Factors influencing the digitalization of sustainability accounting, reporting and disclosure: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Purpose

This study is motivated by the rising regulatory demand for new digital solutions enabling searchable and comparable sustainability corporate information. It aims at uncovering the antecedents of the technological major benefits highlighted by the ongoing scientific debate on the digitalization processes implemented by firms. Therefore, this paper focuses on the factors related to the emergence of digital accounting, reporting and disclosure of sustainability corporate information.

Design/methodology/approach

Following the Technology-Organization-Environment framework, the authors review and classify the factors identified by current academic literature that may enable or constraint the use of digital solutions for collecting, reporting and disclosing corporate non-financial information. A total of 86 sources were retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science and reviewed following a systematic approach.

Findings

Results show an increasing interest in the digitalization of corporate sustainability accounting and reporting and highlight some related drivers with a predominance of technological and environmental enablers (e.g. compatibility, stakeholders pressure) along with organizational constraints (e.g. need for technical and training programmes) influencing the ongoing adoption of new technologies for both internal and inter-organizational purposes.

Research limitations/implications

The authors provide several research directions for enhancing the academic interest in corporate accounting digitalization.

Practical implications

This paper offers practical contributions to regulators and companies concerning the challenges they should face in applying new technologies for non-financial reporting purposes.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic literature review on the enablers and constraints of digitalization of sustainability accounting, reporting and disclosure.

Citation

Valentinetti, D. and Rea, M.A. (2024), "Factors influencing the digitalization of sustainability accounting, reporting and disclosure: a systematic literature review", Meditari Accountancy Research, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEDAR-02-2024-2385