The role and perception of accountants on environmental management accounting in an emerging market: Study on South Africa’s companies.
Abstract
This research explores the role and views of accountants in environmental management accounting (EMA) and environmental performance. The study relied on a survey of 86 chief finance officers, accountants and finance managers from the top 40 listed South African companies. The chief finance officers, accountants and finance managers confess that they lack understanding on in what way environmental issues can be incorporated into EMA. In addition, the professionals disclose that EMA has not had an ample consideration by their companies. This suggests that a limited involvement by the accountants in EMA in South Africa exists. Hence, the sampled chief finance officers, accountants and finance managers indicated that they are not sure of their potential responsibility. This shows that South African accountants are noticeably absent from participating in EMA. This has been ascribed to EMA being a new branch of accounting, their little aptitude in environmental issues and also the voluntary nature bestowed on EMA practices. Therefore, this paper will increase literature on the views of accountants on EMA from a developing country’s perspective.
References
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Burritt, R. 2002. Environmental reporting in Australia: Current practices and issues for the future. Bus. Strategy Environ, 11, 391–406.
Çalıskan. A.O. 2014. How accounting and accountants may contribute in sustainability? Social Responsibility Journal, 10(2):246-267.
Chathurangani, H. B. P. & Madhusanka, K. J. S. 2019. Environmental management accounting (EMA) adoption level among listed manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka: Institutional theory perspective. Research in Social Sciences, 2:1-12.
CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants). 2019. An exploration of the implementation and usefulness of environmental management accounting: A comparative study between Australia and Sri Lanka. CIMA Research Executive Summary, 15(3):1-23.
Deegan, C., Geddes, S. & Staunton, J. 2011. “A survey of Australian accountants’ attitudes on environmental reporting”. Accounting Forum, 19(2):143–156.
Deegan, C. 2013. The accountant will have a central role in saving the planet . . .really? A reflection on ‘green accounting and green eyeshades twenty years later. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 249(2013):448-458.
Gibassier, D. & Alcouffe, S. (2018) Environmental management accounting: the missing link to sustainability? Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 38:1, 1-18, DOI: 10.1080/0969160X.2018.1437057
Dixon, R., Mousa, G. A., & Woodhead, A. D. 2004. The necessary characteristics of environmental auditors: a review of the contribution of the financial auditing
profession. Accounting Forum, 28(2):119-138.
Dorweiler, V. P. & Yakhou, M. 2005. A perspective on the environment’s balance sheet. The Journal of American Academy of Business, 7(2):16-22
Gray, R. & Babbington, J. 2007. Accounting for the Environment (2nd ed.). UK: Sage Publications
Homan, H. 2016. Environmental accounting roles in improving the environmental performance and financial performance of the company. South East Asia Journal of Contemporary Business, Economics and Law, 11(1):9-16.
IFAC (International Federation of Accountants). 2005. International Guidance Document: Environmental Management Accounting. New York, USA: International Federation of Accountants.
Kelsall, C.A. 2020. Ecological management accounting-taking into account sustainability, does accounting have far to travel? Sustainability, 12:1-28.
Lodhia, S.K. 2000. Fiji accountants and environmental accounting: An empirical study on their views on a non-traditional phenomenon. Paper presented at the Accounting Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference, Hamilton Island, July 2-4.
Lodhia, S. 2003. Accountants’ responses to the environmental agenda in a developing nation: an initial and exploratory study on Fiji. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 14:715–737. doi:10.1016/S1045-2354(02)00190-9
Mohamed, R. & Jamil, Z.M. 2018. Environmental management accounting and environmental performance, Asia Proceedings of Social Sciences, 1(2):33-36.
Ong, J., Noordin, R. & Jaidi, J. 2020. Environmental management accounting in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. Asian Journal of Accounting Perspective, 13(1):85-103.
Phan, T, N., Baird, K. & Sophia Su, S. 2017. The use and effectiveness of environmental management accounting. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 24(4):355-374. DOI: 10.1080/14486563.2017.1354235
Sari, R.N., Pratadina, A., Anugerah, R. & Kamaliah, K. 2020. Effect of environmental management accounting practices on organizational performance: role of process innovation as a mediating variable. Business Process Management Journal, 12(7):1-19.
Schaltegger, S. 2018. Linking environmental management accounting: A reflection on (missing) links to sustainability and planetary boundaries. Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 38:1:19-29, DOI: 10.1080/0969160X.2017.1395351
Schaltegger, S. & Zvezdov, D. 2015. “Gatekeepers of sustainability information: exploring the roles of accountants.” Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change, 11: 333–361. doi:10.1108/JAOC-10-2013-0083.
Qian, W., Horisch, J. & Schaltegger, S. 2018. Environmental management accounting and its effects on carbon management and disclosure quality. Journal of Cleaner Production, 174(2018):1608-1619.
Wycherley, I. 1997. “Environmental managers and accounting. Journal of Applied Management Studies, 6(2):169–185.
Authors
NyahunaT. and Doorasamy M. (2022) “The role and perception of accountants on environmental management accounting in an emerging market: Study on South Africa’s companies. ”, Jurnal Pengelolaan Sumberdaya Alam dan Lingkungan (Journal of Natural Resources and Environmental Management). Bogor, ID, 12(2), pp. 388-394. doi: 10.29244/jpsl.12.2.388-394.
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