Abstract
This study identifies drivers of sustainable management accounting adoption in public sector organizations (Tehran province municipalities as the case study). Using the UTAUT theoretical framework, the link between performance expectation, effort expectation, intention to use, and actual use was modeled. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire among employees involved in budgeting, auditing, and sustainability reporting and analyzed after content validity was confirmed by experts. Given the distributional characteristics of the data, nonparametric correlations along with partial least squares structural equation modeling were used to test the hypotheses. Findings indicate that perceived usefulness and ease both enhance intention to use sustainable management accounting systems, and intention to use is the closest predictor of actual use. In the public sector context, perceived ease plays a more prominent role in shaping intention, which emphasizes the value of low-friction processes, clear intra-system guidance, and intuitive interfaces. Practical implications include user-centered design, short, task-aligned training, and dashboards that make operational and sustainability benefits clear to decision makers. From a theoretical perspective, the present study validates the applicability of UTAUT in the context of municipal sustainability and suggests avenues for developing the model by adding facilitating conditions and social influence.