Sustainability control system components, reporting and performance

Purpose: Drawing on the natural resource-based view and the literature on management control systems as a package, this study aims to investigate organizations’ sustainability control systems designed to achieve the interrelated sustainability objectives of performance and reporting. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use three-stage least squares regressions on archival data for a large sample of international companies. Findings: Better environmental performance and sustainability reporting quality are related to certain control system components, and the dual objectives of sustainability performance and reporting are interrelated. Originality/value: This study provides theoretical contributions and practical implications by demonstrating how a set of sustainability control components can enable better sustainability reporting and performance outcomes.