Sustainability integration in risk assessment and management accounting: insights from Iran

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of sustainability principles by Iranian firms in their strategic planning, risk management and management accounting (MA) practices. It aims to build a structural model that demonstrates how industry-driven, sustainable risk assessment tools can enhance organizational responsibility, adaptability and adherence. Design/methodology/approach The research adopted a survey approach, serving 103 Iranian companies from different sectors of the business world. To examine these relations of strategic planning, sustainable risk assessment tools and integration of sustainability in MA systems, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. Procedural and statistical remedies were used to check and control the common method bias. Findings The findings indicate that enterprises using sustainable risk assessment instruments are significantly more advanced with respect to the inclusion of environmental issues in MA. Environmental and social risk assessments are highly determined by strategic planning, as sustainable risk assessment tools become an important mediator between the integration of sustainability in MA and global organizational sustainability performance. Yet, there are many companies without unit-level sustainability departments or that still report sustainability within the traditional accounting systems, suggesting enduring institutional and structural impediments. Originality/value In this early empirical research in Iran, the relationship between sustainability and risk assessment and MA is explored using SEM. By embedding the sustainability integration concept in a developing economy, this study supplements the limited literature on sustainable MA in a non-Western context.