To Örebro University

This commentary presents conceptualisations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the realm of environmental accounting. By asking what the main theoretical perspectives are within CSR-based environmental accounting research, and how have these been used, it finds that there have been three clear theoretical waves. These are based on legitimacy, stakeholder and institutional theories, which evidently build upon one another as CSR₁ (responsibility), CSR₂ (responsiveness) and CSR₃ (proactiveness) respectively. Nevertheless, such perspectives are weak as they remain at the strategic level and do not confront the operational levels of management accounting and control. Thus, structuration theory is proposed as the fourth wave of CSR-based research by emphasising that CSR rests neither with the organisations as agents, nor the institutions as social structures, but is the product of both. This informs managers by illustrating that environmental accounting decisions are shaped from not only the external environment, but also from within.