Social and Environmental Accounting Research: The Way Forward

Achieving economic efficiency is a necessary, but not a singular, requirement of business sustainability. Stakeholders demand business organisations are socially and environmentally responsible, and balancing financial performance and corporate sustainability are considered a major challenge in today’s economic environment. These challenges have triggered a growing interest in social and environmental research among academicians, governmental and professional bodies, and environmentalists. Numerous studies in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have focused on the issues of corporate social reporting, but limited attention has been given to investigate the question of how social and environmental issues are managed internally. Moreover, most of the previous studies in this area are characterized as normative and descriptive, using quantitative research methods. This paper accentuates the importance of more engagement with practice in social and environmental accounting research, and provides a critical review of developments with specific emphasis on the field of management accounting.