Environmental management decisions in CSR-based accounting research

This commentary presents conceptualizations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the realm of environmental accounting. By asking what the main theoretical perspectives are within CSR-based environmental accounting research, and how these have been used, it finds that there have been three clear theoretical waves. These are based on legitimacy, stakeholder and institutional theories, which evidently build upon one another as CSR1 (responsibility), CSR2 (responsiveness) and CSR3 (proactiveness) respectively. Nevertheless, such perspectives are weak, as they remain at the strategic level and do not confront the operational levels of management accounting and control. Thus, structuration theory is proposed as the fourth wave of CSR-based research by emphasizing that CSR does not rest with either the organizations as agents or the institutions as social structures, but is the product of the two. This informs managers by illustrating that environmental accounting decisions are shaped not only by the external environment, but also from within.