Digital technologies and sustainability accounting, reporting, and assurance 

About

This Special Issue examines the impact of contemporary digital technologies, such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain and cryptocurrency, social media communication, cloud computing, and the internet of things (IoTs), to name a few, on sustainability accounting, reporting, and assurance. Such technologies are profoundly impacting the world we live in (De Villiers, Kuruppu and Dissanayake, 2021). The constant flow of innovative technologies is driving disruptive transformations across all aspects of life. These technological advancements offer considerable promise for enhancing accounting’s capacity to measure, record, analyze, and communicate an increasingly broader range of data and information necessary for supporting sustainability accounting, reporting, and assurance. Blockchain technology, for instance, provides transparency and traceability throughout the supply chain, which is of vital interest to consumers who are concerned with issues such as environmental protection, sustainability, transparency, and social responsibility (Xu et al., 2019; De Villiers et al., 2021).

Despite these major impacts, there remains a dearth of studies in this area. Exceptions include works by Lodhia et al (2020), De Villiers et al. (2021), Tiwari and Khan (2020), Xu et al. (2019), and Burritt and Christ (2016).  Lodhia et al (2020) explored the use of social media for sustainability reporting and highlighted that such new media technologies change the dynamics of reporting. De Villiers et al. (2021) examine the potential of the IoTs to record data and track progress on the UN SGDs. Tiwari and Khan (2020) conduct focus groups and semi-structured interviews with managers in Indian companies. Their study participants were less than optimistic about the transformative potential of contemporary digital technologies. Xu et al. (2019) review the literature on blockchain and identify several avenues for future research. In their reflective study, Burritt and Christ (2016) argue in favor of allocating greater academic effort to understanding these unexplored phenomena.       

Potential issues to consider in this special issue include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• The impact of contemporary digital technologies on sustainability accounting, including:
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Data presentation/visualisation
  • Sustainability accounting controls
  • Sustainability management systems.
     
• The impact of contemporary digital technologies on sustainability reporting, including specific stages of the reporting process (Farooq and De Villiers, 2019), such as:
  • Application of sustainability reporting standards/e-taxonomies
  • Materiality assessment and stakeholder engagement
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Presentation of data and information
  • Dissemination of information using new media technologies such as social media
  • Integrating sustainability reporting with core processes including risk management and strategy development.
     
• The impact of contemporary digital technologies on sustainability assurance (Zaman, Farooq, Khalid and Mahmood, 2021; Farooq, & De Villiers, 2019; 2020), including:
  • Scope and objectives of the engagement
  • Performance of audit procedures
  • Evaluation of audit evidence 
  • Evaluating underlying systems such as materiality assessment and stakeholder engagement
  • Readability of sustainability assurance reports.

Submissions

Submission deadline: 28 February 2024 

Expected publication date: mid-2025