Public goods, sustainable development and business accountability: Macro-micro linkages

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a linkage between performance measurement at the business level and the concept of public goods usage, and a linkage between the micro- and macro-economic aspects of sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach

Exhibiting the essentials of a public goods cost perspective in order to initiate discussion between statisticians, standard setters for business reporting and practitioners.

Findings

Showing what has been achieved in measuring the outcomes of sustainable development efforts and what still needs to be done in order to arrive at aggregate values for national and global commons.

Research limitations/implications

Linking performance measurement at the business level to public goods usage will depend on the co-operation of businesses and national statistics which test the feasibility of monetary indicators for both the micro- and the macro-levels.

Practical implications

For practitioners in both the statistics profession and management accounting who are concerned with measurement of socioeconomic and environmental phenomena, this attempt at integrating sustainable development indicators and the managerial control system of companies might provide a valuable proposition. It is also a useful contribution to the ongoing debate of the value and credibility of sustainability reporting.

Social implications

If businesses make no attempts to exhibit numerically how they contribute to preserving and expanding the societal commons, they will be confronted with ever-growing agitation from pressure groups and they might be bypassed in the discussion on the issue of sustainability parameters that those groups are advocating.

Originality/value

This is the first academic paper that demonstrates a reporting model which unites business accounts and national accounts.

Citation

Bardy, R. (2017), "Public goods, sustainable development and business accountability: Macro-micro linkages", World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 34-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJEMSD-01-2016-0004