Diffusion of environmental management accounting for cleaner production: Evidence from some case studies

Abstract

Environmental management accounting provides a set of tools designed to support management to make better decisions about cleaner production. Diffusion of innovation theory provides a foundation for understanding the dynamics of environmental management accounting implementation. Based on five case studies of businesses in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam characteristics of environmental management accounting innovations and temporal path of development are explored. The cases examined reveal the importance of incremental path specific changes to work towards complex sustainability settings and demonstrate the richness and usefulness of fostering cleaner production practices through a multitude of environmental management accounting tools, which rejects the view that one environmental management accounting method such as material flow cost accounting would suffice. Moreover, the findings show the relevance of involving external support and the need for interdisciplinary execution in diffusing environmental management accounting innovations.