• Focusing on public value creation may help public sector organization to contribute to sustainable development goals (SDGs).

• Alternative reporting format can be useful to make citizens aware of public expenditure and engage them as co-producers of public services.

• IT resources offer new opportunities to monitor financial and non-financial performance in public sector organizations. The financial resources available with the Next Generation Plan deserve effective planning and efforts in preparing civil servants for this challenge.

• Accounting information systems play a pivotal role in reaching SDGs, namely providing monetary indicators on their achievement.

• Research must support public sector organisations in developing and implementing sustainable management model.

After two years of online meetings, finally this year we had again the opportunity to meet in person in Rome, thanks to the great hospitality of Alessandro Giosi and Sandro Brunelli. The conference took place at LUMSA University on May 26-27 involving almost 50 participants.

Enrico Guarini, in his keynote speech “Public value, public sector performance and sustainability: Toward a holistic perspective for accounting and management research”, provided the audience with stimuli on the relation between the evolution of Public Value and Sustainable Development. Retracing how the logics of institutions evolved in parallel in financial corporations and public administrations, he identified the origin of the public value and the following developments. Through a dense discussion of previous research, Enrico connected public value with sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), presenting an analytical literature review of the emerging research on SDGs. Future directions have been proposed, that might be challenging for all of us.

Along the ten parallel sessions, 29 accepted papers were presented and discussed. We warmly thank all presenters for sharing with us their relevant research projects, and the discussants for preparing comments and providing authors with insightful feedback. The papers touched upon relevant and up-to-date issues, related with accountability and communication strategy tools, the achievement of SDGs, and public value creation in different settings.

In addition, a roundtable on “New Challenges for public financial management: academics and practitioners’ contribution” has offered a view on current challenges for public entities and state-owned enterprises through the eyes of academics, managers and highly experienced consultants. The speakers discussed the possibilities offered by IT resources in enhancing public value creation and stimulating citizens engagement, in particular in the aftermath of the pandemic. The discussion was coordinated by Francesca Manes Rossi, while the panelists included Paolo Parente from the Strategic Direction of the Health Unit 1 in Rome, Francesco Porcelli, associate professor at the University of Bari, Thomas Schael, General Director of the Healthcare Unit in Chieti, and Marco Vulpiani, Senior Partner of Deloitte. What emerges is that it is a great challenge to manage strategically public sector organizations, taking stock of the benefit offered by IT resources, in particular in a moment where a large amount of financial resources is available as a consequence of the Next Generation Plan. This requires efforts in preparing civil servants to manage efficiently the available resources.

In the closing session Sandra Cohen, Sandro Brunelli and Susana Jorge proposed new initiatives from the study group and launched several provocative reflections steeming from the event, together with some takeaway messages.