Sustainability accounting and reporting: an ablative reflexive thematic analysis of climate crisis, conservative or radical reform paradigms

Every year the global financial system sends trillions of dollars to finance environmental destruction, but the climate crisis forces change. Notwithstanding vested interests and the unrecognised paradox of adopting environmental business strategies, the implementation of sustainability accounting and reporting (SAR) is imperative to catalyse economic transition away from fossil-fuel and plastic configurations to more sustainable ones. The research proceeded sequentially. First, it scanned the backdrop to the SAR problem and identified key associated institutions and a corpus of recent literature. An initial review to disentangle its conflicting threads generated three themes of ‘climate crisis’ and ‘conservative’ or more ‘radical’ SAR reform paradigms. Iteratively harnessing this thematic lens, the investigation re-examined the SAR literature corpus. It detected fragmented SAR responses to the climate crisis. Accordingly, the research reformulated its first theme to ‘dystopic climate crisis fragmentation’ but only refined the other two conservative or radical themes to take account of materiality and the split between Anglo-Saxon (IFRS, SSAB) or global and continental institutions (UN, EU, GRI). Conservatives defend incremental standard improvements but retain a single materiality investor-focus. Radicals seek to implement double materiality with a broader spectrum of stakeholders in mind. Both approaches have theoretical as well as pragmatic advantages and disadvantages, so the SAR contention rumbles on. Whilst the standard setting landscape is evolving, division, paradox and contention remain. Given vested interests in the destructive status quo, it would be naïve to expect a harmonious SAR Ithaca to emerge anytime soon. Yet the challenges impel urgent action.

Understanding students' future intention to engage in sustainability accounting: the case of Malaysia and the Philippines

PurposeThe study investigates whether the level of sustainability concerns of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia and the Philippines is positively associated with accounting students' intentions to engage in sustainability accounting through its effect on students' attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control regarding environmental sustainability practices.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical study relies on a structural equation model computed using data collected through a questionnaire and data collected from the HEIs websites.FindingsThe findings show that the willingness to engage in sustainability accounting is determined by students' subjective norm and perceived behavioural control, but it is not determined by attitude regarding environmental sustainability practices. The authors also found that the greater the concern with sustainability of the HEI in which a student is enrolled, the greater his/her attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control towards environmental sustainability, and, indirectly, the greater his/her intention to engage in sustainability accounting.Originality/valueThese findings add to the literature on higher education and sustainability accounting by high-lighting the importance of the HEIs sector in promoting sustainability policies and practices, in acting as role models regarding sustainability issues, and in preparing students for building a sustainable society.

OBJECTIVES OF SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING AND ACCOUNTING IN SHARIA

Sustainability reporting and accounting practices spread by thousands companies attract Muslim researchers’ to affirm the sharia foundation on this issue. The purpose of this study is to straighten the basic objectives of sharia sustainability accounting and reporting. The technique was discourse analysis, by identifying comparisons the thought flows of standart about conventional and sharia sustainability reporting and accounting which were then examined based on the Qur'an. The results showed, the basic objectives of sharia sustainability reporting and accounting are; (1) accountability and (2) introspection. The results of this study have a theoretical contribution to the justification of differences in the meaning of the basic objectives of reporting and conventional and Islamic sustainability accounting. The results of the research can be a motivation for the Financial Services Authority (OJK) together with the Sharia Accounting Standards Board (DSAS) and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to hasten the formulation of sharia sustainability reporting and accounting standards that are suitable with the conditions in Indonesia, making it easier for business people to learn and apply the concept of sharia reporting and accounting for sustainability.

The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Disclosure and Sustainability Accounting on Earnings Response Coefficient (ERC)

The research aimed to analyze the factors which provide earning response coefficient (ERC) received by automotive manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange using indicators of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability accounting from 2013 through 2017. The purposive sampling technique was used to gather data with the criteria, according which 13 companies were obtained as samples, (1) automotive manufacturing companies in 2013 – 2017 listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) (2) automotive manufacturing companies that published the annual reports. Meanwhile, the data were obtained from IDX & published annual reports. The research used a panel data regression panel and data regression model as the analysis technique. The analysis consists of three methods, namely common effect method, fixed-effect and random effect, while the hypothesis testing used t-statistics to test partial regression coefficients and f statistics to test the effect simultaneously at the significance level of 5%. Eventually, the results of the analysis used E-views to show whether: (1) corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences the earnings response coefficient (ERC) and (2) sustainability accounting influences the ERC. The T-test analysis results used E-views to reveal whether CSR and sustainability accounting influence ERC in automotive manufacturing companies listed on the IDX in 2013 – 2017.

Demystifying cost misperception as a challenge to green building adoption in Nigeria

Purpose The pertinent information about green buildings (GB) is laden with cost misperceptions (CM) that are paraded into adoption decisions without factual clarifications. The unsupported beliefs are fundamental to the disparaging low adoption of related technologies globally. The purpose of this paper is to explore the causes of CMs among construction stakeholders and why is it difficult to discredit this information? Design/methodology/approach The research adopted two-tier approaches involving a Delphi study and a questionnaire survey. Construction stakeholders and GB experts, totalling 415 were surveyed, while 12 professionals participated in the Delphi study. This study analysed data from 254 valid responses using Factor Analysis, Fussy Set Theory and Kruskal Wallis test to explain why CMs are prevalent. Findings The causes of CMs converge towards seven principal factors including low knowledge of GB practices, non-familiarity with performance metrics, inadequate evidence, poor-risk perceptions and reliance on the costs of exemplar projects. The results were explained using gaps in cost management, knowledge and sustainability accounting to show the critical improvements that can benefit GB adoption. Practical implications CMs are not abstract but develop from patterns that can be detected and understood within a specific context. Growing GB projects within a region would improve cost information, sustainability accounting, cost management and quality of evidence. GB cost information paraded into adoption decision processes are overestimated and overvalued beliefs of their financial implications. Tackling the important sources of CMs in the study is appropriate to improve rational decision-making aiding GB adoption. Originality/value This study untied causes of negative dispositions towards the cost of GB that distort stakeholders’ adoption decisions.