Gillian Vesty

Creating numbers: carbon and capital investment

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to seek to illustrate the way in which carbon emissions are given calculative agency. The authors contribute to sociology of quantification with a specific focus on the performativity of the carbon number as it was introduced to the organization’s capital investment accounts. In following an intangible gas to a physical amount and then to a dollar value, the authors used categories from the sociology of quantification (Espeland and Stevens, 2008) to explore the persuasive attributes of the newly created number and the way it changed the work of actors, including the way they reacted and viewed authority. Design/methodology/approach - – An empirical case study in a large Australian water utility drawing on insights from the sociology of calculation. Findings - – The authors present empirics on the calculative appeal of the carbon emissions number, how it came into being and its performative (or reactive) effects. The number disciplined behaviour and acted like a boundary object, while at the same time, enroled allies through its aesthetic appeal in management accounting system designs. In framing the empirics, the authors were able to highlight how the carbon number became a visible actor in the newly emergent and evolving carbon market. Practical implications - – This paper provides an empirical framing that continues the project of writing the sociology of calculation into accounting. Originality/value - – This study contributes to the sociology of quantification in accounting with an empirical framing device to reveal the representational work of a number and how it expands as it becomes implicated in broader networks of calculation.

Conceptualising integrated thinking in practice

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to offer theoretical and practical insights on the ways in which integrated thinking is observed in practice. Integrated thinking is linked to integrated reporting, and described as an attribute or capacity for senior management to constructively manage tensions between the multiple capitals (manufactured, intellectual, human, natural, social and relationship as well as financial capital) in strategy, resource allocation, performance measurement and control. Design/methodology/approach - – A theoretical framework is developed from the accounting and systems thinking literature, linking integrated thinking to sustainability. Soft versus hard integrated thinking approaches are applied to contrast the siloed management of sustainability with a model that focuses on relationships and broader indicators of societal health and well-being. Practical illustrations of the conceptualised framework are presented for discussion and for further empirical research. Findings - – The illustrative examples offer a diversity of corporate, government and not-for-profit viewpoints, providing evidence of both hard and soft integrated thinking in practice. Valuable insights are provided into innovative approaches that foster and make explicit the soft integrated thinking skills and map them to broader societal outcomes. Research limitations/implications - – Potential problems can arise if hard integrated thinking dominates over the soft, and data required for internal management accounting purposes become narrow, linear and segregated. Routines and practices will then be based on quasi-standards, further concealing the soft integrated thinking that might be occurring within the organisation. Originality/value - – With theoretical roots in systems thinking, this paper contributes to the relatively underexplored area of integrated thinking in accounting for sustainability.

Accounting Values, Controversies, and Compromises in Tests of Worth

Abstract This article will consider the various ways in which accounting can be conceptualized within Boltanski and Thevenot’s economies of worth theoretic. Drawing on two case illustrations, a not-for-profit welfare agency and a government-owned water utility, we follow the unfolding of disputes and the variety of outcomes in which accounting is implicated. We illustrate the role of accounting in justificatory actions and the ways in which it “holds things together” in compromise arrangements. We also illustrate the situations which challenge the “test” of worth and the innovative accounting responses that either facilitate coordination and agreement or become controversial and be the object of organizational and institutional dispute.

Management accounting and biodiversity: the cultural circuit of capitalism and the social construction of a perfect market?

In this chapter, we draw on recent case study insights to illustrate, through biodiversity market participants, the ways in which theories in management accounting affect practice. In particular, we build on Thrifts (2005) cultural circuit of capitalism to investigate the influence of full cost accounting (FCA) on practice. While economic models, such as FCA, provide some guidance toward managing the biodiversity crisis, a long history of literature documenting research-practice gaps in management accounting suggest otherwise. With management decisions guided by the larger social context in which they operate, the extent to which normative techniques are operationalized in practice can vary considerably. In this chapter, the influential network of producers and consumers of managerial knowledge is mapped to better understand the construction of the “theoretical enterprise” and the organizational processes to address inconsistencies in the market.