Marginalized actors’ institutional work in standardization processes: an environmental accounting case study

Environmental accounting could become one form of "accounting for the common good", therefore, understanding its standardization process and who participates is key. We know little about how rules are being shaped by the intervention of business organizations in standardization processes. Moreover, there has been little investigation into how marginalized actors (small and medium sized organizations) could themselves participate in standard making. Our research design involves interviewing marginalized actors in an environmental accounting standardization process and collecting secondary data. We make three contributions. First, we characterize the nature of marginalized actors' institutional work. Secondly, we demonstrate that marginalized actors adopt different participation strategies depending on the specific resources that they lack. We define four types of participatory work performed by marginalized actors in standardization processes and explain how their participation influenced their future resources and their ability to sustain participatory work in future standardization projects. Thirdly, we contribute to a better understanding of participation processes using "deliberative democracy" and their impact on designing accounting for the common good. Environmental accounting could become one form of "accounting for the common good", therefore, understanding its standardization process and who participates is key. We know little about how rules are being shaped by the intervention of business organizations in standardization processes. Moreover, there has been little investigation into how marginalized actors (small and medium sized organizations) could themselves participate in standard making. Our research design involves interviewing marginalized actors in an environmental accounting standardization process and collecting secondary data. We make three contributions. First, we characterize the nature of marginalized actors' institutional work. Secondly, we demonstrate that marginalized actors adopt different participation strategies depending on the specific resources that they lack. We define four types of participatory work performed by marginalized actors in standardization processes and explain how their participation influenced their future resources and their ability to sustain participatory work in future standardization projects. Thirdly, we contribute to a better understanding of participation processes using "deliberative democracy" and their impact on designing accounting for the common good.