Some thoughts on social and environmental accounting education

Although there are probably more academics interested in the social and environmental dimensions of accounting than previously, there is still relatively little discussion of curricular and pedagogical issues in this branch of the accounting domain. This paper attempts to raise the structure of social and/or environmental dimensions within accounting education for debate. This is done by proposing the qualitative background to a social and environmental accounting course, and then suggesting curricular materials and assessment approaches that have been used in this area.     

More than ‘continuing professional development’: a proposed new learning framework for professional accountants

This paper explores literature relating to continuing professional development (CPD) and lifelong learning to develop an understanding of how the learning landscape has evolved in recent years, both in the accountancy profession and more widely. Three different perspectives on learning are drawn together and this synthesis is used to develop a framework for professional learning. In this, the concepts of CPD and lifelong learning are replaced with ‘learning relating to professional competence’ and ‘learning relating to career adaptability’. The framework also contrasts the learning of an ‘informed professional’, a ‘competent professional’ and a ‘complete professional’. This holistic model, derived from existing literature, will be of interest to professional accountancy bodies and educators of accountants and will inform their ongoing interactions with current and future professional accountants.     

Attitudes to the development and implementation of social and environmental accounting in Thailand

Motivated and shaped by a concern to realise the potentiality of accounting communication in relation to social and environmental issues in Thailand, this paper evaluates perceptions of current accounting as well as attitudes to social and environmental accounting among Thai accounting professionals. Making use of empirical data generated by questionnaire study and interviews, this paper aims to shed more light on the development and implementation of social and environmental accounting in Thailand. It argues that any change of accounting in future is likely to involve a change in the nature of the Thai accounting profession itself. The paper suggests ways in which the future development of social and environmental accounting practice might be given further impetus in the Thai context.     

The role and impact of professional accountancy associations on accounting education research: An international study

This paper explores the relative influence of the accounting academy and accountancy professional associations in the debate concerning the profile and quality of accounting education research. This research analyses 13 semi-structured interviews undertaken with members of key accounting professional associations in Australia, New Zealand (ANZ) and the United Kingdom and Ireland (UKI). The paper makes a theoretical contribution by the novel application of the institutional logics theory to the literature concerning professional accounting associations (PAAs) demonstrating the dominant commercial logic of the education function and the more traditional fiduciary logic of the technical function. The research finds that the primary stakeholders in the professional accounting curriculum development model are the PAAs and employers, whilst the accounting academy is relatively absent. The relative independence of the education and research and technical functions within PAAs is also identified: academic research and technical activity has little influence on professional education and vice versa. However, PAAs’ funding of academic research is common across all four countries for brand recognition and in some instances to influence policy rather than informing the professional curriculum.     

An integrated approach for green design: Life-cycle,fuzzy AHP and environmental management accounting

The growing awareness of environmental issues has made the design of eco-friendly products a critical task for modern businesses. Almost all the costs and the environmental performance of a product over its life-cycle are determined in its design and development phase. The selection of alternative green designs is, however, a major challenge in today's competitive environment. The increasing pressure on time-to-market conflicts with the analytical approach typically required when using conventional environmental management accounting (EMA) tools such as Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life-Cycle Costing (LCC). This paper introduces a comprehensive method that integrates the LCA and EMA concepts, fuzzy logic and Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), to measure the environmental and organisational performance of different designs. We propose a screening model to help designers reduce their reliance on LCA and present a case study to demonstrate that this approach provides a systematic method of evaluating alternative designs and identifying product design improvement options. The measurement approach presented in this research can help companies reduce development lead time by screening out undesirable design options. More importantly, the approach can be modelled with the mere use of an Excel spreadsheet, which means limited resources are needed to implement the proposed method.     

The effects of environmental,social and governance disclosures and performance on firm value: A review of the literature in accounting and finance

This paper not only attempts to survey the burgeoning literature on environmental, social and governance disclosures and performance and their effects on firm value, but its focus also lies on highlighting stylised observations coming from the most recent work that has not yet become part of the ‘conventional wisdom’ in the field. In addition, it outlines some of the crucial knowledge gaps and interesting questions that have not, as of yet, been addressed and thus outlines a potential agenda for future research on socially responsible investing. Lastly, it introduces the papers published in this special issue of the British Accounting Review.     

Modeling board governance,environmental expertise,and social engagement effects on firm environmental performance: Panel data evidence

Prior research establishes that board governance quality measures positively impact firm environmental performance. In this study, we propose an empirical model using structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore additional enhancements to board governance, namely board environmental expertise (BEE) and board social engagement (BSE) and show that they incrementally improve firm environmental performance (EN). Our proposed latent construct measure, BEE, goes beyond traditionally dichotomous measures used in the literature. BEE has a total effect on firm environmental performance that is over two thirds the size of effects arising from traditional governance quality measures (GOV). The second enhancement of our model is the focus on BSE, a novel construct to the CSR literature. In addition to possessing environmental knowledge enabling expertise, we demonstrate that a board with a deeper commitment to society will further improve firm environmental performance. Using SEM, we find that the indirect effects of GOV, BEE, and BSE on EN represent a substantial portion of the total effects on EN. Hence, ignoring these indirect effects would result in substantial understatement of the effects of improvements to governance on environmental performance.     

Social and environmental accounting teaching in UK and Irish Universities: a research note on changes between 1993 and 1998.

This research note reports on a questionnaire–based survey of the teaching of social and environmental accounting (SEA) in undergraduate accounting degrees throughout the British Isles in 1998. The study is a replication and extension of Owen et al. 's (1994) survey in 1993 and analyses the significant changes from that study. The results suggest that environmental accounting is still the most prevalent SEA topic taught; and educators teach SEA because of the political prominence of SEA issues. Any absence of SEA teaching appears to be due to lack of time and space in crowded curricula. SEA appears not to be taught in some universities despite sustained interest in, and debate about, the development of environmental and social responsibility agendas throughout the 1990s. As the accounting literature speaks of the failure of teaching to reflect business and practitioner needs (AECC, 1990b), the paper posits that the lack of SEA teaching may be seen as an illustration of this failing.     

Perspectives from mainland China,Hong Kong and the UK on the development of China’s auditing firms: implications and a research agenda

Based on gaining privileged access to interview senior representatives of audit firms, regulatory bodies, financial institutions, universities and other organisations in mainland China, Hong Kong and the UK, this exploratory study presents a range of informed views about the rapid development of China’s auditing profession over the last 25 years. It explores the emerging roles of the firms in the 2nd-tier international networks and among the larger stand-alone firms as challengers to the Big 4, nationally and internationally. It identifies national and international institutional interactions that have shaped and are being shaped by this rapid growth, with particular reference to the overarching role of the State’s shifting strategies to create a domestic profession in China that can compete internationally. The potential consequences, given China’s unequalled size and its expanding global influence, could change the nature and structure of the global profession. A significant contribution of this exploratory empirical study has been to deconstruct the continuing conventional political and academic rhetoric that dichotomises firms into ‘foreign vs local’ and ‘Big 4 vs other’. It contributes new voices and alternative perspectives to the emerging literature on the glocalization of large professional services firms and suggests new opportunities for future auditing research.