ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates accounting's contributions to the development of analytical tools that should promote the innovation and implementation of sustainable practices. It provides an ethical dimension to March and Simon's satisficing decision processes. The chapter details the management reflexivity that occurs when they are faced with disconfirming bits of information about an event or transaction. Information refers to analytical data. Its representation of any event is, in turn, related to how sustainable performance is defined. It involves rethinking how accounting represents business performance because management decisions could either aggravate or mitigate the impact of business activities on the fragile socioecological environment, which has already been ravaged by organizational practices. The chapter draws on the UN's definition, the findings of a European management information systems survey, and the most recent financial stewardship reporting exposure draft, as well as common law judgments to centralize the role of property rights in the debate over sustainability.
