Sustainability has become a central societal goal and a guiding principle for organisational activities. In 2025, sustainable development is steered by the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with public organisations playing a pivotal role in their implementation. Addressing sustainability challenges requires broad collaboration across societal sectors. Simultaneously, the public sector has undergone significant transformations aimed at enhancing efficiency and renewing operations. These shifts have contributed to the hybridisation of public governance where the management of socially significant issues is shaped by the interplay of diverse institutional logics; the underlying belief systems, values and rules that shape how organisations and people behave in different sectors of society.
Elina Vikstedt’s doctoral dissertation examines how these diverse beliefs, values and ways of thinking influence the accounting and governance of sustainable development in the public sector, and how sustainability-related accounting and reporting practices become integrated into the everyday operations of public organisations. The dissertation comprises a summary and four sub-studies: three empirical articles focusing on SDG reporting and performance management in the context of Finnish cities and municipalities, and one integrative literature review. The empirical data includes interviews with representatives from Finland’s 25 largest municipalities, complemented by participatory observation and document analysis. The literature review synthesises international research across various sustainable development policy domains to examine hybridity in performance management in collaborative governance arrangements.
“Public organisations – especially cities and municipalities – are at the forefront of implementing Agenda 2030. However, managing sustainability requires the rethinking of organisational roles and activities, including the way sustainability knowledge is produced. I hope my research provides new perspectives and frameworks that support this development in practice,” Vikstedt says.
Vikstedt’s central argument is that in the evolving landscape of public policy and governance, it is essential to critically reassess established theories and practices of performance management and accounting. Traditional models are no longer adequate to ensure accountability or to govern sustainable development in complex, multi-actor environments. These contexts demand a more holistic understanding of progress toward goals and the capacity to engage diverse stakeholders in shared objectives. The research offers fresh insights into how performance management and accounting can evolve to support the public sector’s transition toward a more sustainable and responsible future.
This dissertation is especially timely as municipalities and cities seek systematic approaches to implement and monitor Agenda 2030 goals. SDG reporting is becoming increasingly common in Finland and across Europe. Despite some setbacks in sustainability reporting regulation, many public and private organisations continue their determined efforts to advance sustainable development. This trend highlights that sustainability is not merely a regulatory obligation but increasingly a value-driven goal defined by the organisations themselves.
Public defence on Friday 28 November
Economist Elina Vikstedt’s doctoral dissertation in administrative sciences, titled Accounting for Sustainable Development in Hybridising Public Sector, will be publicly examined at Tampere University’s Faculty of Management and Business at 12.00 on Friday, 28 November 2025. The venue of the public defence is auditorium Pinni B1096, address Kanslerinrinne 1, Tampere. The opponent will be Associate Professor Daniela Argento from Kristianstad University (Sweden), and the custos will be Professor Jarmo Vakkuri from Tampere University’s Faculty of Management and Business.