Abstract
Sustainability accounting (SA from now on) could be defined in a sense as the ‘armed arm’ of Corporate Social Responsibility. Without an agreed SA, CSR seems not being able to go beyond rhetoric [Owen and Swift (Business Ethics 10:4–8, 2001)] and ideology for legitimacy [Guthrie and Parker (Accounting and Business Research 19:343–352, 2012)], resulting simply on involvement of stakeholders into the concerns, profit or non-profit they are, but not being able to measure the extent and outcomes of this involvement. Our work is shared into four main following sections, out of a conclusive one. The second one will deal with the process of normativisation, with particular concern to sustainability reporting. The third one is a sort of ‘core business’ for the chapter, because it tries to explore fully the isomorphisms between financial reporting and sustainability reporting. The fourth one, moreover, compares the financial and ‘sustainability’ dimensions to be disclosed, evidencing as well similarities as dissimilarities. The fifth one, and last-but-one, section finally treats of the major consequences on future investigations from the awareness of isomorphism between SA and FA.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance. The Academy of Management Review, 4(4), 497–505.
Christie, N., Dyck, B., Morrill, J., & Stewart, R. (2013). Aristotle to rethink generally accepted accounting principles. Business and Society Review, 118(3), 383–411.
Cooper, S. M., & Owen, D. L. (2007). Corporate social reporting and stakeholder accountability: The missing link. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 32(7–8), 649–667.
Frankental, P. (2001). Corporate social responsibility—A PR invention? Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 6(1), 18–23.
Frost, G. (2007). The introduction of mandatory environmental reporting guidelines: Australian evidence. Abacus, 43(2), 190–216.
Gray, R., Owen, D., & Adams, C. (1996). Accounting & accountability: Changes and changes in corporate social and environmental reporting. London: Prentice Hall.
Gray, R., Owen, D., & Maunders, K. (1987). Corporate social reporting: Accounting and accountability. London: Prentice Hall.
Guthrie, J., & Parker, L. D. (2012). Corporate social reporting: A rebuttal of legitimacy theory. Accounting and Business Research, 19(76), 343–352.
Owen, D., & Swift, T. (2001). Introduction social accounting, reporting and auditing: Beyond the rhetoric? Business Ethics, 10(1), 4–8.
Owen, D. L., Swift, T., & Hunt, K. (2001). Questioning the role of stakeholders engagement in social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting. Accounting Forum, 25(3), 264–282.
Perraul Crawford, E., & Clark Williams, C. (2010). Should corporate social reporting be voluntary or mandatory? Evidence from the banking sector in France and the United States. Corporate Governance, 10(4), 512–526.
Phillips, R., Freeman, R. E., & Wicks, A. C. (2003). What stakeholder theory is not. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(4), 479–502.
Ramanathan, K. V. (1976). Toward a theory of corporate social accounting. The Accounting Review, 51(3), 516–528.
Reynolds, M. (2007). Accounting, communication, social responsibility and justice—A short essay on complexity. In R. Gray & J. Guthrie (Eds.), Social accounting, mega accounting and beyond: A festschrift in honour of M.R. Mathews. St. Andrews: The Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research.
Solomons, D. (1974). Corporate social performance: A new dimension in accounting reports? In H. E. Edey & B. S. Yamey (Eds.), Debts, credits, finance and profits (pp. 131–141). London: Sweet and Maxwell.
Sternberg, E. (2004). Corporate governance: Accountability in the marketplace. London: Institute of Economic Affairs.
Tilt, C. A. (2009). Corporate responsibility, accounting and accountants. In S. O. Idowu & W. L. Filho (Eds.), Professionals’ perspectives of corporate social responsibility (pp. 11–32). Berlin: Springer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Costa, M. (2020). Isomorphisms Between Financial and Sustainability Accounting Some Introductory Notes. In: Idowu, S., Sitnikov, C. (eds) Essential Issues in Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39229-1_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39229-1_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-39228-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-39229-1
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)