The New Framework for the Compulsory Publication of Sustainability Reports

Abstract

This chapter examines how the changes from voluntary to mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting influence the quantity and quality of disclosed CSR information. Furthermore, it examines the adaptation level for CSR reports in relation to the requirements of the regulatory regime. To do so, a research agenda is designed through the relative literature in order to make clear the challenges and barriers of the changes of the CSR reporting regime as well as a framework is developed to evaluate the progress of CSR reports within the new regime. This research is based on a scoring and benchmarking methodology which is tested in a sample of 23 Greek firms which systematically publish CSR reports the last five years. It is worth noting that a mandatory regime from CSR reporting has been lately introduced in Greece by integrating into Greek Law (4403/2016) the European Union Directive 2014/95/EU which requires Greek firms with over 10 employees to publish CSR reports on a mandatory basis.

The relationship between corporate environmental, social, governance issues and corporate sustainability in the financial sector: A managerial perspective

“…Three years after the national institutional requirement, Greece did not show significant conformity to the Law, indulging more in green‐washing practices, in order just to meet the minimum ESG reporting requirements. Greek corporate sustainability reporting focused on financial matters at the expense of environmental, social and governance issues, giving more importance to quantity rather than quality of the reports (Karaiskos et al, 2019; Skouloudis & Evangelinos, 2009). However, the “National Growth Strategy” for 2018–2019 proved that the country became more sustainability—oriented, encouraging SDG reporting (Hellenic Republic, 2018; Sachs et al, 2019).…”

The nexus of United Nations' 2030 Agenda and corporate sustainability reports

“…Another important topic in the field of corporate sustainability reporting concerns the voluntary (Martínez-Ferrero et al, 2015;Schreck & Raithel, 2018) and mandatory character of sustainability disclosures (Karaiskos et al, 2019;Llena et al, 2007).…”

“…The majority of current tools place emphasis on non‐financial information, (such as number of employees, number of women and men on a board, emissions, amount of waste, and energy consumption) and less on recording corporate sustainability issues in financial terms (Charalampides et al, 2014; Nikolaou, 2007; Nikolaou et al, 2019). Another important topic in the field of corporate sustainability reporting concerns the voluntary (Martínez‐Ferrero et al, 2015; Schreck & Raithel, 2018) and mandatory character of sustainability disclosures (Karaiskos et al, 2019; Llena et al, 2007).…”

Supply and demand for gender diversity in corporate leadership – the critical mass: evidence from Greece

“…Skouloudis et al, 2011Skouloudis et al, , 2014Spanos, 2005). Most studies focus on the development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in Greek firms (Evangelia, 2017;Halkos and Skouloudis, 2016;Karagiorgos, 2010;Karaiskos et al, 2019). Karaiskos et al (2019) and Sotiria (2018) focus on the implementation of the Greek Law 4403/2016 in accordance to the EU Directives 2013/34/EU and 2014/95/EU and its impact on firms' ESG performance.…”

“…A few studies have examined the impact of Greek Law 4403/2016 on firms' sustainability performance. Karaiskos et al (2019) examine the pre-and-post impact of the Greek Law 4403/ 2016 on a sample 23 Greek companies during 2016. They find that about a half of their sample firms have complied with the EU Directive 2014/95/EU but focus on corporate sustainability instead of gender diversity in corporate boards and CEOs.…”