Different sustainability endgames: Institutional logics in the performance management of local governments

Abstract

Many local governments have embraced sustainability as an overarching performance goal, and they increasingly generate performance information to track, govern and communicate their progress in sustainable development. Local governments face multiple overlapping and sometimes conflicting institutional logics, but very little research has examined how these logics influence performance management. This article addresses this gap by exploring how multiple institutional logics shape the construction of sustainability as a performance object in local governments. Interviews with 46 professionals from Finland's largest local governments reveal the impact of different institutional logics on sustainability as a performance object. Based on the analysis of the interrelationships of institutional logics, the authors describe three ‘endgames’ of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a part of the performance management of local governments: sustainability as a brand, sustainability as a strategy and sustainability as raison d’être.