Purpose

Companies must no longer just report on corporate sustainability (CS) performance but also demonstrate that they are aligning their strategies with sustainability. However, suitable management control systems (MCS) are required to implement a sustainability strategy. Thereby, sustainability reporting (SR) can also be employed for control purposes. On the other hand, existing MCS can be used to develop SR that goes beyond accountability. Accordingly, this paper explores how this interplay can be designed.

Design/methodology/approach

For the study, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with persons from ATX and DAX companies. Since the interplay should be examined from a holistic control perspective, the authors used the MCS package of Malmi and Brown as an analysis framework.

Findings

Nowadays, merely focusing on reporting is too narrow a view. It is therefore not surprising that the investigation was able to reveal various possible linkages between MCS and SR that span the full range of the MCS package of Malmi and Brown.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should also consider non-listed companies to investigate potential differences and take a closer look at the proposed reciprocal nature of the interplay.

Practical implications

The findings expand the knowledge of how companies can use SR for control purposes and how existing MCS can help develop a reporting that goes beyond accountability.

Originality/value

The study contributes by highlighting the potential of SR to control CS performance from a holistic MCS perspective and likewise the impact of existing MCS on reporting. In addition, different theoretical perspectives are used to explain why the interplay can be designed differently in practice.

中文翻译：

---

可持续发展报告和管理控制的相互作用——探索如何配合以发展超越问责制的报告

目的

公司必须不再仅仅报告企业可持续发展（CS）绩效，还必须证明他们正在根据可持续发展调整其战略。然而，实施可持续发展战略需要合适的管理控制系统（MCS）。因此，可持续发展报告（SR）也可以用于控制目的。另一方面，现有的 MCS 可用于开发超越问责制的 SR。因此，本文探讨了如何设计这种相互作用。

设计/方法论/途径

在这项研究中，对 ATX 和 DAX 公司的人员进行了 20 次半结构化访谈。由于应该从整体控制的角度来检查相互作用，因此作者使用 Malmi 和 Brown 的 MCS 包作为分析框架。

发现

如今，仅仅关注报道是一种过于狭隘的观点。因此，调查能够揭示 MCS 和 SR 之间的各种可能的联系也就不足为奇了，这些联系涵盖了马尔米和布朗的 MCS 包的全部范围。

研究局限性/影响

未来的研究还应考虑非上市公司，以调查潜在的差异，并仔细研究拟议的相互作用的互惠性质。

实际影响

研究结果拓展了公司如何利用 SR 进行控制以及现有 MCS 如何帮助开发超越问责制的报告的知识。

原创性/价值

该研究强调了 SR 从整体 MCS 角度控制 CS 绩效的潜力，以及现有 MCS 对报告的影响。此外，还使用不同的理论视角来解释为什么在实践中可以进行不同的相互作用设计。