From Compliance to Reflection: Constructing Sustainability Reporting in the Public Sector through a Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach

Sustainability reporting in the public sector is often positioned as a technical and compliance-based governance tool; however, its practical implementation remains fragmented, inconsistent, and highly context-dependent. This study reconceptualizes public sector sustainability reporting as a socially constructed governance practice shaped by institutional pressures, ethical considerations, and interorganizational interactions. Employing a constructivist grounded theory methodology supported by an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, the study investigates how sustainability reporting is interpreted, enacted, and continuously reshaped within public organizations. The findings indicate that formal governance structures alone are insufficient to explain reporting practices. Instead, sustainability reporting emerges through iterative and interpretive processes involving moral accountability, negotiated transparency, legitimacy construction, and collaborative meaning-making among stakeholders. These processes collectively form what this study defines as reflective governance, a dynamic organizational capability characterized by reflexivity, dialogue, and continuous learning in interpreting sustainability information. Reflective governance operates as a mediating mechanism between institutional conditions and actual reporting practices, extending traditional institutional and accountability theories that often neglect interpretive and processual dimensions of governance. This study contributes to public sector accounting and sustainability literature by demonstrating that reporting quality is not solely determined by compliance with standards, but by the organization’s capacity for reflection and learning. Methodologically, it highlights the value of constructivist grounded theory in capturing the complexity of governance practices in real-world institutional settings. The study concludes that enhancing sustainability reporting requires strengthening organizational reflexivity, participatory interpretation, and learning-oriented governance rather than relying exclusively on formal disclosure frameworks.