Creating legitimacy for climate accounting in business: determinants of internal carbon pricing

Abstract

Companies are increasingly concerned with climate change in a context of rising public awareness and of an emerging global climate governance.The legitimacy theory posits that companies use communication strategies, such as social and environmental reporting, to maintain and gain societal acceptance and influence perceptions (Welbeck et al, 2017; Unerman and Chapman, 2014; Deegan, 2002; Lindblom, 1993; Dowling and Pfeffer, 1975). Companies with low environmental performances, in particular, tend to implement larger compensation measures and disclose more environmental information to counteract potentially higher pressure from the socio-political context (Cho and Patten, 2007; Darrell and Schwartz, 1997). Following the legitimacy strategies that have been reported in the literature (e.g., Lindblom, 1993; Suchman, 1995; O’Dwyer et al., 2011), corporate climate strategies can serve as a response to conform to changes in public expectations or as an action to create new audiences and to influence societal beliefs around new practices.