Non-financial indicators and sustainability reporting. An ethnographic investigation of dilemmas

Lucas Boucaud () and Hugo Letiche ()
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Lucas Boucaud: NIMEC - Normandie Innovation Marché Entreprise Consommation - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - ULH - Université Le Havre Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - IRIHS - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Homme et Société - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université, IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 - Université Gustave Eiffel
Hugo Letiche: ISTEC - Institut supérieur des Sciences, Techniques et Economie Commerciales - ISTEC

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Abstract: Purpose - Attention to what the implementation of sustainability reporting (SR) can entail is ethnographically studied in this article. This practice-based study clarifies dilemmas in the "objective mirage" of non-financial indicators. We contribute to the management control literature by showing how the quest for transparency is problematic when the vague and plural being of the object to be controlled is acknowledged. Design/methodology/approach - Ethnography undertaken in an international French construction company revealed contested indicators and conflicts between: (1) on-site project managers, (2) corporate social responsibility directors at subsidiary level and (3) the SR demands of corporate headquarters. What "is" and how it is "represented" was contested. The indicators that are supposed to serve as "signifiers" or "signs" in reporting were contested. Findings - Conflict occurred in the interpretations and uses of the SR indicators as they were alternately linked to their objects as "icon", "indexical" and/or "symbol". Research limitations/implications - The ethnographic research was undertaken in one company. The researcher witnessed coping and contention in SR demands, without being able to prove (or disprove) the suitability of the indicators. There was no direct contact with actual building sites. Practical implications - Contestation over SR indicators is a semiotic fact of life fuelled by the problematic relationship between sustainability reporting and management control. Not more forceful implementation (i.e. more of the same), but complex negotiated uses of indicators are proposed. Originality/value - Ethnographically grounded research into the representational practices (semiotics) of sustainability reporting and management control is as yet exceptional.

Keywords: Sustainability reporting; Semiotics; Indicators; Iconic; Indexical; Symbolic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05-20
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Published in Journal of applied accounting research, inPress, ⟨10.1108/JAAR-04-2024-0123⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05126541

DOI: 10.1108/JAAR-04-2024-0123

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