The current challenges in sustainability reporting for SMEs and their solutions: The public health pest management sector in Abu Dhabi

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🔬研究者:Researchers studying SME sustainability reporting adoption and action research methodologies will find the iterative model development and stakeholder co-creation approach valuable.

🏢実務担当者:Corporate sustainability teams in SME-dominated sectors can use the reporting model and digital system design to streamline their disclosure processes and align with global frameworks.

🏛政策担当者:Regulators designing SME-friendly disclosure frameworks can leverage the study's findings on key challenges and the proposed solutions to reduce barriers for small firms.

Sustainability reporting (SR) is an essential tool for promoting transparency, accountability, and alignment with global sustainability goals. Despite trends toward mandatory SR, the proliferation of sustainability reporting tools (SRTs), and the growing international focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, SR remains a complex and underdeveloped practice, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The primary SR challenges include a lack of comprehensiveness, a lack of standardization, and poor data quality. These challenges are particularly severe in niche and underserved sectors, where customized guidance and operational tools are often missing. This thesis aims to identify and highlight the current challenges in SR, especially for SMEs, and to provide practical solutions to address them effectively, using the Public Health Pest Management (PHPM) sector in Abu Dhabi as a real-world business example. To achieve its objectives, the study adopts an action research (AR) approach structured around three iterative cycles. Using an AR methodology, the study identifies SR challenges and their contributing factors in the Abu Dhabi PHPM sector, and collaboratively develops practical, sector-specific solutions. It designs an SR model supported by a digital system design that can help SMEs to overcome existing SR challenges, align with local regulatory requirements, and respond to global trends in mandatory sustainability disclosure. Cycle 1 of the AR integrates insights from literature and stakeholder feedback to identify key SR challenges faced by SMEs in the PHPM sector, including inconsistent disclosures, missing audit trails, outdated data, and the voluntary nature of reporting. It also identifies key factors relevant to SMEs that contribute to these challenges. In Cycle 2, findings from Cycle 1 were used to develop a tailored SR model collaboratively focused on the environmental dimension of sustainability for the PHPM sector in Abu Dhabi. This SR model was then tested by collecting data from PHPM SMEs and subsequently evaluated. In Cycle 3, the researcher re-engaged with stakeholders to translate the SR model developed in Cycle 2 into a software system design. This design features automated workflows, verifiable data linkages, and a user-friendly interface to support practical implementation and ensure long-term usability. The research findings revealed that existing SRTs are largely unsuitable for SMEs due to their complexity, high implementation costs, and poor alignment with sector-specific practices. The study contributes to the literature by identifying five main SR challenges in the context of SMEs: perceived usefulness of SR, data quality and timeliness, resource and knowledge constraints, stakeholder motivation and engagement, reporting complexity, and standardization. A further contribution lies in identifying the factors underlying each of these challenges. Drawing on AR methodology, the study’s key practical contribution is the development of a structured, verifiable, and context-specific SR model, supported by a modular digital system designed to address these challenges at their roots. Participants evaluated the solution as having strong potential to streamline the reporting process, reduce human error, and enhance benchmarking and compliance capabilities. The proposed SR model serves as an actionable tool for PHPM SMEs in Abu Dhabi, linking global frameworks with local capabilities and providing practical guidance for adoption in low-capacity settings. The research offers actionable recommendations, including developing accessible digital tools, providing support, and engaging with broader stakeholders. The study also highlights the government's role and policy alignment in enabling SMEs' participation in sustainability efforts and contributing to the achievement of development goals. Overall, the study makes both a theoretical contribution by providing deeper insight into the dynamics of SR challenges in resource-constrained SME environments and a practical pathway for advancing SR adoption in these environments. The study’s methodological contribution lies in employing AR to develop SR. This method enabled co-creation of solutions through direct stakeholder input, ensuring they were relevant to the context, feasible, and accepted by users. By incorporating rigorous methodology into a collaborative design process, the research demonstrates that AR can produce both theoretical insights and practical tools to address the SR implementation gap in low-capacity settings.

• openaire https://doi.org/10.82348/our-archive.00065first seen 2026-05-22 04:29:35 · last seen 2026-06-08 04:29:24