Environmental Management Accounting in Greater China

Global environmental issues are becoming more and more severe. Global warming, climate change have affected the survival of mankind. Accountants should contribute their expertise to save the world. Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is an accounting tool that can help managers to identify their real environmental costs and to identify the rooms for improvement. Many EMA studies had been carried out in many industrial nations such as Japan, Germany, USA but limited EMA studies could be found in Greater China (which covers Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan). With the research gap on EMA practices between Greater China and the West, it is necessary to investigate how firms in Greater China manage their environmental costs. This study uses Institutional Entrepreneurship Theory (IET), Legitimacy Theory and Stakeholder Theory to investigate the factors affecting EMA adoption in Greater China. This study collects data from semi-structured interviews with firms in different cities in Greater China. The interviewees were CEOs, directors, Finance Directors, managers leading the EMA projects. Thematic analysis is employed to analyse the data. This study has found that EMA is not popular in Mainland China and Hong Kong but is popular in Taiwan. Government is a critical factor for the adoption and non-adoption of EMA in Greater China. This thesis also finds that firms tend to model themselves on others perceived to be successful in response to “successful firms”. Stakeholder analysis and legitimacy analysis have exposed that EMA adoption has also been caused by pull-push factors including top management of the firm, availability of official EMA guidelines, customers, etc.