Factors Driving or Hindering Sustainability Reporting in the Public Sector: A Systematic Review

There is a growing demand for accountability and transparency in public sector sustainability reporting alongside the need to synthesize fragmented literature for policymaking. This study systematically reviews and synthesizes 103 articles on the determinants of sustainability reporting by public sector organizations (PSOs) from 2005 to 2024. The findings reveal that legitimacy, stakeholder, and institutional theories dominate the literature on sustainability reporting, while the Global Reporting Initiative is the most adopted reporting framework. In state-owned and higher education institutions, corporate characteristics, institutional factors, corporate governance mechanisms, and stakeholder pressure drive sustainability reporting. By contrast, reporting by local governments and agencies is shaped by socio-demographic, socio-economic, political, and governmental financial factors. These differences extend to methods, theories, and barriers to PSOs’ sustainability reporting. The study advances the public administration literature on accountability and transparency by identifying factors influencing sustainability reporting in public sector subsectors, with implications for practitioners, policymakers, and future research.