Constructing sustainability expertise: capital conversion and the making of a sustainability CFO
Chaya Jayathileka, Rakshitha Hitibandara, Sashika WithanagePurpose
This paper examines how a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in a Sri Lankan state-owned bank constructed sustainability accounting as a new domain of professional expertise. Extending Baxter and Chua's (2008) conception of accounting expertise as an organisational accomplishment, the paper asks how entirely new forms of accounting expertise are constructed before organisational legitimacy, evaluative criteria and professional jurisdiction have been established, drawing on Bourdieu's theory of field, habitus and capital to explain this process.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a longitudinal qualitative case study of a CFO in a Sri Lankan state-owned housing bank, whose sustainability agenda developed during the country's post-tsunami reconstruction. Data were collected across two phases (2013–2014) using 44 semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, supplemented by field notes and documentary analysis of sustainability reports, policy documents and media coverage. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, proceeding from inductive coding through temporal coding to theoretical interpretation via Baxter and Chua (2008) and Bourdieu, tracing the sequential conversion of cultural, symbolic, social and positional capital.
Findings
Sustainability accounting expertise was constructed through a cumulative process of capital conversion. An entrepreneurial habitus generated the disposition to recognise emerging opportunities, enabling the accumulation of cultural capital through learning, authorship and reporting innovation. This cultural capital was converted into symbolic capital through managerial endorsement and award recognition, which expanded social capital through strategic alliances, and was ultimately converted into positional authority, redefining the finance function's organisational jurisdiction. However, this expertise construction did not automatically translate into institutionalisation: sustainability expertise remained concentrated in a single individual rather than becoming embedded in organisational systems and routines.
Research limitations/implications
The single-case design prioritises theoretical development over statistical generalisation; future research should examine whether similar processes of expertise construction occur across different organisational, professional and national settings. The case also centres on an unusually entrepreneurial CFO, and alternative trajectories may emerge where sustainability initiatives are collectively led or externally mandated. The longitudinal design captured the construction of expertise but not its longer-term reproduction following leadership succession, pointing to a need for future research on how such expertise diffuses, evolves or declines once its original architect departs the organisation.
Practical implications
Organisations should not equate the success of a prominent sustainability champion with the institutionalisation of sustainability capability. Individual actors can mobilise resources, secure legitimacy and accelerate organisational innovation, but sustained transformation depends on converting individually held expertise into collective organisational capability. Building durable sustainability capacity therefore requires deliberate investment in knowledge sharing, succession planning and cross-functional learning, alongside organisational systems that embed expertise beyond the individual who originally constructed it, reducing organisations' dependence on any single actor for the continuity of their sustainability agenda.
Originality/value
The paper offers a distinctive contribution by reconceptualising accounting expertise as something that must first be constructed, rather than simply organisationally accomplished, in emerging domains such as sustainability accounting. By integrating Bourdieu's theory of field, habitus and capital with Baxter and Chua's (2008) framework, it identifies cumulative capital conversion as the specific social mechanism underlying this process – a mechanism not previously articulated in the sustainability accounting literature. It further offers the original insight that expertise construction and organisational institutionalisation are analytically distinct, showing that individually constructed expertise can achieve legitimacy while remaining fragile and undiffused across the organisation.