Exploring the role of management accounting in building sustainability and resilience

This research aims at exploring the role of management accounting in facilitating long-term organizational resilience consistent with sustainable development. This research draws insights from a multiple case study of three organizations operating in the garment industry to show how processes of measurement, analysis, and interpretation of accounting information are involved in the combined imperatives of sustainability and resilience. More specifically, this research investigates how organizations develop measures of product and supply chain impacts (including, but not limited to, impact assessment, materiality assessment, supply chain traceability, LCA) and the role of management accountants in that development. The project intends to identify the main challenges and opportunities in conceptualizing, measuring, and disclosing the trade-offs between the long-term aspiration of sustainability and the short-term generation of value for organizations. The main contribution of this research is to highlight how management accounting systems work to bring together the programmatic aspirations of sustainability and the generation of long-term value for organisations.