Socio-environmental reporting trends in the Italian local government: Thrive or wither?

Social and environmental reporting (SER) in the public sector has been widelydiscussed in the last years (Gray et al., 1996; Mathews, 1997; Parker 2005; Guthrieand Abeysekera, 2006; Guarini, 2002; Hinna 2004; Marcuccio and Steccolini,2005). However, despite the interest in this area of research, there are still a numberof calls to deepen the study of SER in the public sector (Lewis, 2008; Grubnikand Ball, 2007). In Italy, the literature shows the risk of adopting SER as a managementfashion, more than a conscious process of organizational change (Marcuccioand Steccolini, 2005). This paper investigates about the reasons for theadoption and eventual abandonment of SER by local government in Italy.