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Call for Papers: Special Issue of Organization & Environment on "Non-Financial Disclosure and Real Sustainable Change Within and Beyond Organizations

  • 1.  Call for Papers: Special Issue of Organization & Environment on "Non-Financial Disclosure and Real Sustainable Change Within and Beyond Organizations

    Posted 01-19-2021 17:20

    Call for Papers for a Special issue in ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT

     

    DEADLINE MARCH 29, 2021

     

    We know surprisingly little about whether, why, and how sustainability information disseminated to stakeholders translates into sustainability-related "outcomes." Insight into the causal chain that connects non-financial disclosure to outcomes such as reduced carbon emissions, enhanced biodiversity, or improved human rights is highly relevant but scarce. We believe that such outcomes hinge on the behavior of a diverse set of actors outside (e.g., equity and debt investors, the media, employees, governmental actors, nonprofit organizations, and pressure groups) and inside (e.g., board members, managers, and regular employees) of the disclosing organizations, and that these contexts of action require in-depth research.

    A range of disciplines finds research on non-financial reporting compelling, including accounting, strategic management, organization studies, and psychology. This has led to the application of a broad portfolio of methodologies and theories to a range of research questions. For this special issue, we embrace the full variety of levels of analysis and potential cross-level effects, methods, theoretical perspectives and disciplines to explore the phenomenon of non-financial disclosure and sustainable change within and beyond organizations.

    Contributions to the Special Issue may therefore cover (but are not limited to) the following sample of research questions:
    • What are the mechanisms through which non-financial disclosure leads to sustainable change within organizations, and how might those outcomes materialize over time?
    • Do different types of non-financial disclosure (e.g. climate disclosure, sustainability reporting, integrated reporting, human rights reporting) have different behavioral outcomes when it comes to advancing sustainability?
    • Do mandatory and voluntary types of disclosure elicit different behavioral changes?
    • Where and how do different stakeholders use information from non-financial disclosure, and with what effect?
    • What effects do different information traits (e.g., quantity, quality, reliability) have on the actions of decision-makers within or outside of the disclosing organization?

    This special issue of Organization & Environment will be edited by Rüdiger Hahn (HHU Düsseldorf), Daniel Reimsbach (Nijmegen), Christopher Wickert (VU Amsterdam), and Robert Eccles (Said/Oxford). Submission deadline for the special issue is March 29, 2021. Authors who are invited to revise and resubmit their papers will be invited for a manuscript development workshop (expected date and location: Fall 2021, Düsseldorf, Germany).

    The full version of the Call for Papers can be accessed here: https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/OAE/OAE_CFP_10.1177_1086026620923160-1588958922887.pdf  



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    Christopher Wickert
    VU Center for Business & Society
    Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

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