No abstract

Non-financial reporting is becoming an increasingly common topic of discussion and is a matter of time before it is regularly implemented around the world. Stakeholders want to see how companies contribute to the common good and what social activities they undertake, so although in the Macedonian practice Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure is not mandatory, there is a growing intention to publicly disclose information about social activities. CSR is extremely important for businesses and other stakeholders, and it requires businesses to develop a corporate strategy that balances environmental, social, and ethical concerns. Through this type of activities, companies manage to increase their influence in society, to leave a good impression but also to contribute to the improvement of society and place of living, which is a win-win situation for everyone. The paper aims to examine the level of CSR reporting in domestic practice, through research conducted on the blue-chip companies listed on the Macedonian Stock Exchange. We analyzed the financial and annual reports and official websites of the joint stock companies that were part of the MBI10 index in the period from 2016 to 2020. First, a theoretical review of the CSR is presented, followed by a literature review on the CSR’s indicators and the state of the CSR in the Macedonian practice. Our findings from the conducted content analysis and linear regression show that larger and more profitable companies show a greater propensity for social responsibility and display more information about their undertaken social related activities.

Non-financial reporting is a form of transparency disclosure where companies disclose information that is not primarily focused on their financial performance, but information related to their activities that contribute to society through environmental protection, social matters, employees, human rights, anti-corruption and other activities affecting the supply chain. The purpose of this research is to analyze non-financial disclosure in selected Balkan countries and to determine how EU membership affects the scope of non-financial reporting. Four countries are included in the research, two of which are EU countries and two are non-EU countries. A total of 40 blue-chip companies that are part of the national stock market indexes for the period of 2019 to 2021 were taken as a sample in the research. We applied content analysis to 120 Audited Consolidated Annual Reports, individual Non-financial Disclosure Reports and all tabs and sub-tabs of official websites from which we identified variables to be statistically tested. A detailed descriptive and comparative analysis will be made to qualitatively and quantitatively describe the characteristics of non-financial reporting in the respective countries, and then the Multivariate Kruskal-Wallis will be conducted to test whether EU membership affects the extent, title, type, and length of the report on non-financial information.

Non-financial reporting is becoming an increasingly common topic of discussion and is a matter of time before it is regularly implemented around the world. Stakeholders want to see how companies contribute to the common good and what social activities they undertake, so although in the Macedonian practice Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure is not mandatory, there is a growing intention to publicly disclose information about social activities. CSR is extremely important for businesses and other stakeholders, and it requires businesses to develop a corporate strategy that balances environmental, social, and ethical concerns. Through this type of activities, companies manage to increase their influence in society, to leave a good impression but also to contribute to the improvement of society and place of living, which is a win-win situation for everyone. The paper aims to examine the level of CSR reporting in domestic practice, through research conducted on the blue-chip companies listed on the Macedonian Stock Exchange. We analyzed the financial and annual reports and official websites of the joint stock companies that were part of the MBI10 index in the period from 2016 to 2020. First, a theoretical review of the CSR is presented, followed by a literature review on the CSR’s indicators and the state of the CSR in the Macedonian practice. Our findings from the conducted content analysis and linear regression show that larger and more profitable companies show a greater propensity for social responsibility and display more information about their undertaken social related activities.