Accounting Forum

Accounting and sustainable decision-making: Exploring the social psychological processes

Our current way of organizing the economy, business and social life is substantially un-sustainable because it is largely incapable of ensuring socio-ecological justice, equality, fairness, respect for human rights, transparency and responsibility. Structural transformations are required to envisage, design and implement a more sustainable model of society, business and economy. These transformations call for changes, among others, in the “sense-making” and “decision-making” (Weick et al., 2005) of socio-economic actors (e.g., policymakers, investors, managers, entrepreneurs, etc), i.e., in the processes through which these actors, at different levels of governance, construct their understandings and decisions about acting towards sustainability. These processes are guided by the existence of accounting-based information, which draws on accounting-based systems and/or calculative technologies. In particular, the way in which accounting is designed (e.g., rules/routines, procedures, systems) and accounting information produced/disclosed (e.g., format, nature, means) impact on decisions that may (or may not) enable sustainable change.

In the existing academic accounting literature, extensive attention has been given to the role of accounting in attending to sustainable issues and related decision-making processes. This literature has examined: a) how to calculate, manage and/or control the social and environmental effects of organizational activities as well as how to report information about these effects to stakeholders (e.g., Heggen, 2019; Jarvenpaa and Lansiluoto, 2016); b) what sustainable-related issues should be accounted for (Cho et al., 2022; Cuckston, 2017); c) the responsibilities and accountabilities which emerge from an ecological-centred view of sustainability (Dillard and Vinnari, 2019; Bebbington and Larrinaga, 2014); and d) the impact on organizations of specific accounting for sustainability practices (Contrafatto and Burns, 2013; Adams and Mc Nicholas, 2007). Much of this literature has largely adopted meso-to-macro and/or macro-to-meso levels of analyses which focus on organizations, organizational fields, communities and/or society. Relatively scarce attention has been devoted to the micro-level of analysis which involves the individuals and their role in mobilizing accounting for (un)sustainable decision-making. We argue that there is a need to ‘bring individuals and their sense-giving and making’ back in the analysis of accounting and sustainable decision-making. As emphasized by Hallett and Ventresca (2006), much organizational theory has assumed a macro-level structuralist perspective, one that emphasizes the ways in which supra-organizational symbolic systems constitute and direct action. This has both reified social [and organizational] structures and sacrificed the phenomenological focus on the human interactions that are the “beating heart” of institutions”.

Drawing on more recent calls to re-consider the neglected individuals and individual-level processes (Zilber, 2020), this special issue aims to extend our understanding of the process of sustainable decision-making by shedding light on the black box of the conditions and factors through which this process occurs and the role of individuals and their psychological aspects, such as identities, motivations, attitudes and feelings.

While macro-level approaches and theories in accounting have provided insights into the implementation and evolution of specific practices for sustainability and sustainable decision-making, they have often overlooked how psychological aspects, such as identities and feelings, shape and, at the same time, are shaped by these practices. On the other hand, the micro-level mechanisms behind decision-making reveal complex processes which inextricably link an individual’s identities, motivations, attitudes and feelings and organizational structures. For instance, prior research has emphasized the role of organizational identity in influencing decision-making and actions of organizational members as they recognise, evaluate, support and cease sustainability-related practices (Maughan, 2023). Furthermore, the role of collective identities on performance has also been explored (Van der Vegt and Bunderson, 2005) alongside how identities are influenced by cultural and institutional contexts. However, little is known about how an individual’s motivations, attitudes and feelings influence business practices by shaping how accounting and sustainability-related information are (or are not) mobilized for sustainable decision-making. A deeper understanding of these psychological factors and processes is needed if we want to ascertain how and the extent to which sustainable decisions are taken for realizing real sustainable transformation in current economy, business and society.

Research could be directed to the following areas:

1) The role of social identification: Exploring the role of social identity in the context of sustainable decision-making means taking into consideration how identities are constructed, i.e., what are the factors that influence the development of specific individual and/or social identities, and how social identities may shape the decision-making behaviour of accountants. This work may draw from the social identity approach to organizations (Tajfel and Turner, 1979; Turner et al., 1987) which argues that individuals have multiple levels of social identity, which become salient in different social (including organizational) contexts. Each of these social identities come with their own set of social norms about the appropriate ways to think, feel and act, which may lead to different behavioural outcomes depending on the salient social identity, and how strongly group members identify with the social category. Moreover, social influence is stronger between those who share the same social identity (ingroup members), resulting in potential leadership and followership consequences with regards to sustainable accounting decision-making. Processes of identity construction are influenced by the presence of accounting and accounting based information. While some studies have investigated the micro-foundations of decision-making (Shang et al., 2019), the nuances of identity construction and the effects of identities on decision-making in the context of sustainability remain underexplored. For example, while some research has examined how organizations’ identities emerge over time (Tregidga et al., 2014) and their enacted identities can enable the adoption of performative and representational sustainability management and accounting practices (such as environmental management accounting and social environmental reporting) (Maughan, 2023), little is known about the processes of identity construction and the role of accounting in this process. Finally, studies have been conducted to examine the role of metaphors in shaping professional identities (Goretzki et al., 2022); these studies open new avenues for exploring how sustainability narratives are crafted within organizations.

2) Motivations and attitudes: In the accounting for sustainability literature several studies have been conducted to explore the managerial attitudes and motivations for adopting specific accounting practices, and how these accounting practices have been involved in sustainable change (Adams, 2002; Contrafatto et al., 2019). However, little is known about how these motivations and attitudes are individually and collectively constructed, and how specific forms of accounting for sustainability could be involved in these construction processes. Such an exploration may consider the role of social identities in moulding motivations and attitudes and their consequences for sustainable accounting decision-making.

3) Feelings and emotions: Feelings and emotions, which are increasingly recognized as socially constructed aspects of an individuals’ life, play an important role in shaping individual and organizational behaviours (Creed at al., 2014; 2020). For instance, research in accounting has examined how particular feelings and emotions are constructed through specific accounting practices and templates. Further research should examine not only how these feelings and emotions are constructed but also the ways in which “particular social forms and behaviours are constituted through and by these feelings and vice-versa” (Friedland, 2018, p. 524).  Research may also examine how the relationship between social identities and emotional processes impacts accountants’ decision making.

We encourage the submission of full papers that address the following and related areas:

• How do social identities enable and constrain sustainable decision-making? And how can accounting navigate the tensions that may emerge in practice?
• How do the linguistic and discursive dimensions of identity shed light on how sustainability roles are constructed and legitimized?
• How do social identities within organizations influence the adoption and implementation of sustainable practices?
• How do the feelings and emotions of managers and accountants shape sustainable decision-making?
• What are the underlying motivations and attitudes that guide individuals towards valuing sustainability-oriented principles? How do these motivations translate into practices within organizations?
• How do individual-level factors such as attitudes influence collective decision-making in sustainable contexts? What mechanisms support or hinder sustainable practices?
• How do individual-level factors such as feelings, emotions and personal values influence the design and adoption of sustainability accounting frameworks?
• How do management accountants redefine their roles to act as sustainability partners in organizations? What identity shifts accompany this transformation, and how do they impact decision-making processes?

We invite the submission of interdisciplinary pieces of research which draw from wider accounting, management, organization and psychology disciplines. Also, we welcome research which adopts a wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches to offer novel, rigorous and in-depth insights into the above topics.