Management accounting & control research group
News and Events
-
New publication in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
Read the full article here: How sustainability assurance work gets done: assurors’ sensemaking, socialization and interactions with clients.
Full reference: Bouten, L., & Hoozée, S. 2024. How sustainability assurance work gets done: assurors’ sensemaking, socialization and interactions with clients. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
Sophie Hoozée is happy to announce that she and Lies Bouten published their sustainability assurance (SA) study in AAAJ!
They unravel the SA work concealed behind SA statements by gaining access to three SA engagements, in which they interviewed the main actors involved, both at the client firms and at their Big Four assurance providers. They express their gratitude to all interviewees for sharing their valuable insights!
Assurors may articulate three types of roles as part of their sensemaking of SA work, shaping their actual SA work: the priest role, the added-value business advisor role or the protest role. Their findings also illustrate how SA work on the ground is shaped by (the lack of) professional socialization, organizational socialization and socialization of frequent interaction partners at the client. They conclude that to help SA statement users gauge the relevance of SA work, two options are available for regulators: either displaying the SA work performed or making it more uniform.
They unravel the SA work concealed behind SA statements by gaining access to three SA engagements, in which they interviewed the main actors involved, both at the client firms and at their Big Four assurance providers. They express their gratitude to all interviewees for sharing their valuable insights!
Assurors may articulate three types of roles as part of their sensemaking of SA work, shaping their actual SA work: the priest role, the added-value business advisor role or the protest role. Their findings also illustrate how SA work on the ground is shaped by (the lack of) professional socialization, organizational socialization and socialization of frequent interaction partners at the client. They conclude that to help SA statement users gauge the relevance of SA work, two options are available for regulators: either displaying the SA work performed or making it more uniform.
Research
A common characteristic of our research is that the research topics focus on the design of management accounting and control systems.
Team
Contact
Ghent University
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Accounting, Corporate Finance and Taxation
Sint-Pietersplein 7
9000 Ghent
Belgium