Social Environmental Accounting and Reporting: MNC's Governance, Absorptive Capacity and Learning

Based on an embedded multiple case study of a UK-based MNC, FINEST, informed by 24 semi-structured interviews, this paper investigates the antecedents and outcome of subsidiaries’ absorptive capacity (ACAP) in the context of the intra-MNC transfer of social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) knowledge from the HQ to acquired subsidiaries. Drawing from a range of literatures such as agency theory, knowledge-based theory, socialisation theory, as well as organizational learning, social capital and psychology, we specify the governance mechanisms (hierarchical and relational) that influence the development of subsidiary’s potential absorptive capacity (PACAP) and realized absorptive capacity (RACAP) and their impact on subsidiary learning. Our cross-case analysis shows that a mix of relational and hierarchical governance mechanisms put in place by the HQ may be useful to achieve the development of ACAP and consequently of organizational learning by enabling the connection and integration of the potential and realized components of ACAP