Can financialization save nature? The case of endangered species

The current biodiversity loss is dramatic. Over the past 50 years, more than 68% of the mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish on earth have disappeared, putting the planet\u27s survival and its inhabitants – including human beings – at risk (WWF, 2020). Financialization, or the transformation of nature into financial assets, is increasingly proposed as a solution to the biodiversity crisis. Proponents of financialization believe that assigning a monetary value to nature will incentivize human beings to protect habitats and their species. This article offers a four-mechanism model of nature’s financialization, explaining why it is virtually impossible to financialize nature. We collected data through a unique two-stage data collection process, including a single case study and additional interviews with conservationists and conservation finance specialists. We analyzed the development of a calculative device, the “Index,” designed to assess the impact of conservation efforts on the survival of endangered species. Conservationists hoped to use the Index to calculate the financial return of a conservation impact bond (CIB), a financial instrument designed to finance conservation projects. However, they did not achieve their goal. We discuss the implications for the financialization and conservation literature and the role of accounting therein. We notably question previous accounts of financialization, including the need for financial numbers or financial actors. We ultimately show that a financialization project can transform practices towards financialization, even if the financialization process is not complete

“Integrated Reporting Is Like God: No One Has Met Him, but Everybody Talks About Him.” The Power of Myths in the Adoption of Management Innovations

Purpose: This paper analyzes the process through which an IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council) pilot company adopted “integrated reporting” (IR), a management innovation that merges financial and non-financial reporting. Design/methodology/approach: We use a seven-year longitudinal ethnographic study based on semi-structured interviews, observations, and documentary evidence to analyze this multinational company’s IR adoption process from its decision to become an IIRC pilot organization to the publication of its first integrated report. Findings: We demonstrate that the company envisioned IR as a “rational myth” (Hatchuel, 1998; Hatchuel and Weil, 1992). This conceptualization acted as a springboard for IR adoption, with the mythical dimension residing in the promise that IR had the potential to portray global performance in light of the company’s own foundational myth. The company challenged the vision of IR suggested by the IIRC to stay true to its conceptualization of IR and eventually chose to implement its own version of an integrated report. Originality/value: We enrich previous research on integrated reporting and management innovations by showing how important it is for organizations to acknowledge the mythical dimension of the management innovations they pursue to support their adoption processes. Based on these findings, we argue that myths can play a productive role in transforming business (reporting) practices. We also identify some transition conditions that make this transformation possible and discuss the implications of these results for the future of IR, sustainability and accounting more broadly

From Share Value to Shared Value: Exploring the Role of Accountants in Developing Integrated Reporting in Practice

The corporate reporting landscape has evolved in the last 20 years from financial reporting to sustainability reporting to “integrated reporting.” The corporate reporting history abounds with different attempts at integrating sustainability accounting with financial accounting (e.g., the Corporate Report 1975 and the “Triple Bottom Line” concept) and thereby attempting to report in an integrated manner. The first corporate integrated reports appeared in 2002, but the new trend remained in the margins. Since 2010, the IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council) has led the work on building the first Integrated Reporting (IR) framework, published in December 2013. The accounting profession has played a crucial role in pushing the idea of integrated reporting forward. Now it is looking at how it can best participate in IR corporate practice. This report is aimed at accountants who would like to get involved more closely, or even drive, the IR efforts within their company. We begin with an overview of the origins of IR combined with calls for its development, emphasizing the role of the accounting profession in the development of this new corporate reporting framework. Then we discuss the benefits of IR, centered on the holistic thinking it can foster in companies, enabling them to reconsider sustainability challenges and leveraging a stakeholder-inclusive approach to corporate reporting. We then focus on the involvement of accountants within the implementation of IR. Finally, we elaborate on today’s challenges for IR, which include developing a materiality matrix, designing a project mode for the first IR publication process, designing integrated information systems, and navigating the legal environment surrounding IR. The report is based on participative observation within a leading multinational company—pilot of the IIRC—semi-structured interviews with international experts and other multinational companies on their IR journey, as well as documentary evidence collected from 2011 to 2015

Le développement du contrôle de gestion environnemental : Institutionnalisation, adoption et pratiques

This dissertation explores the notion of environmental management accounting innovation and aims to explore how they are created, if they are adopted or not into companies and the consequences thereof, and finally how they are practiced. Research methods combine participant observation, semi-structured interviews and secondary data. This dissertation is composed of three articles that together explore the different facets of management accounting innovations. The first article tackles the question of how innovations get created and on their path to institutionalization. The focus is on the actors and their strategies, the who and how of the institutionalization process. Through an in-depth case study of one organization, the second article uncovers the process of the non-adoption of a carbon accounting methodology. The third article analyses the practices surrounding and accounting innovation in a multinational.Overall, this dissertation makes three main theoretical contributions on the specific institutional work developed by elite, the role of internal legitimacy in organizational legitimacy, and on the processes of co-emergence of new practices. This research on EMA innovations also contributes to further understanding how sustainable development can be pursued through accounting in organizationsCette thèse explore la notion d’innovations en contrôle de gestion environnemental et vise à explorer la façon dont elles sont créées, si elles sont adoptées ou non dans les entreprises et les conséquences de l’adoption, et enfin comment elles sont pratiquées. Les méthodes de recherche combinent l’observation participante, les entretiens semi-directifs et des données secondaires. Cette thèse est composée de trois articles qui explorent ensemble les différentes facettes de l’innovation en contrôle de gestion. Le premier article aborde la question de comment les innovations sont créées et leur processus d’institutionnalisation. L’accent est mis sur les acteurs et leurs stratégies, le qui et le comment du processus d’institutionnalisation. Grâce à une étude de cas approfondie d’une organisation, le deuxième article révèle le processus de non-adoption d’une méthodologie de comptabilité carbone. Le troisième article analyse les pratiques entourant une innovation en contrôle de gestion dans une multinationale. Dans l’ensemble cette thèse fait trois principales contributions théoriques sur le travail institutionnel spécifique développé par les élites, le rôle de la légitimité interne dans la légitimité organisationnelle, et sur les processus de co-émergence de nouvelles pratiques. Cette recherche sur les innovations en contrôle de gestion environnemental contribue également à mieux comprendre comment le développement durable peut aussi être atteint à travers la comptabilité dans les organisations

The corporate reporting landscape:a market for virtue or the virtue of marketization?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to further elaborate on the topic of standardization bodies and standards “wars” within the “market for virtue” (Vogel, 2005). This paper is a commentary on the paper by Zinenko et al. (2015) who analyze the fit between different CSR instruments at the field and the organizational level. Design/methodology/approach – This is a commentary based on secondary data analysis. Findings – This commentary reviews the implications of Zinenko et al.’s (2015) paper for research on the CSR reporting landscape and provides some additional insights into coopetition practices and the impact on organizations. It elaborates both on the development of marketization strategies and the impact of this “marketization” on what the CSR standards were initially designed for. Originality/value – This commentary provides six avenues for research, which are: coopetition between standard-setters, the influence of adopters on the development of standards, the key intermediary role of investors and analysts, the governance processes of standard-setting organizations, the role of the state in the arena of private CSR instruments and, finally, the disruption and maintenance of work linked to existing standards. </jats:sec

Environmental accounting standardization: the state of play

International audienc