Accounting for sustainability

By the end of this PhD course, students will gain a robust understanding of:

• Sustainability regulations, policies, and standards (including metrics) that influence corporate accounting for sustainability.
• Theoretical frameworks, such as Organisational Learning Theory, Stakeholder Theories, Agency theories to analyze sustainability accounting.
• Acquire skills in qualitative research methods for studying sustainability within organizational contexts.
• Identify and engage with key academic research outlets focused on sustainability and its impact on organisations.
• Be encouraged to develop and refine research papers within the field of accounting for sustainability, advancing their contributions to the field through scholarly work.

Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. E. (1995). The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications. The Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 65-91. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9503271992

Dumay, J. (2024). Academic Research, Publishing and Writing Critical Thinking and Strategies for Business Scholars: Emerald Publishing Limited.

Islam, G., & Greenwood, M. (2022). The Metrics of Ethics and the Ethics of Metrics. Journal of Business Ethics, 175(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-05004-x

Olsen, C. (2022). Toward a Digital Sustainability Reporting Framework in Organizations: An Accounting Perspective. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, 557, 463 - 473. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17746-0_37

Olsen, C. (2025). What do sustainability reports tell us about the value creation of digital platform markets? Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) and Inland University (INN).

Participation at the BSRS is credited under the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Participants submitting an essay, in a form of a publishable manuscript of 10-20 pages, after the end of the summer school will receive 10 ECTS. Deadline for submission will be decided by your course leader.

It is also possible to participate without producing an essay. This will give you 5 ECTS. In order to receive credits, we expect full participation in the course-specific modules, plenary events and roundtables.

Associate Professor Carmen Olsen's teaching and research interests lie in the fields of auditing and accounting, digitalisation, and sustainability reporting and assurance. She leads the Sustainability and Green Innovation research group.

Before earning her Master’s in Accounting and Auditing (MRR) and PhD in Auditing from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), she worked as an auditor and consultant. Dr. Olsen has published in journals such as the International Accounting Journal and the Journal of Accounting Literature and has authored two significant books: one on accounting information systems and sustainability reporting, and another on professional skepticism.