The Unsuccessful Pursuit for Sustainability in Italian Business Law

Bartolacelli, Alessio

doi:10.1017/9781108658386.027

Cited by 2 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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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: 82%

“…In fact, the issue of voluntary and mandatory reporting is not linked just to environmental issues. Within the scope of this essay, we can consider, in particular, the Italian normative panorama, where every company or enterprise is naturally left free to create a voluntary “sustainability report” (Bartolacelli, 2019). As already said, only larger companies have a specific duty to prepare a mandatory sustainability statement, which must comply with a series of requirements the law sets down (Bruno, 2018; Maugeri, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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%

“…Previous studies have shown that the bland norm can lead to incomplete or insufficient information (Bartolacelli, 2019; Caputo et al , 2020), and the theory of legitimacy reveals that companies only disclose information that is mandatory or that makes their business legitimate in the view of society and consumers. Legitimacy is a multidimensional concept that includes regulatory and voluntary legitimacy as they are used by previous studies as an important part of understanding the different dimensions and contributing to broadening the understanding of environmental disclosure (ED) and the NFI of companies (Fallan and Fallan, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

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

Rosa

Bartolacelli

Lunkes

2021

JFRA

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In Europe however, only Italy has adopted (2017) a Delaware law and B Lab based legislation on societá benefit. 218 Clearly, the efforts of the B Lab have contributed to the discourse of how businesses should engage with society. However, the rise of benefit corporations has led to a growing chorus of concerns that these alternative laws may only strengthen normative 'e contrario' beliefs that the sole purpose of the mainstream corporation is to maximize profits -thus exacerbating the challenge of broad-scale change in business as usual.…”

Section: Are Social Enterprises Sustainable?mentioning

confidence: 99%