Purpose – The study seeks to add to the understanding of the diffusion and decline of environmental reporting practices Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews and municipal water utility publications are analysed to identify factors which have influenced the diffusion and...

This article investigates the dynamics of benchmarking in municipal water utilities. The authors explain how a voluntary project developed the characteristics of compulsory benchmarking. While the first adopters of benchmarking sought efficiency gains, later adoptions have mainly been driven by...