Il Ruolo di Governance e Accountability per la sostenibilità: verso la proposta di un framework

Sustainability has become a central concern for firms, yet research on it remains fragmented across disciplines from ethics and strategy to corporate governance and accounting. This study addresses that fragmentation by integrating two traditions that have developed in parallel—governance and accountability—to interpret how firms define, construct, and implement sustainability. The still-developing research proposes an integrative conceptual framework highlighting their intersections and mutual influence. Governance is examined along its formal and relational dimensions, while accountability is understood through stakeholder-oriented reporting and internal construction mechanisms. Linking these dimensions clarifies how governance shapes sustainability practices and, conversely, how accountability shapes sustainable governance. The paper offers three contributions: it unifies two parallel traditions around a shared phenomenon, provides an analytical structure to organize existing work and guide empirical inquiry, and identifies under-explored areas—particularly how governance and accountability co-evolve, reinforce, or come into tension—thereby outlining a future research agenda.