" Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions " (Suchman, 1995, p. 574, emphasis in original) Legitimacy theory has become one of the most cited theories within the social and environmental accounting area. Yet there remains deep sceptic...

In this paper, we analyze the social value of accounting objectivity in maintaining bank stability. Building on an early, in‡uential accounting work by Ijiri and Jaedicke (1966), we operationalize two informational properties, objectivity and accuracy, in a correlated information structure and embedded them into a model of bank runs. We show that, when compared with the accuracy property, the o...

This paper draws on the work of Streeck and Schmitter (1985) and its subsequent use by Puxty, et al (1987) to analyse the development of accounting regulation in the U.K. public sector. It provides an extension to prior literature through the application of a framework, based on modes of social order, to investigate divergence in the approaches to accounting regulation between the public and pr...

Most research in corporate environmental management and environmental accounting indicate a substantial gap between the espoused environmental attitudes of business leaders and the actual practices of their companies. In this paper, we apply institutional theory in an effort to explain this gap. In exploring the emerging embryonic stage of China’s environmental management issues and more specif...