L'expertise en évaluation socio-environnementale des entreprises: Légitimation et mises à l'épreuve

Abstract

This study seeks to better understand the legitimation processes surrounding the emergence and development of nonfinancial assessment expertise. Drawing in particular on the notion of legitimacy, we focus on the discursive strategies mobilized by socioenvironmental assessment agencies in seeking to legitimize their claims to expertise. We also explore some of the effects ensuing from these strategies in the field, especially on the assessed companies and other sustainability stakeholders. As such, our analysis highlights a range of legitimation strategies used by the assessment agencies to reinforce their claims to expertise. The findings also indicate that assessments have normalizing effects, favoring the development of companies and stakeholders that may be inclined to comply with the views of the assessment agencies. In other words, our analysis suggests that audiences tend to take for granted appraisers' abilities to provide relatively fair and coherent assessments of corporate socioenvironmental performance. At the end of the day, we reflect on the conditions of possibility that may engender a wave of compliance and conformity in the field.