From voluntary to mandatory non-financial disclosure following Directive 2014/95/EU: an Italian case study

Korca, Blerita; Costa, Ericka; Farneti, Federica

doi:10.1080/17449480.2021.1933113

Cited by 52 publications

(61 citation statements)

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“…Most of the Spanish studies aimed to explore the mandatory reporting of NFI by analysing the reporting behaviour of Spanish companies With reference to the Italian case, most of the studies compared NFI before and after the decree, showing, on the one hand, an increase in the quality of disclosure (Leopizzi et al 2019;Mion and Loza Adaui 2019;Caputo et al 2020;Nicolò et al 2021) and, on the other hand, a general reduction in the number of sustainability indicators disclosed by Italian companies (Loprevite et al 2020;Tarquinio et al 2020). On the contrary, Korca et al (2021) found a significant increase in the quantity but not in the quality of NFI. Other authors, instead, did not find a decisive influence of the Directive on disclosure levels (Carungu et al 2020;Nicolò et al 2020).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 63%

Assessing the Effects of Directive 2014/95/EU on Nonfinancial Information Reporting: Evidence from Italian and Spanish Listed Companies

Posadas

Tarquinio

2021

Administrative Sciences

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This paper explored the effects of new regulation on the disclosure of NFI in two European countries, Italy and Spain. The method used to develop the analysis is mainly qualitative. Content analysis was performed to verify the sustainability indicators disclosed by Italian and Spanish companies, listed on the FTSE MIB and IBEX 35 Indexes, before and after the Directive’s publication and implementation in national legislation. The level of NFI disclosure was scored using a disclosure index. The comparative analysis found a progressive reduction in disclosure levels for Italian companies compared with Spanish companies, for which an expansion of the disclosure was detected. Moreover, a reduced gap between the quantity of NFI reported in the two countries was found. This is one of the few studies to use a 3-year longitudinal analysis to investigate the EU Directive’s impact at the cross-country level.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 63%

Assessing the Effects of Directive 2014/95/EU on Nonfinancial Information Reporting: Evidence from Italian and Spanish Listed Companies

Posadas

Tarquinio

2021

Administrative Sciences

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“…Additionally, our results add to previous studies reporting that the NFRD has influenced firms’ coverage and disclosure levels across sustainability topics. Korca et al (2021) found that the amount of information published by the Italian banking group analyzed in their case study increased for all the matters required by the Italian transposition, yet only the quality of social and employee disclosures improved. Carini et al (2021) also reported that the NFRD shaped companies’ coverage of sustainability matters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Carini et al (2021) performed a case study of an oil and gas company, showing that the coverage of environmental topics in its reports increased after the enactment of the Italian transposition. By contrast, the case study of Korca et al (2021) of a banking firm shows that the impact of the NFRD differs depending on the reported topics. They found that the quantity of information increased for all sustainability topics, while its quality only improved for social and employee-related disclosures.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…For the oil company studied by Carini et al (2021), environmentalists are the most significant stakeholder, thereby driving the coverage of environmental matters. By contrast, environmentalists may not be a significant stakeholder for the banking group of Korca et al (2021), which causes other sustainability topics relevant to other influential stakeholders of the firm (i.e. society and employees) to be covered more extensively after the Italian transposition of the NFRD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Strategic responses to sustainability reporting regulation and multiple stakeholder demands: an analysis of the Spanish EU non-financial reporting directive transposition

Esteban-Arrea

Garcia-Torea

2022

SAMPJ

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Purpose This paper aims to study companies’ strategic responses to regulative institutional pressures on sustainability reporting. Particularly, it investigates the role of multiple stakeholder demands in shaping corporate responses to Law 11/2018 that transposes the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive in Spain. Design/methodology/approach Informed by Oliver’s framework, the study analyzes the 2018 non-financial information of Spanish listed companies mandated to report under Law 11/2018 to explore the relationship between adopting a particular strategic response and companies’ stakeholder configuration. Findings Companies facing multiple stakeholder pressures tend to use a compromise strategy favoring the disclosure of relevant topics to a specific stakeholder type. Specifically, environmentalists are the most influential stakeholder in determining the coverage of sustainability topics to the detriment of other stakeholders when companies suffer from regulatory pressures. Research limitations/implications The study contributes to disentangling the factors determining how companies respond to sustainability reporting regulation. Future research could perform longitudinal and large multinational analyses to study the evolutionary process of corporate responses. Practical implications The study is relevant to managers and policymakers as it highlights that sustainability reporting regulation should promote the coverage of relevant topics to less influential stakeholders. Social implications The study explores the extent to which current sustainability reporting regulation can increase transparency on sustainability issues for all stakeholders. Originality/value In contrast to previous literature exploring the extent to which firms comply with regulation, the study considers that companies can respond more actively to mandatory sustainability reporting requirements.

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“…In fact, despite the positive externalities related to the introduction of specific rules about non-financial reporting, many academics have reiterated the existence of different effects related to the transposition of the Directive 2014/95/EU. In particular, the theoretical debate distinguishes between the effects on latecomers and early adopters (Korca et al , 2021). On the one hand, the Directive 2014/95/EU can become a disruptive innovation for latecomers who do not have any experience in sustainability reporting (Caputo et al , 2019; Doni et al , 2019).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embedding and managing blockchain in sustainability reporting: a practical framework

Pizzi

Caputo

Venturelli

et al. 2022

SAMPJ

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate blockchain’s enabling role for sustainability reporting. This study extends the scientific knowledge about the impacts related to the notarisation of mandatory sustainability reports through a publicly available blockchain. Design/methodology/approach Building on the idea journey framework, this paper presents the case study of Banca Mediolanum in Italy, a first-mover who notarised its non-financial declaration on a public blockchain to mitigate the information asymmetries that negatively impact stakeholder engagement. Findings The analysis reveals that the notarisation of the non-financial reports through a publicly available blockchain can represent a tool useful to mitigate the asymmetric information between organisations and stakeholders. Practical implications Although academics and practitioners have observed the benefits of its implementation, only a few companies have adopted blockchain systems to ensure their information’s reliability. The findings underline the opportunity for socially responsible organisations to signal their orientation towards sustainable development through the adoption of an innovative tool. Social implications The proliferation of non-financial reports prepared on mandatory basis mitigated the signalling effects related to the disclosure of non-financial information. The case study underlines the opportunity for socially responsible organisations to overcoming this criticism through notarisation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study about sustainability reporting practices and blockchain. This research contributes to the currently scarce discussion about the role of blockchain in non-financial reporting. In addition, the authors contribute to the scientific conversation about the need to rethink assurance in non-financial reporting practices.

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From voluntary to mandatory non-financial disclosure following Directive 2014/95/EU: an Italian case study

Cited by 52 publications

References 50 publications

Assessing the Effects of Directive 2014/95/EU on Nonfinancial Information Reporting: Evidence from Italian and Spanish Listed Companies

Assessing the Effects of Directive 2014/95/EU on Nonfinancial Information Reporting: Evidence from Italian and Spanish Listed Companies

Strategic responses to sustainability reporting regulation and multiple stakeholder demands: an analysis of the Spanish EU non-financial reporting directive transposition

Embedding and managing blockchain in sustainability reporting: a practical framework

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