IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v39y2014i6p433-452.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Governmentality in accounting and accountability: A case study of embedding sustainability in a supply chain

Author

Listed:
  • Spence, Laura J.
  • Rinaldi, Leonardo

Abstract

This paper examines how the introduction of sustainability accounting has been used by an organization as a means to seek to govern social, economic and environmental issues relating to suppliers. The concept of governmentality and four analytics of government are proposed as a means to examine systematic ways of exercising power and authority. This theoretical framework illuminates the specific rationales and practices of government that enable particular aspirations of reform – such as sustainability – to be constituted. The analysis is informed by the discussion of the implementation of sustainability-orientated regimes of practice in the context of a single supply chain within a major supermarket chain in the UK against the theoretical analytics of government. The paper provides novel empirical insights into how sustainability accounting shaped forms of power, rationales and practices in a supply chain. It explores the extent to which senior decision-takers frame and use sustainability accounting to foster disciplinary effects based ostensibly upon social and environmental goals. These are found in practice to be reformulated primarily according to an economic (rather than social or environmental) regime of practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Spence, Laura J. & Rinaldi, Leonardo, 2014. "Governmentality in accounting and accountability: A case study of embedding sustainability in a supply chain," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 433-452.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:39:y:2014:i:6:p:433-452
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2012.03.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368212000281
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.aos.2012.03.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Kornberger & Chris Carter, 2010. "Manufacturing competition: how accounting practices shape strategy making in cities," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(3), pages 325-349, March.
    2. van der Meer-Kooistra, Jeltje & Vosselman, Ed G. J., 2000. "Management control of interfirm transactional relationships: the case of industrial renovation and maintenance," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 51-77, January.
    3. Seal, Willie & Berry, Anthony & Cullen, John, 2004. "Disembedding the supply chain: institutionalized reflexivity and inter-firm accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 73-92, January.
    4. Vaivio, J., 2006. "The accounting of "The Meeting": Examining calculability within a "Fluid" local space," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 735-762, November.
    5. Radcliffe, Vaughan S., 1998. "Efficiency audit: An assembly of rationalities and programmes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 377-410, May.
    6. Habib Mahama & Chen Yu Ming, 2009. "Currency options trading practices and the construction and governance of operational risk," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(4), pages 626-660, May.
    7. Bob Frame & Jo Cavanagh, 2009. "Experiences of sustainability assessment: An awkward adolescence," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 195-208, September.
    8. Baiman, Stanley & Rajan, Madhav V., 2002. "Incentive issues in inter-firm relationships," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 213-238, April.
    9. Dekker, Henri C., 2004. "Control of inter-organizational relationships: evidence on appropriation concerns and coordination requirements," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 27-49, January.
    10. Shona L. Russell & Ian Thomson, 2009. "Analysing the role of sustainable development indicators in accounting for and constructing a Sustainable Scotland," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 225-244, September.
    11. Cho, Charles H. & Patten, Dennis M., 2007. "The role of environmental disclosures as tools of legitimacy: A research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(7-8), pages 639-647.
    12. Li, Suhong & Ragu-Nathan, Bhanu & Ragu-Nathan, T.S. & Subba Rao, S., 2006. "The impact of supply chain management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 107-124, April.
    13. Abu Shiraz Rahaman & Jeff Everett & Dean Neu, 2007. "Accounting and the move to privatize water services in Africa," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(5), pages 637-670, September.
    14. Jeacle, Ingrid & Walsh, Eamonn J., 2002. "From moral evaluation to rationalization: accounting and the shifting technologies of credit," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 737-761, November.
    15. Free, Clinton, 2008. "Walking the talk? Supply chain accounting and trust among UK supermarkets and suppliers," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 629-662, August.
    16. Russell Cooper & Douglas V. DeJong & Robert Forsythe & Thomas W. Ross, 1989. "Communication in the Battle of the Sexes Game: Some Experimental Results," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 20(4), pages 568-587, Winter.
    17. Robert Ochoki Nyamori, 2009. "Construction and effects of markets in a local authority in New Zealand," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(7), pages 1055-1086, September.
    18. Neu, Dean & Graham, Cameron, 2006. "The birth of a nation: Accounting and Canada's first nations, 1860-1900," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 47-76, January.
    19. Mitchell J. Stein, 2008. "Beyond the boardroom: governmental perspectives on corporate governance," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(7), pages 1001-1025, September.
    20. Pratima Bansal, 2005. "Evolving sustainably: a longitudinal study of corporate sustainable development," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 197-218, March.
    21. Unerman, Jeffrey & Bennett, Mark, 2004. "Increased stakeholder dialogue and the internet: towards greater corporate accountability or reinforcing capitalist hegemony?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 685-707, October.
    22. Frame, Bob & Cavanagh, Jo, 2009. "Experiences of sustainability assessment: An awkward adolescence," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 195-208.
    23. Graham, Cameron, 2010. "Accounting and the construction of the retired person," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 23-46, January.
    24. Jan Bebbington, 2009. "Measuring sustainable development performance: Possibilities and issues," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 189-193, September.
    25. Knights, David & Collinson, David, 1987. "Disciplining the shopfloor: A comparison of the disciplinary effects of managerial psychology and financial accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 457-477, August.
    26. Everett, Jeff & Neu, Dean & Rahaman, Abu Shiraz, 2007. "Accounting and the global fight against corruption," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 513-542, August.
    27. Darlene Himick, 2009. "Accounting and Chilean pension reform," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(3), pages 405-428, March.
    28. Miller, Peter & O'Leary, Ted, 1987. "Accounting and the construction of the governable person," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 235-265, April.
    29. Norman, Wayne & MacDonald, Chris, 2004. "Getting to the Bottom of “Triple Bottom Line”," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 243-262, April.
    30. Jeffrey Unerman & Brendan O'Dwyer, 2006. "Theorising accountability for NGO advocacy," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(3), pages 349-376, April.
    31. Russell, Shona L. & Thomson, Ian, 2009. "Analysing the role of sustainable development indicators in accounting for and constructing a Sustainable Scotland," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 225-244.
    32. Young, Joni J., 1995. "Getting the accounting "right": Accounting and the savings and loan crisis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 55-80, January.
    33. Richardson, Alan J., 2009. "Regulatory networks for accounting and auditing standards: A social network analysis of Canadian and international standard-setting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 571-588, July.
    34. Patten, Dennis M., 1992. "Intra-industry environmental disclosures in response to the Alaskan oil spill: A note on legitimacy theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 471-475, July.
    35. Frances, Jennifer & Garnsey, Elizabeth, 1996. "Supermarkets and suppliers in the United Kingdom: System integration, information and control," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 591-610, August.
    36. Alan McKinlay & Chris Carter & Eric Pezet & Stewart Clegg, 2010. "Using Foucault to make strategy," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(8), pages 1012-1031, October.
    37. Lohmann, Larry, 2009. "Toward a different debate in environmental accounting: The cases of carbon and cost-benefit," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 499-534, April.
    38. Cho, Charles H. & Roberts, Robin W. & Patten, Dennis M., 2010. "The language of US corporate environmental disclosure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 431-443, May.
    39. Gray, Rob, 2010. "Is accounting for sustainability actually accounting for sustainability...and how would we know? An exploration of narratives of organisations and the planet," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 47-62, January.
    40. Neu, Dean, 2006. "Accounting for public space," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 391-414.
    41. David L. Owen & Tracey Swift & Karen Hunt, 2001. "Questioning the Role of Stakeholder Engagement in Social and Ethical Accounting, Auditing and Reporting," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 264-282, September.
    42. Tomkins, Cyril, 2001. "Interdependencies, trust and information in relationships, alliances and networks," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 161-191, March.
    43. COOPER, R. & DEJONG, D.V. & FORSYTHE, R. & Tom Ross, 1989. "Communication In The Battle Of The Sexes Game," Carleton Industrial Organization Research Unit (CIORU) 89-03, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    44. Bracht, Juergen & Feltovich, Nick, 2009. "Whatever you say, your reputation precedes you: Observation and cheap talk in the trust game," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(9-10), pages 1036-1044, October.
    45. McKinlay, Alan & Pezet, Eric, 2010. "Accounting for Foucault," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 486-495.
    46. Gray, Rob, 2002. "The social accounting project and Accounting Organizations and Society Privileging engagement, imaginings, new accountings and pragmatism over critique?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 687-708, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomson, Ian & Grubnic, Suzana & Georgakopoulos, Georgios, 2014. "Exploring accounting-sustainability hybridisation in the UK public sector," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 453-476.
    2. Bebbington, Jan & Larrinaga, Carlos, 2014. "Accounting and sustainable development: An exploration," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 395-413.
    3. Boomsma, Roel & O'Dwyer, Brendan, 2019. "Constituting the governable NGO: The correlation between conduct and counter-conduct in the evolution of funder-NGO accountability relations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-20.
    4. Grisard, Claudine & Annisette, Marcia & Graham, Cameron, 2020. "Performative agency and incremental change in a CSR context," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    5. Nikidehaghani, Mona & Cortese, Corinne & Hui-Truscott, Freda, 2021. "Accounting and pastoral power in Australian disability welfare reform," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    6. Bigoni, Michele & Funnell, Warwick, 2015. "Ancestors of governmentality: Accounting and pastoral power in the 15th century," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 160-176.
    7. O'Connor, Neale G. & Schloetzer, Jason D. & Romero, Jorge & Wu, Anne, 2022. "How multi-sourcing can influence management control: Case study evidence from the electronic products supply chain," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(5).
    8. Free, Clinton, 2008. "Walking the talk? Supply chain accounting and trust among UK supermarkets and suppliers," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 629-662, August.
    9. Kornberger, Martin & Pflueger, Dane & Mouritsen, Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures: Accounting for platform organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 79-95.
    10. Mahama, Habib & Chua, Wai Fong, 2016. "A study of alliance dynamics, accounting and trust-as-practice," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 29-46.
    11. Kornberger Martin & Pflueger Dane & Mouritsen Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures : Accounting for platform organization," Post-Print hal-02276737, HAL.
    12. Juan M. Ramon-Jeronimo & M. Concepcion Alvarez-Dardet Espejo & David Naranjo-Gil, 2008. "Effects of management control systems on commitment in inter-organizational relationships," Working Papers 08.03, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Business Administration.
    13. Liff, Roy & Wahlström, Gunnar, 2017. "Managerś assessment of thin and thick trust: The importance of benevolence in interbank relations," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 151-161.
    14. Michelon, Giovanna & Pilonato, Silvia & Ricceri, Federica, 2015. "CSR reporting practices and the quality of disclosure: An empirical analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 59-78.
    15. Papi, Luca & Bigoni, Michele & Deidda Gagliardo, Enrico & Funnell, Warwick, 2019. "Accounting for power and resistance: The University of Ferrara under the Fascist regime in Italy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 59-76.
    16. Juan Manuel Ramon-Jeronimo & Raquel Florez-Lopez & Maria Angeles Ramon-Jeronimo, 2017. "Understanding the Generation of Value along Supply Chains: Balancing Control Information and Relational Governance Mechanisms in Downstream and Upstream Relationships," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-31, August.
    17. Caglio, Ariela & Ditillo, Angelo, 2008. "A review and discussion of management control in inter-firm relationships: Achievements and future directions," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(7-8), pages 865-898.
    18. Vosselman, Ed & Meer-Kooistra, Jeltje van der, 2009. "Accounting for control and trust building in interfirm transactional relationships," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 267-283, February.
    19. Nyamori, Robert Ochoki & Lawrence, Stewart R. & Perera, Hector B., 2012. "Revitalising local democracy: A social capital analysis in the context of a New Zealand local authority," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 572-594.
    20. Islam, Muhammad Azizul & van Staden, Chris J., 2018. "Social movement NGOs and the comprehensiveness of conflict mineral disclosures: evidence from global companies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1-19.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:39:y:2014:i:6:p:433-452. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/aos .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.