Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Sense-Making and Sense-Giving: Reaching Through the Smokescreen of Sustainability Disclosure in the Stock Market
School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences, Business Administration and Industrial Engineering. Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3377-6177
2019 (English)In: Challenges in Managing Sustainable Business: Reporting, Taxation, Ethics and Governance / [ed] Susanne Arvidsson, Springer Nature , 2019, p. 77-109Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Financial analysts’ role as information intermediaries between management teams and investors is vital for the efficient allocation of resources on the stock market. The increased focus on sustainability information in corporate reports has affected financial analysts in their important work of interpreting, assessing and communicating value-added information to their clients, i.e. the investors. The challenges they face relate to the ambiguous nature of sustainability information and its difference from traditional financial information. How do analysts reach through this smokescreen? How do analysts make sense of sustainability information, and how do they give sense to this information when they provide investment advices to their investors? In this chapter, these challenges are addressed from a cognitive-frame perspective. We argue that the first part of 2000s was characterized by cognitive dissonance due to both a low social legitimacy and a low cognitive legitimacy, i.e. sustainability was not yet requested by the investors to be attended to and it was regarded too ambiguous to be relevant for being considered in a valuation context. In the latter part of 2010s, we argue that there is only a partial cognitive dissonance. At this time, sustainability information is beginning to be socially legitimate and requested by investors. However, the complexity of the situation remains. This type of information is still not considered as cognitive legitimate due to the ambiguous nature, which renders difficulties for the sense-making and sense-giving processes. The findings have implications not the least in the ongoing quest of developing frameworks, standards and legislation (e.g. the EU directive (2014/EU/95)), that opt for improving the relevance, credibility and comparability of sustainability information.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature , 2019. p. 77-109
Keywords [en]
Sustainability information, Financial analysts, Cognitive frames, Cognitive dissonance, Sense-making, Sense-giving, Social legitimacy, Cognitive legitimacy
National Category
Business Administration
Research subject
Accounting and Control
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-76331DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-93266-8_4Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85063422748ISBN: 978-3-319-93266-8 (electronic)ISBN: 978-3-319-93265-1 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-76331DiVA, id: diva2:1359564
Available from: 2019-10-09 Created: 2019-10-09 Last updated: 2023-10-14Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Johansson, Jeaneth

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Johansson, Jeaneth
By organisation
Business Administration and Industrial Engineering
Business Administration

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
isbn
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
isbn
urn-nbn
Total: 130 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf