ARTICLE OF THE DAY:
Title: Towards Sustaining the Status Quo: Business Talk of Sustainability in Finnish Corporate Disclosures 1987-2005
Author(s): Laine M Matias.Laine@uta.fi
Source: EUROPEAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW Volume: 19 Issue: 2 Pages: 247-274 Published: 201
Abstract: The paper seeks to shed more light on how businesses have used the language of sustainability in their disclosures. The study employs interpretive textual analysis and takes a closer look at how the corporate talk of sustainability has developed in the disclosures of three major Finnish companies during the period 1987-2005. In-depth understanding is sought by limiting the analysis of disclosures from four anchor points only. The findings indicate major changes in the ways the case corporations have used sustainability-related concepts over the two decades. Over time sustainability seems to have transformed from a possibly revolutionary concept into an evolutionary one, if not to one merely concerned with sustaining of the status quo. Moreover, whereas in the early disclosures the conceptualisation of sustainability appears to be rather polyphonic, in more recent years the companies use fairly similar rhetoric drawing on the discourse of weak sustainability. As a longitudinal study the paper makes a contribution to the still relatively limited body of research deconstructing corporate social and environmental disclosures from an interpretive standpoint. However, the study focuses only on the disclosures of three case companies in one particular country, and thus the generalisation of the findings must be approached with caution.
....
Concluding Remarks
In recent years sustainable development has effectively been mainstreamed and
the sustainability-related concepts have become more commonplace than ever
before. However, it appears somewhat paradoxical that even in the midst of
the burgeoning sustainability a number of indicators show that the state of the
global environment continues to deteriorate (e.g. Gray, 2006; Bebbington and
Larrinaga-Gonza´lez, 2008).
It has been argued (e.g. Beder, 2002; Gray, 2006) that over the years sustainability
has lost its radical edge (if it ever had one). Accordingly, this study shows
that the way three leading Finnish companies talk about sustainability in their disclosures
has changed significantly in less than two decades. The possibly substantial
initiative has dwindled into a silent evolution, if not to merely sustaining of
the status quo. The disclosures permit no conclusions as to whether this is the
outcome of a deliberate move or is due to other reasons. Be this as it may, the
findings suggest that Finnish business has succeeded in integrating sustainability
into the business rhetoric.
In retrospect, it seems relatively clear that the business talk has become closely
associated with the ideals of weak sustainability. It might thus be worth exploring
further the business rhetoric of sustainability appearing in other forums, such as
the business media. In addition, it would be essential to ascertain how the key
figures in leading companies and in the national business sustainability frontgroups
conceptualise sustainability. This is because the discourse of weak
sustainability shows signs of becoming hegemonic (see Fairclough, 2003), and
as such a taken for granted meaning dominating competing conceptions of
sustainable development. Such a situation is argued to be problematic (see
Spence, 2007; also Byrch et al., 2007), since the business discourse of sustainability
appears to be more about sustaining businesses and capitalism (Banerjee,
2003) at the expense of nature. Thus, it is debatable whether the increasing
emphasis on sustainability is actually propelling society in that direction.
Best regards,
Charles Wankel
St. John's University, New York
http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~wankelc
Add me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wankelc
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