Sustainability Accounting Studies: A Metasynthesis

Abstract

This review article seeks to discuss the sustainability accounting concept by examining previously conducted studies on this topic in order to understand its thematic progress in the academic literature. This study is a metasynthesis, where, in the identification phase, 334 documents published in the Web of Science (WoS) database are selected, and in the literature review stages, 15 re-reviews are selected according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method. The results reveal that businesses, academia, and regulatory bodies do not recognize a homogeneous terminology when it comes to sustainability accounting. There is a variety of synonyms that complicate the disclosure of activities carried out by companies in the pursuit of the sustainability development goals (SDGs), with SDGs 5, 6, 13, 14, and 15 being analyzed in the academic literature in relation to the sustainability accounting concept. For future research directions, the review articles analyzed suggest examining the concrete effects produced by practices related to sustainability performance in companies, linking the relevance of understanding the sustainability reports related to the sustainability performance of companies.