The potential for environmental management accounting development in China
Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change
ISSN: 1832-5912
Article publication date: 7 September 2015
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the extent to which Chinese businesses are ready for Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) development as a means to help address ongoing tensions between economic growth and environmental degradation.
Design/methodology/approach
Case studies were conducted in three large manufacturing companies in the Central China region. Data gathering included 34 interviews with managers at different levels and departments in these companies.
Findings
Through the institutional lens of EMA development, it was found that coercive and cognitive institutions have helped build the potential for EMA development. Coercive institutions encouraging corporate EMA development are manifested through increasing regulatory pressure for environmental management and reporting and increasing pressure for compliance under certified environmental management systems. Cognitive pressures are mainly from the perceived need for cognition by international supply chain alliances. Results also revealed that normative institutions serve to reduce the positive impacts of coercive and cognitive institutions on EMA development.
Research limitations/implications
Findings imply that managers in heavy manufacturing companies are generally willing to change and prepare for EMA development under perceived high regulatory, economic, environmental and international pressures. However, the readiness of managers to embrace EMA depends on how soon concerns about regulatory inconsistency at local levels and low environmental awareness among employees can be resolved.
Originality/value
This is the first study of EMA in the largest developing country. It enhances the understanding of environmental activities in business and identifies issues associated with the development of EMA in Chinese industries.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on this paper. The authors also acknowledge the helpful comments received at the 2013 Global Environmental and Sustainability Management Accounting Conference (Gold Coast, Queensland, July 2013) on an earlier version of this paper. Special thanks are given to Professor Zahizul Hoque and Associate Professor Muhammad Azizul Islam for their valuable suggestions on institutional theory and different angles/perspectives adopted in this theory during the discussion at the conference. Thanks are also given to the guest editors of this special edition, Associate Professor John Sands and Dr Ki-Hoon Lee, for their encouragement for the study of environmental management accounting in China.
Citation
Qian, W., Burritt, R. and Chen, J. (2015), "The potential for environmental management accounting development in China", Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 406-428. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAOC-11-2013-0092
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited