Title: The role of management accounting in corporate social responsibility measures: experience with the financial services industry

Authors: Md. Mostaque Hussain

Addresses: Faculty of Business, University of New Brunswick-Saint John, Oland Hall, P.O. Box 5050, Saint John, New Brunswick E2L 4L5, Canada

Abstract: Recent management accounting (MA) studies demonstrate the need for multi-dimensional performance, specially non-financial performance (NFP) measures. Contemporary academics and practitioners have also demonstrated that measuring/managing NFP in service organisations is more challenging than in manufacturing organisations. However, not a single study of the role of MA in measuring corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the financial services industry (FSI) has yet been reported, although CSR is an important element of NFP. This study attempts to investigate the role of MA in measuring CSR in various financial institutions in Finland, Sweden and Japan. The results of this study reveal that the management of the studied organisation put more emphasis on financial performance measurement and comparatively less on NFP measurement. CSR is considered important in some banks, but MA plays a relatively small role in the measurement of these elements. The empirical findings of this study point to areas for future research.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility; CSR; corporate governance; financial services industry; management accounting; Finland; Sweden; Japan; financial performance measurement; non-financial performance measures; banking.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBGE.2006.009413

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2006 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.129 - 144

Published online: 30 Mar 2006 *

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