| Marcuccio and Steccolini [2009] | 12 Italian local authorities | Interviews | Increased reporting is “management fashion”; reporting can be a tool to appear innovative and progressive |
| Bellringer et al. [2011] | 5 Local government councils in New Zealand | Semi-structured exploratory interviews | The importance of leadership by setting an example for the community; sustainability reporting ensures transparency and accountability to the public; financial incentives can help to encourage commitment to sustainability reporting; using reports to inform and reassure employees and taxpayers about the council’s commitment to sustainability |
| Williams et al. [2011] | Australian local governments | Mail survey | Half of the respondents report on at least one sustainability area; 40% of non-reporters indicate willingness to report in future |
| Greco et al. [2012] | 10 Italian and Australian city councils | Interviews | Large degree of discretion in sustainability reports of cities; societal norms, values, and culture can influence an organization to take action to reporting; institutional isomorphism has an influential role in the decision to undertake sustainability reporting; the need of developing a sustainability reporting framework to improve; reporting practices and meet the needs of the community and other stakeholders |
| Navarro-Galera et al. [2014] | 33 European local governments | Content analysis of websites | Local governments are reasonably transparent; no link between disclosure and (financial) development |
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| 55 Spanish towns | Content analysis of websites; regression analysis | The motivation behind sharing information is often rooted in the personal objectives of leaders and policy creators |
| Alcaraz-Quiles et al. [2014] | Western Australian local government authorities | Content analysis of websites | Moderate engagement in sustainability reporting, with greater emphasis on waste management, biodiversity, energy, and water management, metropolitan councils have better reporting performance than rural councils; local councils are under pressure to meet stakeholder expectations and sustainability reporting would meet these demands |
| Hossain [2018] | Amsterdam, Basel, Dublin, Freiburg, Nuremberg, Zurich | Mixed methods: document analysis, interviews | Sustainability reporting can benefit organizational change, management, and communication, but it can also lead to “fatigue” and abandonment; different practices have emerged based on unique choices about formats, periodicity, authorship, and dissemination efforts |
| Manes-Rossi et al. [2021] | Sample of 18 European SOEs from 8 countries | Manual content analysis of integrated reports | Government ownership, external audit, investor protection, and adoption of GRI guidelines positively influence IR (integrated reporting) disclosure; SOE size negatively influences IR disclosure; the overall level of IR disclosure among the sampled SOEs increased from an average score of 0.52 in 2013 to 0.68 in 2017 |
