Ambiguity of financial environmental information

Matias Laine, Janne T. Järvinen, Timo Hyvönen, Hannele Kantola
2017 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal  
We are grateful for the comments provided in those sessions by the participants and by our discussants Charles H. Cho (CSAFC), Paulina Arroyo (ENROAC) and Jan Bebbington (EAA), as well as for the insightful comments of the two anonymous reviewers. Moreover, we wish to acknowledge financial support received for this study from the Academy of Finland (project 250478) and the Finnish Foundation for Economic Education. The usual caveat applies. 2 Ambiguity of financial environmental information: A
more » ... ase study of a Finnish energy company Structured Abstract Purpose: Voluntary corporate social responsibility reporting has developed into an everyday activity for many commercial organizations, and scholarly interest in these practices continues to increase. This paper focuses on one subset of these disclosures, namely the figures relating to environmental expenditures and investments published by various organizations. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the nature, role and significance of such financial environmental information. Despite their seeming accuracy and preciseness, little is known about how such financial environmental information is constructed and subsequently used in organizational settings. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a qualitative case study focusing on a Finnish energy company. We build our investigation primarily on 26 semi-structured interviews with employees at all organizational levels, which we supplement with various documentary sources. Our interpretation draws on the notion of loose coupling, which we use as a method theory to provide a better understanding of this complex organizational practice. Findings: We highlight the ambiguous and imprecise nature of the outwardly accurate figures provided by the company. We argue that disclosed financial environmental information is only loosely coupled with various dimensions, including the organization's actual activities, its environmental impacts and organizational decisionmaking. Originality/value: Our findings contrast with those of some prior research, which has considered financial environmental information highly valuable. As for broader implications, the paper discusses the accuracy of public records based on such ambiguous organizational figures.
doi:10.1108/aaaj-02-2015-1961 fatcat:tthoaucclnf4fnmf46ne4cussq