Aligning Programmatic Ideals and Technological Capabilities: the Case of Sustainability Assurance

This paper investigates the nature of and dynamics surrounding the operationalisation of sustainability assurance within two Big 4 professional services firms who have developed significant markets in this area. Drawing primarily on a longitudinal series of in-depth interviews conducted over a four and a half year period with practitioners in both firms, the paper seeks to develop and deepen our understanding of the processes and practices through which practitioners construct sustainability assurance. Power’s (1999) theorisation of the loosely coupled relationship between the programmatic and operational aspects of audit is mobilized to frame the study’s findings. The analysis reveals an uneasy and shifting relationship between the operationalisation of assurance and the realisation of its emerging programmatic ideals with embryonic local discourses and tacit knowledge embedded in highly subjective assessments of evidence emerging as key technological resources adopted to make assurance possible. Recent moves to structure loosely formulated practices within methodological ‘shells’ derived from financial audit have formalised and rationalised practice while rarely guiding detailed assurance procedures. This shift towards structure has occurred in the midst of ongoing tensions between accountant and non-accountant assurors over legitimate approaches to the gathering and assessment of evidence. In light of the operational challenges and tensions, both firms have moved to publicly acknowledge the technological limitations of traditional financial audit practice while simultaneously offering an external ‘expert’ stakeholder solution that can be coupled with existing practice. The paper reflects on these findings in the context of Power’s (1999) aforementioned theorisation.