Environmental Accounting for the Measurement of Public Value: Theoretical Profiles and Empirical Evidence

This dissertation investigates Public Value as its primary object of inquiry and adopts Environmental Accounting as the main analytical lens through which public value can be measured, interpreted, and operationalized. Building on the assumption that what organizations measure shapes what they do, the study explores whether and how environmental accounting can move beyond a purely technical role to become an enabling mechanism for sustainability-oriented decision-making and governance. The research is grounded in the evolution of accounting as a social, organizational, and moral practice, and situates environmental accounting within contemporary debates on sustainability, accountability, and public value. The theoretical framework integrates insights from institutional logics theory, paradox theory, and public value theory, allowing the study to address the complexity of hybrid organizations operating at the intersection of economic efficiency, regulatory compliance, community responsiveness, and ecological responsibility. Methodologically, the dissertation combines a bibliometric analysis of the environmental accounting literature with an in-depth qualitative case study. The empirical analysis adopts an action research approach conducted within a municipal corporation operating in the waste management sector in Southern Italy. Through participant observation, interviews, informal conversations, and document analysis, the study examines the co-design and implementation of a carbon footprint system and its integration into organizational practices. The findings show that environmental accounting functions as a mediating infrastructure that renders institutional tensions visible and governable. By enabling the measurement of environmental impacts, environmental accounting supports the emergence of economic, ecological, social, and institutional outcomes that together constitute public value. Public value, in turn, acts as an integrative mechanism through which competing institutional logics are aligned and reoriented toward collective goals. The dissertation contributes to the literature by conceptualizing environmental accounting as a strategic device for public value creation in hybrid organizations and by demonstrating its role in supporting sustainability transitions within the public sector.