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The policies disclosure
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Internationally, the concept of sustainability development (SD) has been of increasing relevance since the Brundtland report was published. The European Commission (EC) has published a variety of documents that encourage member states to adopt SD strategies. This article analyses fourteen voluntary contemporary strategic plans (SPs) of Italian loca...
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Context 1
... analysis developed for the Italian LGs SPs is reported by what has been disclosed i.e.: (1) Table 3 shows what percentage of policies of the com(2006) 385 final was disclosed, basing on the number of total possible guidelines observation in the fourteen SPs examined. As shown on table 3, all six policies were disclosed, with a stable trend. ...
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توسعه پایدار یک امر درونی و بسیار با ارزش می باشد که رسیدن به آن، متعادل کردن یک سیستم پیچیده از موضوعات را شامل می شود. بیشتر روش های تشخیص و مدیریت پایداری در خطاب قرار دادن پایداری در یک زمینه خاص از پروژه و سهام داران آن شکست می خورند. سیستم های بیشتر جامع بیشتری برای خطاب قرار دادن پایداری به طور موثر مورد نیاز است. سیستم ابزار پایداری و سنجش...
Citations
... Big data availability and technological advances have led the combination of Business Intelligence (BI), Business Analytics (BA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with managerial information systems, identifying them as a solution for diagnostic issues related to strategic performance management systems (SPMS) Silvi et al., 2015) and business accountability, englobing the economic, social and environmental sustainable dimensions (Kaplan & McMillan, 2020;Lytras et al., 2020;Mazzara et al., 2010;). The demand for accountability and performance outcome improvement of LGs is growing and is characterized by multiple goals to achieve on behalf of diverse stakeholders (Wisniewski & Olafsson, 2004). ...
... SPMS literature (Silvi et al., 2015;Melnyk et al., 2014;de Waal, 2007) investigates operational and strategy-oriented approaches to the discipline, and primarily focuses on multidimensional perspectives, adopting the concept of sustainability in its triple form: economic, social and environmental (Kaplan & McMillan, 2020;Lytras et al., 2020;Mazzara et al., 2010;). According to de Waal (2007), SPMS is a managerial and analytical process " [...] where steering of the organization takes place through the systematic definition of mission, strategy and objectives of the organization, making these measurable through critical success factors and key performance indicators (KPIs), in order to be able to take corrective actions to keep the organization on track". ...
... Andrews et al., 2012;Johnsen, 2019) in order to achieve a realistic and sustainable SPMS pathway aimed to establish a 'dashboard' of measures capable of describing organizational objectives and of encouraging coherent behaviours based on the integration of financial and non-financial indicators (Silvi et al., 2015). However, there still is a lack of a perceived strategic orientation within public sector organizations (Mazzara et al., 2010;Northcott & Taulapapa, 2012), which may impede SPMS adoption since its effective use is predicated on an assumption that the organization is strategy driven. This suggests that SPMS in LGs may not follow an adequate methodological path that, on the basis of the objectives, identifies the critical factors to be monitored (Del Bene, 2009). ...
Considering the scope of novelty that AI brings into politics, economics, and, notably, daily life, it is imperative that it is discussed from as many perspectives as possible. It is imperative that it is discussed in detail, and that the debate on AI is approachable to a variety of stakeholders. This chapter outlines the main themes and issues that have been discussed in chapters that constitute this volume, including those as diverse as the very technical characteristics of AI, AI and politics, ethical questions pertaining to the use of AI in the battlefield, strategic communication (StratCom), military planning, and management and the decision-making process in the domains of business and public administration. The intersection of AI and international trade and national AI strategies from a range of countries around the globe are queried too.
... Big data availability and technological advances have led the combination of Business Intelligence (BI), Business Analytics (BA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with managerial information systems, identifying them as a solution for diagnostic issues related to strategic performance management systems (SPMS) (Polese et al., 2017;Silvi et al., 2015) and business accountability, englobing the economic, social and environmental sustainable dimensions (Kaplan & McMillan, 2020;Lytras et al., 2020;Mazzara et al., 2010;). The demand for accountability and performance outcome improvement of LGs is growing and is characterized by multiple goals to achieve on behalf of diverse stakeholders (Wisniewski & Olafsson, 2004). ...
... SPMS literature (Silvi et al., 2015;Melnyk et al., 2014;de Waal, 2007) investigates operational and strategy-oriented approaches to the discipline, and primarily focuses on multidimensional perspectives, adopting the concept of sustainability in its triple form: economic, social and environmental (Kaplan & McMillan, 2020;Lytras et al., 2020;Mazzara et al., 2010;). According to de Waal (2007), SPMS is a managerial and analytical process " [...] where steering of the organization takes place through the systematic definition of mission, strategy and objectives of the organization, making these measurable through critical success factors and key performance indicators (KPIs), in order to be able to take corrective actions to keep the organization on track". ...
... Andrews et al., 2012;Johnsen, 2019) in order to achieve a realistic and sustainable SPMS pathway aimed to establish a 'dashboard' of measures capable of describing organizational objectives and of encouraging coherent behaviours based on the integration of financial and non-financial indicators (Silvi et al., 2015). However, there still is a lack of a perceived strategic orientation within public sector organizations (Mazzara et al., 2010;Northcott & Taulapapa, 2012), which may impede SPMS adoption since its effective use is predicated on an assumption that the organization is strategy driven. This suggests that SPMS in LGs may not follow an adequate methodological path that, on the basis of the objectives, identifies the critical factors to be monitored (Del Bene, 2009). ...
Technological advances (from almost unlimited computer power to Artificial Intelligence-based systems) combined with managerial information systems may prove significantly valuable under two different areas. On the one hand, Business Intelligence and Business Analytics, the latter of which is a layer on which Artificial Intelligence commonly builds, may overcome an information overload, absence of cause-effect relationships and a lack of holistic views of the organization. On the other hand, they may improve accountability while also engaging different stakeholders. However, the diffusion of this approach, especially in the public sector and at a local level, is still both theoretically and practically in its infancy. Thus, this conceptual paper highlights the pivotal role of data-driven decision-making and data-visualization in Local Governments, involving the points of view of both accounting scholars and an Artificial Intelligence practitioner. The literature review suggests how data analytics may allow the alignment between political programs, strategic goals and their implementation, fostering the integration between strategic and operational goals. Moreover, data analytics may increase accountability and support the managerial and political decision-making process, increasing their awareness. This paper calls for new models for public administration managerial decision-making, reporting, and organizational culture which encompass analytics, capable of simplifying data and amplifying its value.
... Other fundamental difficulties of a wicked problem are long planning horizons and unclear objectives. Lately, long-term ambitions have been argued to be difficult to pursue in modern public organizations, since most ongoing organizational practices are short-term, which means that a conflict between long-and short-term ambitions might arise [58]. In the West Link project, once the long-term planning processes and specific complex conditions resulting from the ambiguity of Condition 1 were accepted, they were more actively addressed (creating a working group in addition to the existing reference group). ...
Heritage management in infrastructure planning is in this paper regarded as a ‘wicked problem’—a multidimensional and unpredictable activity infused with conflicting stakeholder perspectives. By focusing on the West Link and drawing on theoretical notions of strategy-as-practice, the aim is to identify the circumstances in which paradoxes and dilemmas of wicked problems emerge and examine the professional micro-level strategizing applied to navigate and overcome them. The railway construction was deemed to be a threat to the 17th century fortifications, historical parks and former agricultural properties, today located in the city center. The Swedish government appointed representatives from the Swedish Transport Administration and heritage professionals from national, regional and local levels of government to negotiate how best to deal with these challenges. By means of primary data from interviews and workshops with stakeholders, and document- and correspondence analysis, the results showed how three main challenges hampered a fruitful dialogue and outcome: the inherent complexity of the task, different approaches to heritage and lack of adequate coordination within and between the parties. Strategic responses included action plans, delegation of tasks in reference and working groups, the signing of agreements, reorganization and financing of additional personnel. We discuss the main factors underlining the wickedness of heritage management in infrastructure planning as both processual and collaborative, and the implications of this for practice regarding bringing about more operative and sustainable approaches.
... In parallel, as a general trend, the growing attention of a local government to integrate sustainability into strategic planning processes [65] and reporting [66][67][68], has emerged, especially in the last decade. In fact, local governments (LGOs) play a key role in sustainable development, having a high faculty to directly impact society and communities [69,70]. ...
Recently, a new paradigm has emerged—the resilient city. It is an evolutionary concept rooted in recent—but more consolidated—city visions, such as a smart city or a sustainable city, from which it inherits the interweaving of different dimensions. This paper investigates the factors behind effective resilience reporting, as well as how a city should draw up an urban resilience strategy report to be accountable to its citizens. We first highlighted the main factors to design and implement reporting for the achievement of strategic resilience goals, by combining research on a resilient city and accountability practices. These factors could be organized following two different perspectives: political and sociotechnical. Then, we applied our framework to four pioneering municipalities selected as paradigmatic case studies. A qualitative content analysis applied to the city resilience reports has provided depth to our framework. We found that the “weak factor” is the ability to embed the resilience strategy in rooted connections and transform itself into an ecosystem that crosscuts different sectoral urban processes. Our exploratory research claims could be used for future research in this field, as cities are becoming increasingly complex systems, where the quality of life and well-being of a larger population depends.
... Second, the paper advances the discussion of strategic thinking in the public sector by showing how this thinking changes during the course of implementation George, 2017;Johnsen, 2015), here through the use of tools of calculative practices that both enabled and hindered the implementation. In the studied case, sustainability gradually gave way to financial control, and ultimately to climate change as well, confirming the difficulty of implementing sustainability practices over time (Mazzara et al., 2010). One can question whether sustainability strategies need to be this abstract and broad to capture development that occurs over time, or whether this abstraction indicates a lack of clarity. ...
This paper investigates the role of calculative practices in the phase of implementing strategies for enhanced sustainability in a city organization. Sustainability as a concept is arguably difficult to handle at the organizational level, becoming a challenge for public organizations in practice. This paper builds on the notion of performativity and follows a strategy implementation process over time in a city, allowing us to see how the sustainability ambitions altered over the observed period. This led to the conclusion that when sustainability is to be implemented, there is a shift towards financial control and calculative practices assume various roles.
... Scholars have also focused on sustainability reporting practices-showing that sustainable development information is mainly included in annual reporting, either voluntarily or in response to legal pressures (for example see Niemann & Hoppe, 2018;Williams et al., 2011). In general, these studies have shown that the disclosure of social and environmental information is still limited compared to that of financial information (Ball & Bebbington, 2008;Grubnic et al., 2015), whereas disclosure of strategic and operational plans is still scarce or in its initial stages (for example see Mazzara et al., 2010). ...
This article proposes and discusses a managerial framework to provide guidance on implementing and monitoring the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) at the local government level. The integration of SDGs into city strategic plans will help city leaders and local politicians strengthen their planning and management processes and improve the communication of strategic goals.
... Local governments are often more successful in delivering climate action when they coordinate with other actors from the private sector and civil society [47,50]. Nurturing partnerships with actors from both state and non-state sectors may afford cities the opportunity to employ their powers most effectively and ultimately catalyze climate action [47,51]. Numerous cross-sector partners and voluntary actions are needed to implement a local climate action plan [20]. ...
This study qualitatively explores eight cases of best practice cities that are leading the way towards deep decarbonization. Local governments and stakeholders are developing short-term strategies and long-term pathways towards deep decarbonization at the local level but are struggling to determine effective actions. In this article, we examine cities pursuing deep decarbonization to provide insights into the strategies and governance structures that eight leading local governments are using to develop and implement deep decarbonization plans. The cases are in Canada (Bridgewater, Guelph, Vancouver and Toronto), the USA (Park City and New York City), Finland (Lahti), and Norway (Oslo) and range from very small (8.4 thousand people) to very large (9.6 million people). For each city, their implementation strategies are detailed under four categories: engagement; green economy; policy tools; and financial tools. Governance mechanisms and modes are explained regarding coordination; oversight and reporting; communication; multi-level integration; cross-sector collaboration; funding, and mode. While a number of these approaches and tools have been identified in previous research and grey literature, the findings show that leading local government plans continue to develop innovative strategies on their own and also share their successes with other communities through transnational networks. The cases examined in this study are moving beyond the incremental approach to mitigating greenhouse gases and are innovating to find applied methods for achieving transformative change. The findings from this study are useful for practitioners and academics working on climate mitigation, strategy implementation, cross-sector partnerships, and sustainable cities.
... With regard to Italian literature, the work of Mazzara, Sangiorgi, and Siboni (2010a;2010b) analyzed the practices used in local authorities considering sustainable development in a strategic point of view and presented a first analysis regarding the consideration of sustainable development in the strategic plans of local authorities. ...
... The strategic planning of metropolitan areas in Europe that began in the late 1980s is a new approach to local government (Roberts, 1993). In the formulation and implementation of programs and projects, a strategic nature is attributed to the ability of local communities to promote and activate the potential of partnership systems around the medium and long term, permanently monitored and evaluated targets, aimed at identifying a shared vision of the future development of a given region (on SP in Italian local governments, see Cavenago & Trivellato, 2010;Martinelli, 2005;Perulli, 2004;Mazzara, Sangiorgi, & Siboni, 2010;Percoco, 2014). 6 In the initial stage of our analysis, in order to reconstruct the geography of local development instruments which over time have been stratified in Sicily, the other four tools that contributed significantly to launching local development were taken into consideration, in addition to these three main policy instruments and SP (Table 1). ...
In the last two decades, EU policies have had a fundamental role in orienting regional/local development. The objective of this work is set in this context as it intends to analyze the local development programs activated in Sicily in the last three programming periods. The main aim is to explore whether the EU partnership principle influenced cooperation among local actors, assessing the continuity of local institutional coalition in managing different local development programs within the regional development policy system. We focus, in particular, on Strategic Plans (SP) promoted in Sicily in the transition phase between the 2000–2006 and the 2007–2013 periods.
... En la actualidad el Sector Público ha asumido un papel activo tanto en el desarrollo de una estructura adecuada para la adopción de estrategias de desarrollo sostenible, como en la adopción de comportamientos sostenibles (Mazzara et al. 2010). En este contexto, en el Ecuador se ha generalizado el uso de índices, sin embargo, sobre el tema ambiental poco se ha definido y difundido (Mussari & Monfardini 2010). ...
This work aims to generate an Environmental Sustainability Index of the 221 Municipalities of Ecuador to assess environmental management. The methodology of the study was to propose a systemic model that involves environmental, economic, social and institutional aspects, for which 69 selected Census variables Environmental Information cantons disaggregated level prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses Ecuador (2012). The results show that in Ecuador environmental management of municipalities is average, considered limited to achieve sustainability, implying a lack of monitoring plans and environmental programs and commitment of the municipalities.
Keywords: Environmental Sustainability Index; Economic Indicators; Social Indicators; Environmental Indicators; Public Sector.
