Balancing the books and the planet: A single-case study investigating the relation between sustainability involvement and the occupational identity of management accountants

Sammanfattning: Through practice of a single-case study, this paper aims to shed new light on the interdisciplinary area of management accountants' approach to, and involvement in, sustainability-related activities. Through the application of identity theory, with particular influence from Hughes' (1951) findings of a moral division of labour and Thornborrow and Brown's (2009) concept of aspirational identities, we show the existence of an interdependent relationship between the occupational identity of management accountants, and their engagement towards sustainability reporting and adjacent activities. We find that (i) the legacy occupational identity of the profession serves as an initial blocker to acceptance of the novel work tasks, and (ii) how the institutional view of sustainability as an imperative part of business operations helps serve as an important factor impacting the occupation's view of the subject, their approach, and by extension, their occupational identity. The findings of this paper contribute to the existing research on the topic by introducing the use of identity theory on the involvement of the occupation in sustainability practices.