Michael Scotney

Michael Scotney is a Lecturer in Accounting at Surrey Business School. His teaching and research focus on sustainability accounting, corporate governance, and ESG risks, investigating how organisations navigate and respond to emerging sustainability and climate-risk expectations in regulation and reporting.

Michael is currently writing up his PhD in Accounting at Lancaster University, which investigates the institutional evolution and sedimentation of sustainability reporting standards, focusing on the rise of SASB and its integration into the ISSB framework. His doctoral research spans three interlinked papers that together trace how sustainability reporting practices and institutions evolve, legitimise, and embed over time.

• The first paper analyses the evolution of climate risk reporting among 49 global real-estate firms over two decades (2002–2022). It develops a process model of how novel forms of climate-related risk are interpreted, translated, and institutionalised in corporate reporting, offering theoretical and practical insights into the emergence of new disclosure conventions.
• The second paper, drawing on Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphor, explores the frontstage and backstage dynamics of corporate TCFD reporting. It uncovers the performative interactions between reporters and investors, revealing a process of co-creation rather than one-way disclosure, and offering a more nuanced understanding of how climate information is negotiated and legitimised.
• The third paper examines the institutional work and legitimacy strategies underpinning the evolution of SASB and its sedimentation into the global sustainability reporting architecture. It identifies how regulatory, professional, and investor actors collectively shape enduring conceptions of materiality and legitimacy in the sustainability field.

Across these studies, Michael’s work contributes to understanding how organisations conceptualise and communicate climate risk, translate sustainability pressures into governance systems, and navigate shifting regulatory expectations. He combines qualitative and interpretive methodologies with a grounded understanding of finance and risk management, bridging the disciplines of accounting, finance, and management.

Michael holds a BSc in Management with Finance (First Class Honours) from Warwick Business School and an MSc in Finance (Distinction) from Lancaster University Management School, where he received the Best Dissertation Award for his study Explaining the Gender Pay Gap through Legitimacy Theory: Evidence from UK Corporate Reporting.

At Surrey, Michael is developing impact-driven collaborations that connect research with practice, helping organisations strengthen ESG governance, climate-risk reporting, and sustainable performance management. His wider research interests include risk governance, sustainability assurance, social reporting (gender and ethnicity pay gaps, modern slavery), and the regulatory evolution of ESG disclosure frameworks.