International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are required for consolidated financial statements of all European Union (EU) publicly traded companies starting from the December 2005 fiscal year end [Regulation (EC)]; and endorsed by the International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSCO) for its member countries beginning in 2000. We examine the challenges and benefits, including value relevance, of the adoption of IFRS by DAX-30 companies, the German premium stock market. Based on a survey sent to DAX-30 company executives, we find most companies agreeing that implementing IFRS should improve the comparability of financial statements. The complex nature, high cost of adopting and lack of guidance for implementing IFRS, as well as increased volatility of earnings after adopting IFRS, are listed among the most important challenges of conversion to IFRS. We use regression to measure another benefit: the value relevance of book values of earnings and equity in explaining market values of DAX-30 companies during the period 1995-2004. Using

Recently, the International Integrated Reporting Council has published an integrated reporting framework stimulating major further development in corporate reporting. In combination with a commonly recognized high-level status quo in matters of management commentary, the German two-tier system appears to be an outstanding basis for coming to terms with the future developments brought about by integrated reporting, especially by strengthening the Continental European stakeholder approach to corporate governance. Studies have revealed the importance of financial reporting in reducing information asymmetry between managers and key stakeholders, thereby facilitating corporate governance. Against this backdrop, the objective of this paper is to evaluate the ability of an integrated report to improve corporate governance compared to the well-established German management commentary. This paper provides a descriptive analysis comparing features of the German management commentary and an integrated report with respect to corporate governance. Proper implementation of integrated reporting will affect several traditional structures and business processes. Management accounting as a meaningful business partner to help fulfill the requirements of corporate governance poses new challenges to addressing the key principles of integrated reporting, such as strategic focus, connectivity of information, and making transparent the complex outcomes on various capitals. I. Wulf (B) · J. Niemöller · N. Rentzsch

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand whether Management Commentary (MC) can cover the information needs about underreported company intangibles in accounting traditionalist countries such as Germany and Italy. Furthermore, this work would like to contribute towards an improvement of the managerial culture on intangible resources disclosure and to stimulate the consciousness of the need for a new regulatory policy in accounting. Design/methodology/approach – Focusing on the current regulation on MC and taking into account its hard and soft components, both in Italy and in Germany, we have carried out a semantic analysis together with a manual content one so to find out and to compare specifications for intangibles related disclosure in MC. The authors have decided to follow a semantic approach because of the different languages of the analysed documents, that in any case need to be considered under a cultural perspective of provenience, trying to give more effectiveness to the cross comparison. Findings – The results have shown that just a part of the intangibles is covered by the regulations of MC and that Germany and Italy follow, mainly, the same approach to MC. Practical implications – The findings highlight the similarities and differences between what the authors need to report on intangibles according to specifications in Italy and Germany. Originality/value – The authors reveal the approach that a country with rather conservative accounting can follow balancing regulatory approach and needs to disclose information about intangibles without a specific report on that. The authors identify the need for a new policy that can enable the development of intangibles disclosure culture.

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This article focuses on climate disclosures from STOXX Europe 600 banks during the 2017–2020 period, comprising 152 company years. Specifically, we analyze compliance based on general and bank‐specific recommendations of the Task Force on Climate‐related Financial Disclosures. Although our results indicate an overall increase in climate reporting quality over time, we identify major reporting gaps, such as consideration of forward‐looking information (particularly related to scenario analyses). We also stress that the bank‐specific recommendations are taken into account rather insufficiently. This study stands to benefit mostly researchers, business practices, and regulatory bodies owing to the future standardization of European and global sustainability reporting frameworks.