How can management accounting and control systems facilitate compliance with sustainability reporting regulations?

• Published in: Journal of applied accounting research
• Main Authors: Demaret, Julie, Molinari, Matteo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald 03.07.2025
• Subjects: Humanities and Social Sciences; Sustainability reporting; Management accounting and control systems; case study
• ISSN: 0967-5426; 1758-8855; 1758-8855; 0967-5426
• DOI: 10.1108/JAAR-04-2024-0158

Purpose Sustainability reporting has become essential for organisational transparency and accountability. However, regulatory compliance poses challenges, particularly in ensuring consistency and coherence in reporting practices. Management accounting and control systems (MACSs), designed to help organisations achieve their goals, may support efforts to meet these challenges. This paper explores how MACSs can facilitate compliance with sustainability reporting regulations, drawing on a case study of a leading French energy industry company. Design/methodology/approach Grounded in the management accounting and control literature and informed by an institutional theoretical lens, this qualitative study relies on semi-structured interviews and analysis of official sustainability documents from the case study, spanning the period 2021–2023. Findings This study sheds lights on how traditional MACSs facilitate compliance with sustainability reporting regulations. Particularly, planning, cultural, and administrative controls contribute as a strategic response to regulatory reporting demands. Within the case-study, MACSs are actively shaped to address sustainability reporting challenges, such as resource allocation, interdepartmental coordination, and system adaptation. This involves defining, educating, and vesting strategies for institutionalising MACSs to address sustainability reporting challenges. Research limitations/implications Theoretically, this study contributes to the ongoing discussion in the accounting literature about the role of traditional MACSs in supporting sustainability reporting challenges (Bezuidenhout et al. , 2023; Bui and de Villiers, 2018). It demonstrates that these systems can play a foundational role in enabling sustainability reporting, even before bespoke sustainable MACSs can be institutionally embedded through specific strategies, building on and extending the findings of Carungu et al. (2021). Specifically, we extend the application of the Malmi and Brown (2008) framework by showing how planning, administrative, and cultural controls are selectively mobilised to meet the demands of sustainability-related disclosures. Additionally, by integrating Lawrence and Suddaby’s (2006) institutional work perspective, we highlight how actors engage in strategies to create, maintain, and disrupt control systems, thus advancing research at the intersection of institutional theory and sustainability control practices. This dual-theoretical contribution addresses the gap identified in prior studies, which have called for deeper insights into how MACSs evolve under regulatory pressure. Practical implications From a practical perspective, the findings offer actionable guidance for organisations facing regulatory complexity and seeking to improve their sustainability reporting practices. Integrating financial and non-financial data within existing MACSs can enhance transparency and support regulatory compliance. Particularly in organisations subject to sustainability reporting regulations (e.g. CSRD), our findings provide a practical framework to assess and redesign MACSs. By identifying how specific control elements can be adapted or newly introduced to meet reporting obligations, we offer a roadmap for aligning internal systems with external compliance requirements. Moreover, organisations can use MACSs to monitor sustainability performance, align reporting with financial controls, and promote cross-functional collaboration to ensure data reliability and consistency. Social implications Social implications of our research extend to broader conversations surrounding corporate accountability. As organisations increasingly embrace sustainability reporting as a way to communicate their environmental and social impact, findings from our study contribute to fostering greater transparency and trust between organisations and society at large. Originality/value This research provides insights into how MACSs support compliance with sustainability reporting regulations. By focusing on a French energy sector leader, it provides a nuanced understanding of how organisations manage the complexity of sustainability reporting in a tightly regulated environment. It also contributes to the academic discourse by examining how MACSs support organisations in meeting sustainability reporting regulations– even though recent literature often emphasises the need for more innovative approaches.