The Influence of Administrative Culture on Sustainability Transparency in European Local Governments

Abstract

Although the transparency and sustainability of governments are currently of great interest to researchers, few studies have specifically addressed these issues. Nevertheless, previous research has found sustainability transparency as a key issue in government-citizen relations, especially for local governments (LGs). The aim of this article is to identify factors that promote online transparency regarding the sustainability of public policies, by means of an empirical study of 62 LGs in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Southern Europe. Our results show that the prevailing administrative tradition may influence the degree of transparency of LGs, with population, socioeconomic, and financial factors being relevant.

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.…”

“…Thus, studies have evaluated the online provision of information about large Spanish cities and have examined relevant economic and political factors [13,59,60]. 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].…”

“…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 some previous studies of transparency about sustainability, the study sample is composed of LGs within a single country [59,73], while, in others, two different administrative cultures are represented [21,24]. 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].…”

“…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.…”