Online sustainable development goals disclosure: A comparative study in Italian and Spanish local governments

Abstract

In this study, we performed a comparative analysis to examine the extent to which local governments (LGs) in two Mediterranean countries – Spain and Italy – use their websites to disclose information related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in response to the launch of the United Nations' (UN) 2030 Agenda. We performed a manual content analysis of the official websites of all Italian and Spanish LGs with more than 100,000 inhabitants, constructing different disclosure indexes. We then used a non‐parametric statistical test to assess differences in disclosure behaviours between countries. Our findings show that the extent to which the investigated LGs disclose SDG‐related information online remains limited. Based on Oliver's (1991) strategic responses framework, we postulate that Italian and Spanish LGs have responded to the launch of the SDGs by adopting compromise and avoidance strategies.