Does corporate environmentalism have an influence on management accounting practices? A study of companies in environmental-sensitive industries

Abstract

Purpose - This study aims to investigate whether there is an association between level of corporate environmentalism as well as perceived impor-tance of including environmental aspects in the management accounting practices to achieve overall strategic goals and design of environmental-related management accounting practices. Methodology - The conceptualization proposed by Banerjee (2002) was used to measure the level of environmentalism and two proxies sug-gested by Frost and Wilmshurst (2000) to measure the design of manage-ment accounting practices. A web-based survey was distributed and an-swers were collected from 111 Swedish companies active in environ-mental-sensitive industries. Findings - The results show high significant correlations between envi-ronmentalism and the design of management accounting practices (Hy-pothesis 1) as well as between perceived importance of environmental-related management accounting practices in order to achieve strategic goals and management accounting practice design (Hypothesis 2). Originality - This is one of the first studies examining the association between environmentalism and design of management accounting prac-tices. It contributes to the research field since previous research regarding this relationship has been limited.