2008 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
The Development of Environmental Management Accounting: An Institutional View
Authors : Wei Qian, Roger Burritt
Published in: Environmental Management Accounting for Cleaner Production
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
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This paper explores and synthesises the development of corporate environmental management accounting (EMA) and the possible motivations for EMA from the perspective of institutional theory. The motivation for this paper is a belief that a focus on taxonomy and classification through institutional theory will help to produce better defined theory for scholars to accumulate knowledge about the development of EMA. It considers the possible development of EMA in relation to three pillars: regulatory, normative and cognitive institutions. This leads to an understanding of the development of EMA in four institutional contexts involving (i) direct regulatory pressures, (ii) social environmental movements, (iii) professional structure and inter-professional communication and (iv) environmental mimicry in specific organisational fields. The differences between these institutional influences on the development of EMA are discussed and finally, suggestions are provided about the potential future development of corporate EMA.