Mandatory environmental reporting has been seen as a way of increasing accountability of organizations, regarding environmental issues. This paper is concerned with one standard, which requires all the Spanish companies to include environmental disclosures in their financial statements. From the survey of the rationale of the disclosure requirements we suggest that more sound environmental initiatives are obscured by an end-of-pipe emphasis. Additionally, from the research of the reporting activity of a sample of companies a low compliance level results, with roughly 80% of companies not providing any environmental information. In addition, those companies who are reporting some environmental information neglect those aspects of the regulation that are not in their interests to report. The interpretation of these findings, using the theoretical distinction between administrative and institutional reforms, leads us to conclude that the Spanish standard on environmental disclosure is insufficient to enable new accountability relationships and to empower stakeholders.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the interplay between strategy, environmental management systems and environmental accounting, and their role in improving environmental performance. Design/methodology/approach -By engaging with organisations through field research, this paper analyses the aspects of the European Community's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), an environmental management system (EMS), that act as catalysts for change through the development of intangible assets that improve environmental performance. Evidence is collected from semi-structured interviews with environmental managers and management accountants from ten Spanish EMAS registered sites. Findings -The embedding mechanisms of EMAS are considered. From the analysis, six valuable intangible assets for improving environmental performance were identified: awareness of employees; environmental knowledge, skills and expertise of employees; the commitment of managers; cross-functional coordination; the integration of environmental issues in strategic planning process; and, the use of management accounting practices. These intangible assets were used to define three levels of environmental embeddedness: primary, visible, and advanced. Practical implications -This paper provides insights into the interface between environmental management systems and management accounting and the implications of this for organisational change and environmental performance. Originality/value -This paper contributes to fieldwork research within the environmental accounting literature by engaging with organisations in addressing the question of how EMAS improves environmental performance. Furthermore, it demonstrates that involvement primarily of internal, but also external, participants enhances further development of EMAS.

New perspectives in accounting history have uncovered previously unattended relations between accounting and government. Earlier Foucauldian analyses of governments have not explained sufficiently the relations of accounting practices to governmental discourses in order to manage populations.This work uses the governmentality frame to analyse the role of accounting in two organizations located in the south of Spain in the second half of the eighteenth century: the New Settlements of Sierra Morena and Andalucia (NSs) and the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville (RTFS). The period studied is remarkable because it was the apogee of the Enlightenment in Spain. From the standpoint of government, this period facilitated a new way to manage populations. The present work has drawn on Foucault's concept of governmentality in order to discover how accounting worked in two government-supported organizations independently of the discourses that pervaded each one. Drawing on the reticulation of the space, the use of rules and accounting from the governmental perspective, we analyse those institutions.The article concludes that the reticulation of space is an essential apparatus to exert action at a distance; the rules are a type of government technology; and, overall, accounting is a practice for the mastery of the population independently from the discourse of the institution.New perspectives in accounting history have uncovered previously unattended relations between accounting, society and government (e.g., Miller, 1986;Hopper and Armstrong, 1991;Stewart, 1992;Ezzamel, 1997; Fleischman J uan B años S ánchez -M atamoros is a Lecturer in Accounting, F ernando G utiérrez H idalgo an Assistrant Professor, and C oncha Á lvarez -D ardet E spejo (mcalvesp@dee.upo.es) and F rancisco C arrasco F enech Professors of Accounting at the University Pablo de Olavide of Seville. This research has benefited from financial support (in part) by SEC2633-2001 and SEJ-0111. The authors are also grateful to two anonymous referees for their constructive comments.

Recently, a growing literature in accounting history has provided sociological interpretations of historical facts in which accounting was involved. Foucault's governmentality concept has contributed to such analysis, specifically in 19th and 20th century's cases. However, the analysis of 18th century and, specially, colonial organizations has not been made yet. Thus, this work is devoted to analyse how accounting is implicated in the control of a Spanish colonial project. The relationships between accounting and the enlightened discourses that improved the colonies are clear. Conversely, the role of the resistance in this case allows questioning the refereed accounting literature in governmentality.

An extensive branch of accounting literature studies accounting and religion. The variety of religious organizations studied, theoretical approaches, and roles assigned to accounting are as extensive as the range of the values that are rooted in religious organizations. However, the literature has not yet described the role of the individual in the spread of accounting and accountability into a religious organization and what leads the individual to advocate such change. The concept of institutional entrepreneurship can shed light on this topic. To this end, this work studies the change in the Constituciones (rules) of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God in eighteenth-century Spain. Father Ortega, as General of the Order, played a key role supporting the implementation of accounting and accountability techniques.