Markus J. Milne

Some determinants of social and environmental disclosures in New Zealand companies

Reports the results of a study on the social and environmental disclosure practices of New Zealand companies. In addition to providing an up‐to‐date description of such practices, and placing them in an international context, examines some potential determinants of these practices. Replicates and extends a recent US study (Patten, 1991). Makes improvements on Patten’s study by measuring the amount of disclosure as a continuous variable using both page amount and the number of sentences. The results indicate both measures are highly correlated. Consistent with Patten (1991) and other studies, reports that both company size and industry are significantly associated with social and environmental disclosures, and that profitability (both current and lagged) is not. In addition to these variables, provides some tentative evidence that New Zealand companies with dual (overseas) stock exchange listings are greater disclosers of social and environmental information.

Exploring the reliability of social and environmental disclosures content analysis

This paper reports the results of an exploratory study of inter‐coder reliability of annual report social and environmental disclosures content analysis. Using the sentence‐based coding instruments and decision rules from Hackston and Milne (1996), this study reports the co‐agreement levels reached by three coders over five rounds of testing 49 annual reports. The study also provides a commentary on the implications of formal reliability analysis for past and future social and environmental disclosures content analyses, and the complexities of formal reliability measurement. The overall findings suggest that the coded output from inexperienced coders using the Hackston and Milne approach with little or no prior training can be relied on for aggregate total disclosures analysis. For more detailed sub‐category analysis, however, the findings suggest a period of training for the less experienced coders with at least 20 reports appears necessary before their coded output could be relied on.

Securing organizational legitimacy

This paper explores the role that environmental disclosures might play in producing a legitimating effect on investors within the context of the chemical industry. By way of an experimental decision case it examines effects of negative, and the offsetting effects of positive, environmental disclosures surrounding chemical firms’ liabilities for toxic waste site liabilities. The paper outlines the theoretical bases for the process of organizational legitimation, and sets the decision experiment in a detailed historical analysis of the toxic waste problems of the 1970s that led to the enactment of legislation requiring clean up and imposing significant liabilities on chemical firms. The results from the decision experiment, which indicate that under some circumstances positive disclosures can restore or repair an organization’s legitimacy, are discussed in the context of the earlier theoretical and historical analysis.

Creating Adventures in Wonderland: The Journey Metaphor and Environmental Sustainability

This paper provides a critical exploration of the journey metaphor promoted in much business discourse on sustainability—in corporate reports and advertisements, and in commentaries by business and professional associations. The portrayal of ‘sustainability as a journey’ evokes images of organizational adaptation, learning, progress, and a movement away from business-as-usual practices. The journey metaphor, however, masks the issue of towards what it is that businesses are actually, or even supposedly, moving. It is argued that in constructing ‘sustainability as a journey’, business commentators and other purveyors of corporate rhetoric can avoid becoming embroiled in debates about future desirable and sustainable states of affairs—states of affairs, perhaps, which would question the very raison d’être for some organizations and their outputs. ‘Sustainability as a journey’ invokes a subtle and powerful use of language that appears to seriously engage with elements of the discourse around sustainable development and sustainability, but yet at the same time, paradoxically, may serve to further reinforce business-as-usual.

Improving the quality of accounting students' learning through action-oriented learning tasks

This paper argues that the basis for change in accounting education to more active student involvement is much broader than the need to supply the accounting professions with graduates who possess wider skills and competencies. Active student engagement, in fact, is seen by several educationalists as an essential ingredient to all student learning and the developing of lifelong learning skills. Drawing from our own experiences, the paper illustrates how problem-based and peer-assisted learning tasks can help promote many of the skills and competencies so desired by educationalists, professions, employers and universities alike. The paper also provides student feedback on the effectiveness of these learning tasks in helping to develop those attitudes, skills, and knowledge. Consistent with much of the evidence in the general education literature, and in comparison with more traditional lecture-tutorial based courses, the student feedback overwhelmingly supports the use of action-oriented learning tasks.

Problem-based learning: a pedagogy for using case material in accounting education

This paper provides an extensive review of the developments of problem-based learning (PBL). The paper describes an idealized PBL format and outlines the learning rationale for such an approach. The paper also reviews the empirical evidence from the medical literature, where PBL has undergone its greatest application. This literature, which has grown to be quite extensive, suggests PBL is particularly effective in developing self-directed learning behaviours in students as well as increasing their levels of motivation and clinical reasoning skills. The paper concludes that PBL approaches appear to be particularly suited to bridging the gap between tertiary education and life as a professional, and that accounting educators need to seriously consider such an approach as a means of organizing their case study material.

Sustainable “what”? A cognitive approach to understanding sustainable development

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of sustainable development held by New Zealand “thought leaders” and “influencers” promoting sustainability, business, or sustainable business. It seeks to compare inductively derived worldviews with theories associated with sustainability and the humanity-nature relationship. Design/methodology/approach - Worldviews were explored through a cognitive mapping exercise. A total of 21 thought leaders and influencers constructed maps of their understanding of sustainable development. These maps were analysed to reveal commonalities and differences. Findings - Participant maps illustrated disparate levels of detail and complexity. Those participants promoting business generally emphasized the economic domain, accepting economic growth and development as the key to sustainable development. An emphasis on the environmental domain, the future, limits to the Earths resources, and achievement through various radical means, was more commonly articulated by those promoting sustainability. Participants promoting sustainable business held elements of both approaches, combining an emphasis on the environmental domain and achievement of sustainable development by various reformist means. Research limitations/implications - This study identified the range of worldviews expressed by 21 thought leaders and influencers across three main domains only – promoters of sustainability, business or both. Extending this sample and exploring how these and other views arise and are represented within a wider population could be the subject of further research. Practical implications - Such divergence of opinion as to what connotes sustainable development across even a small sample does not bode well for its achievement. The elucidation of the worldview of promoters of sustainable business points to the need to consider more carefully the implications of environmentalism, and other aspects of sustainability, integrated into a business agenda. Originality/value - This paper contributes to empirical research on environmental worldviews which has barely penetrated discussion of sustainability within the management and business literature. It shows cognitive mapping to be an effective technique for investigating the meaning of a conceptual theme like sustainable development.

Comparing the investment decisions of accounting practitioners and students: an empirical study on the adequacy of student surrogates

Abstract The use of students as surrogates for non-students has been a controversial issue in behavioural accounting research. However, the empirical evidence on student surrogates suggests that students can be adequate surrogates for practitioners in decision-making tasks. This present paper seeks to examine the adequacy of accounting students as surrogates for their practising counterparts in an investment decision task. For this purpose, an experimental decision task used in Milne and Patten [Acc., Audit. Acc. J. 15 (3) (2002) 372] is replicated using student subjects. The results indicate that, in general, students’ short-term and long-term investment decisions compare well with those of the practitioners. These findings encourage more empirical investigations into the adequacy of students as surrogates for accounting practitioners.

Accounting, Environmental Resource Values, and Non‐market Valuation Techniques for Environmental Resources: A Review

The primary focus concerns the measurement of non‐market environmental effects. It is suggested that the formal decision analysis advocated in traditional management accounting typically excludes a wide range of nonfinancial activities and that developments in environmental economics may prove useful in the development of more explicit procedures for corporate decision making. Different approaches to environmental resource decision making are discussed, along with different notions of environmental value, including use, option and preservation values. Finally, the different methods suggested by economists to obtain monetary values for non‐market resources, specifically the dose‐response, hedonic price, travel cost, and contingent valuation methods, are reviewed, with mention of some implications for private decision makers and accountants.

Climate change accounting research: keeping it interesting and different

Purpose - This paper aims to set out several of the key issues and areas of the inter-disciplinary field of climate change research based in accounting and accountability, and to introduce the papers that compose this Design/methodology/approach - The paper provides an overview of issues in the science of climate, as well as an eclectic collection of independent and inter-disciplinary contributions to accounting for climate change. Through additional accounting analysis, and a shadow carbon account, it also illustrates how organisations and nations account for and communicate their greenhouse gas (GHG) footprints and emissions behaviour. Findings - The research shows that accounting for carbon and other GHG emissions is immensely challenging because of uncertainties in estimation methods. The research also shows the enormity of the challenge associated with reducing those emissions in the near future. Originality/value - The paper surveys past work on a wide variety of perspectives associated with climate change science, politics and policy, as well as organisational and national emissions and accounting behaviour. It provides an overview of challenges in the area, and seeks to set an agenda for future research that remains interesting and different.