Research Seminar by professor Matias LAINE

Department : Accounting and Management Control

Speaker : Matias LAINE (Tampere University)

Room : Building V, Ramanantsoa 

and by zoom :  https://hec-fr.zoom.us/j/98705751708

Accounting inscriptions and low-carbon futures

Abstract: 

In this paper we draw on a qualitative case study to discuss how climate change and carbon emissions are incorporated into accounting inscriptions at a major carbon-intensive industrial corporation. With runaway wildfires and flash floods becoming commonplace across the globe, grand challenges related to climate change are increasingly tangible, and calls for sustainability transitions remain frequent. While it is well established that accounting and accounting practices are at the heart of organizational decision-making, our understanding of the potential role and effects carbon accounting(s) might have in the pursuit of low carbon futures in organizations remains limited. Accordingly, in this study we make use of a set of interviews with 27 individuals collected in 2022-2023 together with documentary material to shed further light on the role accounting can play in organisations’ engagement with climate change. Drawing on past literature on accounting and inscriptions, we focus in this paper on examining the role three accounting inscriptions had in shaping how our case company navigated the inherent tension between shareholder value and ambitious climate goals. Our findings reveal the different ways in which accounting inscriptions materialized the elusive nature of carbon in corporate activities, while negating, revealing or hiding the tension between shareholder value and carbon ambitions. Moreover, the performative effect of each inscription portrays different low-carbon futures on the firm’s horizon, with each inscription contributing to orient, delimitate and confine discussions, reflections and actions on the low-carbon future of the case firm.