Environmental Management Accounting and Environmental Performance

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between environmental management accounting (EMA) and environmental performance in the Malaysian small-medium (SMEs) sized manufacturing sector. The issue of environmental have affected many businesses regardless of the types and sizes of organisation. Ferreira et.al. (2010) argue that the use of EMA technique is not driven by the size of a company, but by the type of industry it relates to. EMA practices involve the tracking, tracing and treatment of costs, earnings and savings incurred in relation to the company’s environmental-related activities Burrit et. al. (2002),. Environmental accounting is still new in Malaysia and the managers and accountants are lack of knowledge in this matter (Jusoh et al., 2018), therefore it is need more empirical evidence on EMA practices especially in developing countries, such as Malaysia. Thus, this study is important to explain the current practice of EMA in SMEs and its influence on environmental performance.

The results reveal that the physical EMA has the highest mean compared to monetary EMA. The results show that the level of EMA practices are not at an encouraging level. The regression results indicate that both types of EMA practices (monetary and physical) have a positive significant effect on environmental performance.