A text analytics study on the alignment of an Indonesian Muslim community’s municipal corporation policy with Sustainable Development Goals

Purpose - This study analyses the supervision policy of Municipal Corporations (MCs) in the Indonesian Muslim community regarding its alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Design/methodology/approach - As a single case study, purposive sampling was adopted to select a municipal corporation policy issued by Ciamis Regency, West Java, Indonesia. A novel mixed methods approach, combining computer analytics and human intelligence, was introduced to perform text analytics. Findings - Text mining identified the most frequently occurring words — e.g., ‘perumda’(municipal corporation), ‘daerah’(regional), ‘pengawas’(supervisor), ‘peraturan’(regulation) — from the sample but found no single word indicating business alignment with SDGs. Further qualitative inductive analysis was conducted, revealing the critical role of MCs’ supervisory boards in business planning, execution, and reporting to align the MC businesses with local SDG initiatives. Originality/value - Aligning MC business activities with local SDG actions is entirely within the authority of supervisory boards which demands transformational leadership. This research pioneered an innovative blend of computer-assisted techniques and human reasoning to investigate the supervision policies of MCs concerning local SDG actions, with evidence from a Muslim community in Indonesia.