Purpose This paper aims to assess the disclosure on materiality analysis in sustainability and integrated reports through the lenses of legitimacy and stakeholder theory. The following three research questions are addressed: to what extent do companies report on their materiality analysis, what are the methods used for the analysis of the stakeholders and their topics/aspects and is there a higher disclosure of information of materiality assessment because of G4. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses an archival research approach and deploys content analysis. Thus, a binary disclosure index was developed that indicates whether materiality related information are mentioned and explained in detail. The sample contains 132 reports from 33 companies of the German 110 HDAX stock market index between 2014 and 2017. Findings The paper reveals that materiality analysis is a growing phenomenon. Nevertheless, companies disclose only a small amount of related information and fail to explain the methods for the stakeholder and topics/aspects identification. Thus, the underlying processes to define the report content remains unclear. Through the lenses of legitimacy theory, the study indicates that materiality analysis can strategically be misused to define report content without considering the interests of legitimized stakeholder groups and thus, does not improve the reports to those groups. Practical implications Managers are urged to regard the importance of reporting about ongoing materiality assessments, as otherwise, concerns about the overall reliability of the information presented may arise. Social implications Poor reporting about materiality assessments might lead to potential conflicts with stakeholders that do see their important topics not sufficiently reflected in the sustainability or integrated report. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature regarding materiality in sustainability and integrated reporting and uses the assumptions of disclosure theories to evaluate the disclosure of a specific disclosure item.

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Participatory budgeting (PB) is a relatively novel approach to the allocation of funds which allows ordinary citizens to become directly involved in how local government money is spent. This study identifies and examines the features and drivers of PB that incentivize citizen participation and the co-production of public services. Our analysis takes a fresh approach by setting PB initiatives in an innovative frame combining a paradigm of 'ideal' types of PB and their diachronic constituent phases. The results provide insights for both scholars and policy makers on the key features and drivers of citizen participation through PB.

PurposeThis paper studies the usability of LG financial statements as perceived by local councillors. By drawing on a comparative view of two countries with different periods of accrual accounting use in the public sector, the authors investigate how local councillors assess the usability of LG financial statements in order to question accounting reform success. Determinants that influence the usability assessment are explored.Design/methodology/approachExploratory design: data were collected from questionnaires with 24 local councillors from five Finnish local governments (LGs) and 30 local councillors from six German LGs. An adjusted variant of the system usability scale was analysed with descriptive statistics and non-parametric group comparisons.FindingsIn both countries, the usability assessment of financial statements seems to be positive, indicating a successful reform process. In Finland, where the accrual government accounting reform has had a longer time to settle in, councillors seem to assess usability only partially better than German councillors. Several determinants of the usability assessment were detected, such as size and debt level of the LG as well as local councillors' gender, political orientation and education. Generally, councillors need more assistance and training in using financial statements.Originality/valueThe study is the first to conduct a quantitative assessment of the usability of LG financial statements as perceived by councillors. The system usability scale was adjusted to a public sector reporting context. The paper adopts a transnational comparative approach.