Social and Environmental Accounting is the procedure of communicating the social and environmental effects of organizations' economic activities. As such it involves increasing the responsibility of organizations, beyond the conventional role of providing a financial account to the holders of capital. The last years have witnessed an extension in interest in social and environmental affairs. Social accounting aspires have taken place in about total ignorance of the activities and evolutions in non-accounting bodies but today many companies have developed environmental management and accounting systems. This paper provides a perception of the social and environmental accounting in various organisations. Literature review of the papers examining social and environmental matters published in several national and international journals permits the identification of the key matters, methodologies and research questions which have been principal in the social environmental accounting research (SEAR) area. Present Social and environmental matters such as climate change and greenhouse gas discharges affecting the global community. Social accounting is in this sense closely connected to the economic conception of externality. An alternative account of significant economic entities offers by social accounting. It has the potential to uncover the stress between pursuing economic profit and the pursuit of social and environmental purposes. Eventually, some future research directions are recognized and enumerates the scope of further research.

The aim of this paper is to present a personal overview of the process of mobilisation of the social and environmental accounting research (SEAR) Spanish academic community to develop social and environmental accounting research as a legitimate research field. Using the arguments of Hambrick and Chen (2008) for analysing new academic fields as admittance-seeking social movements, a narrative is provided outlining the characteristics of the process of mobilisation of this emerging Spanish research community aspiring to become a field. A retrospective and introspective analysis is carried out to identify some critical events that figure in a still developing narrative and that are considered part of the process of social construction of SEAR in Spain. The narrative unveils SEAR in Spain, outlining shared interests and knowledge and social infrastructure, in conjunction with the agency of certain individuals, as its vital and enlivening principles.

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses, and responds to, one aspect of perceived failures of social and environmental accounting to make societies more sustainable. First, we argue that Charles Taylor’s concept of moral sources can articulate part of the ‘motivational gap’ between social and environmental accounts and sustainability. A moral source is an ideal that inspires people to enact their beliefs. Without a compelling moral source, social and environmental accounts may increase people’s knowledge of sustainability issues without changing their behaviour. Second, we use religion to illustrate the type of moral source that social accounting might mobilise. Drawing on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home (2015), we outline how moral sources can clarify what sustainable action requires and help commit people to these actions. Third, we apply this religious moral source to social and environmental accounting research into climate change-induced migration. Our paper does not argue that religion in general, or Catholic texts in particular, are the only moral sources accounting research could use. Rather, we use this religious discourse to illustrate the potential value of more directly linking social and environmental accounting to ‘moral sources’ that perform a comparable role in motivating sustainable social practice.

In this study we analyze the overlapping perspectives of legitimacy theory, institutional theory, resource dependence theory, and stakeholder theory. Our purpose is to explore how these theories can inform and be built upon by one another. Through our analysis we provide a broader theoretical understanding of these theories that may support and promote social and environmental accounting research. This article starts with a detailed analysis of legitimacy theory by bringing some recent critical discussions on legitimacy and corporations in the management literature into accounting research. The notion forwarded by legitimacy theory then serves as an overarching concept to examine the relationship between and among theories. We conclude that two theoretical considerations are important for future social and environmental accounting research. First, it must be acknowledged that some business entities initiate social activities based on direct interactions with stakeholders, whereas others may also undertake similar activities to manage their societal level of legitimacy. Second, from analyzing the perspectives of legitimacy theory, institutional theory, resource dependence theory, and stakeholder theory, it is possible to reach compatible interpretations of business social phenomena, and the selection and application of these theories should depend upon the focus of study.

ABSTRACTSocial and Environmental Accountability Journal (SEAJ) made notable progress as a specialist journal for disseminating social and environmental accounting research (SEAR) over the past 26 years. This study reviews SEAJ’s published papers to establish the journal’s achievements and to suggest possible areas to address heading into the future. We analyse the volume, methodology, impact (citation) of articles and jurisdictions represented in SEAJ. The findings show that original articles employing qualitative methods have the most representation in SEAJ. While there is a reasonable spread of published research focusing on the UK, the US and Australia, the results indicate a paucity of research emanating from developing countries. The projections herein are in line with the intent of SEAJ to advance the journal’s goals by 2020 and beyond. Consequently, we call on SEAJ contributors to consider research that accounts for the underrepresented jurisdictions and the extant SEAR gaps, as well as the emerging issues affecting social and environmental accounting (SEA).

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a comprehensive knowledge structure for environmental accounting (EA) research by identifying research hotspots and frontiers and suggesting future trends for scholarly investigation.Design/methodology/approachUsing the bibliometric method, the paper analyzed 321 academic articles and reviews in international journals from the Scopus database. Science mapping, including strategic diagrams, network analysis and thematic maps, was used to analyze the evolution of topics and to recommend future research trends.FindingsEA research is an emerging trend. This study presents the landscape of EA research by constructing the “synthesis house of knowledge” in EA. Significant EA research areas were identified and future research trends were suggested based on the results.Practical implicationsThis paper provides insights into the current state of EA research and identifies potential future research trends that can help scholars and experts develop and stimulate further advancement of the research in this field.Social implicationsResults may motivate policymakers and government agencies to formulate regulations to enforce appropriate corporate environmental strategies to better manage environmental costs and reduce community environmental impact.Originality/valueThe study provides an intellectually structured literature review of the EA research field; identifies the main themes through the innovative use of network analysis, strategic diagrams and thematic maps; highlights research gaps; and offers potential research questions and suggestions for future research. The novelty of this paper lies in the “synthesis house of knowledge” in EA and the research gaps and potential and specific research questions constructed from the findings.

The focus group method has been used extensively in social science research in order to gain a deep understanding of participant perceptions of specific topics of interest. However, the method has rarely been used in the social accounting and accountability literature. This paper reviews and critically reflects on the key characteristics of the method drawing on a research project examining NGO (non‐governmental organisation) beneficiary perspectives on the accountability processes employed by NGOs in Ghana. It offers insights and future research suggestions that might encourage greater use of the method by social accounting and accountability researchers.

"Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR): Structure and Governance." Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 35(2), p. 138

(2014). Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR): Structure and Governance. Social and Environmental Accountability Journal: Vol. 34, Celebrating the Intellectual Contribution of Professor Rob Gray to Social and Environmental Accounting Research, pp. 130-130.

"Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR): Structure and Governance." Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 35(1), p. 76

Towards the Use of Action Research to Promote Sustainability

PurposeThis paper aims to explain how companies in the region of Arab countries respond to the institutional diffusion of a new communication genre like corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports.Design/methodology/approachAnalysis of the features, content and language of CSR reports published by listed companies in the region, to classify the genres of these reports and infer results about ways of companies’ interaction with newly institutionalized genre.FindingsThree distinct genres are identified: “sustainability reports genre,” “professional CSR report genre” and “light CSR report genre.” When companies interact with institutionally diffused genres, they either adopt them and re-enforce their distinctiveness, mix them with elements from other genres so their distinctiveness will be diluted, or produce the old and established genres under the new name so the new genre will lose its distinctiveness.Originality/valueThe proposed classification of CSR report genres and ways of companies’ interaction with new genres are original and open new horizons for research in social and environmental accounting and corporate communication fields.

Special issue on"social responsibility accounting and reporting in times of ‘sustainability Downturn/crisis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to cover issues raised in the author’s plenary address to the Journal of Accounting and Organizational Network Conference held in Melbourne in November 2017. This called for accountants, whether professionals in practice or in academia, to broaden their vision of accounting and accountability beyond the financial accountability of organisations, and serving corporate and capital market interests, to consider how it can help achieve sustainable development goals.Design/methodology/approachThe discussion is based on personal experience, cognate literature and policies of major global institutions.FindingsWhilst the need for financial reporting will remain, there is a pressing need for reporting to measure, monitor and make accountable organisations’ obligations to help achieve sustainable development goals established by global institutions such as the United Nations. Areas of importance discussed are accounting for human rights, mitigation of climate change, securing decent work, increasing accountability – especially civil society democratic participation – and a greater and more equal partnership with stakeholders and developing countries to address their needs.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is a personal polemic intended to provoke reflection and reform amongst accountants.Practical implicationsThe paper outlines the areas where accounting could and has addressed human rights and sustainability issues.Social implicationsThe social implications are vast, for they extend to major issues concerning the preserving the planet, its species, humankind and enhanced democratic processes for civil society and developing countries.Originality/valueThe paper reinforces the need for policy reforms advocated by social and environmental accounting researchers.