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.