Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the factors affecting the adoption of environmental management accounting practices in Egyptian manufacturing companies. From the lens of NIS, it illustrates the nexus between cultural and socio-economic factors and the sustainability oriented management accounting practices.

Paper long abstract:

This exploratory study aims at exploring the external factors that would affect the adoption of Environmental Management accounting (EMA) within Egyptian manufacturing companies. It adopted an institutional perspective and its theoretical framework principally relies on the New Institutional Sociology (NIS) theory. Relying on interpretative paradigm, the semi-structured interviews were used as the main data collection method of this research. The interviews have been conducted with the staff in sixteen Egyptian manufacturing companies, selected from most pollutant industries in the country. In addition, some interviews were conducted outside manufacturing companies with different actors, influencing the adoption of EMA in Egyptian companies. The results partially support the pre-expectation of the researchers about the significant role of different external factors related to EMA's adoption within emerging economics, and according to the adopted theoretical framework, the coercive pressure on Egyptian manufacturing companies could be more effective than the normative and mimetic ones. In addition, the results suggested that the cultural issues and socio-economic problems inside and outside the manufacturing companies may be considered as the main barriers for EMA adoption within Egyptian context.