Accounting As an Information Practice in Sustainability Agenda
Author(s):
Tatyana Odintsova
Relevance: The idea of sustainability dramatically alters the critical elements of management and decision-making and the data needed to develop and implement a strategy that creates ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) values. Moreover, the modern business environment presents a significant challenge for accounting, which has traditionally been focused primarily on financial decision- making.
Objectives: The paper has two interrelated goals. At its core, it seeks to outline the essential ways that accounting, as a crucial information practice, needs to be redesigned to satisfy user demands while tackling contemporary issues in the context of sustainable development and responsible business. This will be predicated on an examination and analysis of the various approaches put out in academic and professional studies, as well as relevant regulations and experiences. Given the potential for profound shifts in the accounting domain, the associated research aim is to assess the applicability of current accounting methodologies and paradigms to pinpoint prospects for their improvement or modification.
Methods: The article's design refers to a theoretical conceptual study, combining explanatory and exploratory approaches to develop and enrich existing accounting theory according to the practical needs of the day. Research methods include analysis of secondary sources, observations and a review of the literature, which includes academic writings and other open sources - regulatory documents, frameworks and standards, professional databases, analytical reviews and expert consultations, materials from conferences, etc. This data was processed using a combination of analytical and semantic techniques, including textual, thematical, discourse, logical, comparative, and critical analyses.
Results: The results include a set of theoretical constructions and recommendations for modelling accounting advancements in the sustainability agenda to evaluate human well-being contribution and ethical and environmental consciousness in corporate and national governance. Possible ways to update the current accounting system were assessed to meet the criteria of a transparent, user-relevant information environment. As a result of the accounting methodology analysis, there were systematised paradigms and theories of accounting. A set of recommendations was made regarding rethinking the conceptual area and adjusting objects, methods, principles, and approaches of accounting for sustainability and ESG reporting.
Conclusions: Nowadays, accounting can be defined as a flexible, multidisciplinary approach with an expanding problem-solving area, wide conceptual domain, and pluralistic beliefs. Accounting as an information practice needs to respond to a huge range of stakeholders' requests and provide, apart from traditional outputs, not only non-financial and qualitative information but also affect the reality and construct it through product performance. The vitality of accounting as an information practice can be provided by advancing in its conceptual domain and area of impact, widening the scope of objects by nonfinancial and qualitative information, developing theories and n, multiparadigm and transdisciplinary approach, and changes in methodology.
