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Article
Publication date: 25 November 2024

Simon Alcouffe, Marie Boitier and Richard Jabot

This study aims to provide an integrated review of the literature on the diffusion, adoption and implementation of multicapital accounting (MCA) innovations.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to provide an integrated review of the literature on the diffusion, adoption and implementation of multicapital accounting (MCA) innovations.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyzes a sample of 68 articles collected from 21 peer-reviewed journals. An integrated model of the diffusion, adoption and implementation of MCA innovations is developed and used to frame data collection, content analysis and the critical synthesis of findings.

Findings

The involvement of various key actors, including academics, regulatory agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and businesses, is crucial in the diffusion of MCA innovations as they provide resources, promote legitimacy and drive the adoption process through regulation, advocacy, tool design and capacity building. The adoption of MCA innovations is significantly influenced by their perceived relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability and trialability. Organizations may adopt MCA innovations due to rational motives, regulatory requirements or to gain legitimacy by imitating peers. Larger firms with better financial performance and strong corporate sustainability responsibility (CSR) practices are more likely to adopt MCA innovations due to greater resources and exposure to stakeholder pressures. The implementation of MCA innovations often proceeds incrementally, requiring alignment with organizational routines, top management support and consistent use. Successful integration into organizational practices necessitates a culture that values sustainability alongside financial metrics.

Practical implications

This study provides several practical and societal implications. For practitioners, understanding the key drivers of adoption, such as perceived advantages and compatibility with existing organizational processes, can help in designing and implementing more effective MCA strategies. For instance, companies can benefit from training programs and workshops to reduce perceived complexity and enhance trialability. Additionally, regulatory bodies can create supportive policies and incentives to encourage voluntary adoption and improve compliance rates. On a societal level, the broader adoption of MCA innovations can lead to more comprehensive and transparent reporting of both financial and non-financial performance, which in turn enhances stakeholder trust and engagement. This transparency can drive societal benefits by promoting greater accountability and encouraging sustainable business practices.

Social implications

On a societal level, the broader adoption of MCA innovations can lead to more comprehensive and transparent reporting of both financial and nonfinancial performance, which in turn enhances stakeholder trust and engagement. This transparency can drive societal benefits by promoting greater accountability and encouraging sustainable business practices.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the emerging research on MCA by offering a systematic review that integrates various perspectives on the diffusion, adoption and implementation of MCA innovations. It provides a nuanced understanding of the dynamics influencing MCA practices and suggests avenues for future research.

Details

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8021

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 December 2022

Richard Jabot

The purpose of this paper is to problematize the need for debate in operationalizing the planetary boundaries framework when accounting for the Anthropocene.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to problematize the need for debate in operationalizing the planetary boundaries framework when accounting for the Anthropocene.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper’s aim is achieved through a literature review focusing on the assumptions around the Anthropocene, planetary boundaries and organizations. The author conducted an integrated review of 91 documents discussing the operationalization of the planetary boundaries framework and the need for debate.

Findings

This paper develops two major findings. First, the author identifies the four main dimensions of the planetary boundaries that need to be debated: social, normative, narrative and control aspects. Second, the author exposes proposals in the literature that have the potential to fuel the debate, but which are themselves a source of debate.

Practical implications

This paper argues that, while being scientifically informed, the planetary boundaries framework leaves decision-makers with critical choices and decisions that need to be openly debated. This paper identifies some relevant proposals for doing so.

Social implications

This paper underlines the need to open forums of debate for scientists and other stakeholders to raise the democratic legitimacy of the planetary boundaries framework.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the very first papers to investigate dimensions of the planetary boundaries that need to be debated to respond to the challenge of its operationalization.

Details

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8021

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 July 2019

Roger Berquier and Delphine Gibassier

Cities are key actors in the fight against climate change. They have developed integrated strategies harnessing the power of information and communication technologies (ICT) as…

Abstract

Purpose

Cities are key actors in the fight against climate change. They have developed integrated strategies harnessing the power of information and communication technologies (ICT) as part of the move towards smart(er) cities. In spite of our knowledge of the role of technological infrastructure in tackling climate change, the role of governance mechanisms to actively pursue environmental sustainability is often understated. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse governmentality mechanisms developed by a small town in Europe to render energy savings and new energy sources visible and to create new identities with which the citizen and other cities could then identify with, thereby participating in the fight against climate change.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered through non-participant observation, interviews and access to internal data from the city’s energy control project.

Findings

The outcome of these governmentality mechanisms was to create two new identities: the “good citizen”, responsible to lower his impact on climate change, and the “model city”, a laboratory that would serve as a guide for future policies to tackle climate change at the city level. While the “model city” was successful and identification happened with other small cities taking example from it, the “good citizen” failed and inhabitants did not identify with this role model that was defined for them as a way to participate in the fight against climate change.

Practical implications

This case study is a concrete example, based on a longitudinal study, of a city’s strategy and actions on climate change. Other small cities will be able to use this case study to gauge their possibilities for action on climate change. Notably, it is an example of how a network of mechanisms can achieve results in CO2 emissions reduction. It also demonstrates the difficulty to enrol citizens into an environmental sustainability scheme.

Social implications

This paper has implications for how climate change can be tackled in rural areas by small cities. While the role of organizations and large cities (e.g. C40 city network) has been acknowledged, there is a possibility for smaller local actors to act upon grand challenges with local strategies and their own governmentality mechanisms.

Originality/value

The case study contributes to the literature on cities, bringing new insights into how they can become actors of climate change beyond acting on internal controls, and the literature on governmentality by demonstrating how mechanisms can act upon a population without being calculative.

Details

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. 10 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8021

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 January 2024

Manuel Castelo Castelo Branco, Delfina Gomes and Adelaide Martins

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the discussion surrounding the definition of accounting proposed by Carnegie et al. (2021a, 2021b) and further elaborated by Carnegie…

1998

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the discussion surrounding the definition of accounting proposed by Carnegie et al. (2021a, 2021b) and further elaborated by Carnegie et al. (2023) from/under an institutionalist political-economy (IPE) based foundation and to specifically extend this approach to the arena of social and environmental accounting (SEA).

Design/methodology/approach

By adopting an IPE approach to SEA, this study offers a critique of the use of the notion of capital to refer to nature and people in SEA frameworks and standards.

Findings

A SEA framework based on the capabilities approach is proposed based on the concepts of human capabilities and global commons for the purpose of preserving the commons and enabling the flourishing of present and future generations.

Practical implications

The proposed framework allows the engagement of accounting community, in particular SEA researchers, with and contribution to such well-established initiatives as the Planetary Boundaries framework and the human development reports initiative of the United Nations Development Programme.

Originality/value

Based on the capability approach, this study applies Carnegie et al.’s (2023) framework to SEA. This new approach more attuned to the pursuit of sustainable human development and the sustainable development goals, may contribute to turning accounting into a major positive force through its impacts on the world, expressly upon organisations, people and nature.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 32 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 22 May 2013

Abstract

Details

Evidence-Based Practices
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-429-9

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1953

IT is rare nowadays to discover in the annual or other reports of libraries any reference to current losses of books. There are many sides to this, as to every problem. Formerly…

Abstract

IT is rare nowadays to discover in the annual or other reports of libraries any reference to current losses of books. There are many sides to this, as to every problem. Formerly it was held that a loss of one volume in an issue of a thousand was a reasonable loss; this our readers know. We do not recall a pronouncement based upon a count of stock and circulation recently. As our pages, and those of other library journals, have shown, the check and control of losses is a really costly business. Nevertheless, as long as we can remember, it has been impressed on librarians that we are custodians of a certain form of public property which we are expected to keep for as long in safety as that property retains its value. It can also be asserted that the discovery of whereabouts in the accounts of a bank a single shilling is missing may occupy hours of staff‐time; it is probably necessary to make it, and this was done a few years ago, and maybe is done now. To pose this problem nowadays, when there is so much else to be done, may be a little tactless. In the present conditions of public regard, or want of it, for the property of others, especially communal property, our eagerness to serve our people without let or hindrance, and the consequent removal of all barriers, wickets and entrance checks even in very busy libraries of large size—are we sure that we are absolved from all responsibility for the care of books?

Details

New Library World, vol. 54 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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