Legitimacy Theory in Management Accounting Research (Teoria legitymizacji w badaniach rachunkowosci zarzadczej)

Legitimacy theory helps to understand the organization’s behavior in implementing, developing and communicating its social responsibility policies. The main assumption of legitimacy theory is fulfilling the organization’s social contract, which enables the recognition of its objectives. This in turn requires the adoption of a CSR strategy affecting various areas of activity, including in particular management accounting. The paper draws arguments from literature to identify the role of the legitimacy theory in management accounting research. The article’s thesis is that sustainable management accounting is a valuable tool of legitimacy for a socially responsible company. The paper is structured as follows: after the introduction, the second section provides the background for the research study; it is a literature review concerning the way in which accounting legitimizes the status of a socially responsible corporate. The third section of the paper presents sustainable management accounting (SMA) as a tool for legitimacy in a socially responsible company. And the last section is dedicated to the presentation of SMA development directions. On the basis of a normative approach, it presents the author’s proposal of treatment of sustainable management accounting as a tool for sustainable business legitimacy.