Advancing Sustainable Development in the Public Sector via Stakeholders’ Engagement Disclosure Website

Abstract

One of the important elements in advancing sustainability agenda in the public sector is the public participation or stakeholders’ engagement. The dissemination of sustainability information is crucial in ensuring the effectiveness of the stakeholders’ engagement. Past studies have highlighted the importance of websites as a strategic tool in promoting the sustainability agenda. This study aims to determine the relationship between e-PBT star rating, ISO commitment e-community, internal goals and council's size, and the extent of stakeholders’ engagement disclosure on Malaysian local authority website using an institutional theory framework. Adopting a modified stakeholders’ engagement index to measure the extent of stakeholders’ engagement disclosure, the unit of analysis for this research is 108 Malaysian local council websites. To reduce any subjectivity, the disclosure index is unweighted and consists of 40 items. e-PBT star rating, ISO commitment e-community and internal goals are found to have significant relationship with the extent of stakeholders’ engagement disclosure. Overall, the findings indicate the presence of institutional isomorphism – particularly coercive and normative isomorphism – in explaining the extent of stakeholders’ engagement disclosure on websites. The research has multiple implications as it provides insights into websites of stakeholders’ engagement disclosure in a developing country. It also adds support to institutional isomorphism as a valid theoretical framework within this context. One of the most important practical implications is to highlight the ability of local governments in a developing country like Malaysia for being able to disseminate stakeholders’ engagement information through their websites to increase greater transparency and accountability, which in turn, advancing sustainable development in the public sector.