Evolving Norms of Corporate Social Responsibility: Lessons from the European Union Experience with Non-Financial Reporting

Wagner, Constance Z.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3051843

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…There are still aspects required by the directive (such as pollution, equality, bribery), which are not presented at all. This shows that the Directive can have a positive impact on the reporting of these companies and supports the conclusion of Venturelli et al (2017), but in the first year of its application it did not bring a better reporting, as forecasted by Wagner (2018). In the same time, the fact that some aspects are better presented than others by the companies shows that there are other drivers of the reporting as well and that the requirements of the Directive are not enough.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 64%

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The impact of the European Directive 2014/95/EU on the energy companies’ disclosures

Dumitru

Jinga

Stănilă

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence

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Even though the sustainability reporting is voluntary, companies are increasingly adopting it. There is a multitude of reporting standards used by companies in this regard. Along with the voluntary guidelines, in 2014 was adopted a European Directive which became mandatory for a set of companies. Our research question is which are the changes brought in the reporting of the European companies by the Directive? In doing this, we focus on the energy companies. We selected them because they are environmentally-sensitive. We selected the European energy companies which included a report for last year in the GRI’s database. We downloaded the reports published by the sample companies in the period 2014 – 2017. We selected 2014 as a starting point because it is the year in which the Directive was approved. We selected 2017 because it was the first year in which the ED 2014/95/EU became mandatory. First of all, we extracted the words used in the Directive for writing the names of the indicators. Using NVivo Pro, we searched for the indicators in the selected reports. By analyzing the core indicators for the energy domain, we pursued to identify the sample companies’ commitment to sustainability. The contribution of our study is that it provides an insight into the Directive as a driver which influences the sustainability reporting.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 64%

“…The most active region in the world in terms of the sustainability reporting is Europe (Wagner, 2018). The European Directive 2014/95/EU (the Directive) became mandatory for the large undertakings in 2017 and the first reports applying it were published in 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the European Directive 2014/95/EU on the energy companies’ disclosures

Dumitru

Jinga

Stănilă

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence

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“…Basically, each jurisdiction individually decides how to tackle the reduction of the GHGs, and the approaches are not always in line with UN goals. In the current research, however, what is most interesting is the position of the European Union (Ahern, 2016; Wagner, 2018; Chiu, 2019) and, in particular, of Italy (Bruno, 2018; Maugeri, 2019; Bartolacelli, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…However, nondisclosure can be a signal for relevant concerns. Soft legislation can lead to nondisclosure or superficial disclosure (Bartolacelli, 2019; Wagner, 2018), and assurance (auditing) does not have a direct effect on disclosure, perhaps because it is limited to attesting to those disclosures required by legislation. However, when the company is more sensitive to issues related to the global community, the assurance or co-responsibility of the audit companies is more relevant and has a positive effect on the quality of the disclosure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-regulation effects on driving factors (no) environmental disclosures about greenhouse gas emissions in Italian companies

Rosa

Bartolacelli

Lunkes

2021

JFRA

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the simultaneous effect of the regulation (non-financial information (NFI)- 254/2016) and the factors driving in (no)environmental disclosure (ED) and the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) of Italian companies. Design/methodology/approach The study is supported by the theory of legitimacy. The level of ED regarding GHG was measured for 125 Italian companies in 2018, the companies were selected from Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa di Itália, because those included in the list of companies in the Dichiarazione Non Finanziaria all date back to December 31, 2019. Using a scoring system and content analysis of their annual reports, through 20 criteria supported by the literature. The study explores variables of the current legislation, the effect of disclosure and no disclosure, and the influence of the shareholding structure, managerial shareholding, economic power and industry classification at the ED level. The analyses were carried out using structural equation modeling because the authors seek to understand the cause-effect relationship between aspects of legitimacy with dissemination on GHG emissions. Findings This study finds that NFI. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to understanding the effect of legislation on the level of mandatory disclosure in non-financial reports, and the Paris Agreement (voluntary) disclosure on GHG, so the choice of companies analyzed and the study variables are limited to companies that are required to publish non-financial reports, and the variables considered in the study take into account normative aspects and voluntary guidelines of the Paris Agreement. As implications, the results show that adherence to the Paris Agreement contributes more to the quality and comprehensiveness of the information than adherence to the European and Italian legislation (mandatory), which reinforces the understanding that even if the legislation has advanced, it is still soft regarding the quality of information on companies' practices regarding the reduction of GHG emissions. Practical implications The findings suggest that non-financial reports are being adopted by listed Italian companies, however, there is variation in the scope of the reports, especially on GHG. For companies listed in Italy, non-financial reports comply with Italian Legislative Decree 254/2016 (mandatory), however, the quality of information on GHG is improved when companies' reports have greater adherence to the Paris Agreement (voluntary). Social implications The results can encourage companies listed in Italy to incorporate NFI in annual reports based on the Paris Agreement, the global pact to reduce GHG emissions, thus building confidence in the capital market and society in general. Originality/value The findings contribute to the literature on non-financial reporting, the level of compliance with legal basis and international best practices, such as the Paris Agreement, providing empirical analyzes of non-financial disclosures in publicly available reports in Italy.

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“…166 It takes a 'minimum harmonisation approach' to reporting standards for disclosures, without detailed rules. 167 Thus, it has been criticised for being 'inadequate' as a mechanism to focus attention on modern slavery. 168 Where implemented with garment stakeholder engagement, these Directives can initiate 'experimentalist spillover', the pursuit of experimentalist governance externally, by empowering civil society to act to tackle slavery.…”

Section: B Eu Normativity Decent Work and Modern Slaverymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Slaves to Fashion’ in Bangladesh and the EU: Promoting decent work?

Peake

Kenner

2020

European Labour Law Journal

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Workers producing garments in developing countries for European brands are often described as ‘slaves to fashion’. They are denied decent work, a core ILO objective and a UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Instead, they are employed in unsafe factories prone to frequent deadly fires or building collapse, subject to anti-union discrimination and violence. The deprivation of their labour rights and poor working conditions might lead to the conclusion that they are in fact ‘modern slaves’, and thus modern slavery is fuelling the garment supply chain which is, in turn, propelled forwards by the fast fashion demands of European consumers. Modern slavery within supply chains can be tackled by brands and retailers, typically those seen as responsible for such abuse and it can be tackled through trade and development policies by actors such as the European Union (EU). In Bangladesh, the EU is the country’s largest trading partner in garments, and it has considerable leverage to improve labour rights, in doing so tackling modern slavery in the supply chain, utilising trade conditionality. The EU has to date lacked a policy focus on tackling modern slavery in its external relations, but with the adoption of the UN SDG 8 which combines elimination of modern slavery with decent work, there is scope for bringing about longstanding change. This paper argues for more normative interconnections between decent work and modern slavery in both national and EU external relations policies.

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Evolving Norms of Corporate Social Responsibility: Lessons from the European Union Experience with Non-Financial Reporting

Cited by 7 publications

References 10 publications

The impact of the European Directive 2014/95/EU on the energy companies’ disclosures

The impact of the European Directive 2014/95/EU on the energy companies’ disclosures

Post-regulation effects on driving factors (no) environmental disclosures about greenhouse gas emissions in Italian companies

‘Slaves to Fashion’ in Bangladesh and the EU: Promoting decent work?

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