The Interdisciplinary Nature of Sustainability Accounting – A Systematic Literature Review and a Network Citation Study

Sustainability accounting as a distinct discipline has evolved over the last decades and is still expanding. This paper provides a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature on sustainability accounting. As a multidimensional concept, sustainability accounting relates to various other disciplines. Thus, the examination of research on sustainability accounting provides a suitable setting to examine the extent of “interdisciplinarity” in accounting research. Based on a systematic search strategy we determine a sample of 5,245 articles in the fields of finance and accounting, management, economics, organization and behavioral research, and international business. Using citation network analysis, we identify existing research communities, influential research contributions that guide research within communities, and interactions between these research communities. Our findings show that equally large proportions of the sample articles are published in accounting, management, and organization journals, which confirms the interdisciplinary character of sustainability accounting research. Further insights reveal that there are three (out of six) major research communities that relate to traditional accounting topics, namely (i) determinants and consequences of sustainability disclosure, (ii) the relationship between sustainability disclosure and financial as well as non-financial performance and (iii) the role of assurance of sustainability disclosure. Further, we find evidence that influential articles that either provide an overarching view of a specific research segment or combine typically unrelated research themes act as “bridges” between research communities