Promoting Sustainability Transparency in European Local Governments: An Empirical Analysis Based on Administrative Cultures

Abstract

Nowadays, the transparency of governments with respect to the sustainability of public services is a very interesting issue for stakeholders and academics. It has led to previous research and international organisations (EU, IMF, OECD, United Nations, IFAC, G-20, World Bank) to recommend promotion of the online dissemination of economic, social and environmental information. Based on previous studies about e-government and the influence of administrative cultures on governmental accountability, this paper seeks to identify political actions useful to improve the practices of transparency on economic, social and environmental sustainability in European local governments. We perform a comparative analysis of sustainability information published on the websites of 72 local governments in 10 European countries grouped into main three cultural contexts (Anglo-Saxon, Southern European and Nordic). Using international sustainability reporting guidelines, our results reveal significant differences in local government transparency in each context. The most transparent local governments are the Anglo-Saxon ones, followed by Southern European and Nordic governments. Based on individualized empirical results for each administrative style, our conclusions propose useful policy interventions to enhance sustainability transparency within each cultural tradition, such as development of legal rules on transparency and sustainability, tools to motivate local managers for online diffusion of sustainability information and analysis of information needs of stakeholders.

Enhancing Sustainability Transparency in Local Governments—An Empirical Research in Europe

“…Considering prior research [13,18,21,23,24,58,59] in this area, we compiled a list of items from the GRI guidelines [49][50][51]76] to assess the level of LG sustainability information published online. As explained in the previous section, the GRI guidelines are a widely-accepted framework for sustainability reports, and also provide guidance on how they should be related to broader public policy.…”

“…Another limitation observed in previous research is that the issue has been presented in a purely descriptive manner, without considering the possible influence of other factors [23]. The present study extends these earlier approaches by examining LGs representing the three prevalent administrative cultures in Europe [23,74], and by analysing the possible influence of different factors, including those referring to the legal system, which have not previously been used in this type of analysis.…”

“…Other studies have analysed the information disclosure on sustainability by 33 Anglo-Saxon and Nordic local governments [21], and that provided by 62 local governments in Anglo-Saxon and Southern European countries, considering the influence of certain socio-economic variables [24]. Finally, a descriptive analysis has been performed of the sustainability information published online by 72 LGs representative of the three main administrative cultures (Anglo-Saxon, Nordic and Southern European) [23].…”

“…Studies have examined the disclosure of specific areas of financial information [15,20,65], but very few have addressed the question of transparency regarding sustainability [23]. For this reason, it would be valuable and timely to further our understanding of the influence of administrative culture on sustainability transparency [21,24].…”

“…In addition, although research findings suggest that cultural differences can affect accountability and transparency [20][21][22], few studies have been undertaken to address the question of transparency on sustainability from the perspective of the cultural traditions prevailing in different countries [23,24], or to analyse factors that may influence this information disclosure.…”