Towards Citizen Accountability of Local Public Enterprises

Since the liberalization of markets for public service provision within the nineties, the pressure on public sector entities to demonstrate their performance in financial and nonfinancial terms has increased. Compared to the private sector accountability expectations and obligations are higher for public enterprises due to public ownership and the specific public mission objectives. While there is a vast body of literature on public accountability in general, a research gap exists when it comes to the linkage of citizen accountability to the sustainability reporting practices of public enterprises. The paper analyses existing studies and adds a documentary analysis regarding sustainability reporting in German and Austrian public utilities.