Identifying Motivation of the Local Governments to Improve the Sustainability Transparency

Abstract

This paper examines the sustainability transparency of governments, i.e., the disclosure of information on the sustainability of their actions. To do so, we identify contributory factors to the online disclosure of environmental, social, economic and general information by local governments in Nordic countries. Linear regression analysis was used to identify factors infl uencing the online dissemination of government information on sustainability; a factor analysis, as a precursor to linear regression, led us to reduce 14 explanatory variables to four factors: fi nancial risk, demography, professional qualifi cations and local government resources. The results obtained show that local fi - nancial priorities have a greater impact on the sustainability-related content of governmental websites than does concern for the needs of the population. Furthermore, an organization’s disclosure of its fi nancial risks, together with greater awareness of stakeholders’ demands, could promote transparency in the fi eld of environmental, social and economic sustainability, while local demographic characteristics could foster the publication of information on environmental sustainability.This study was carried out with the assistance of a research project funded by the Regional Government of Andalusia (Ref. P11-SEJ-7700) and that of two projects funded by the National Research Plan, Nos. ECO2010-17463-ECON and ECO2010-20522-ECON