THE REPORTING OF NON-FINANCIAL INFORMATION AND THE RATIONALE FOR ITS STANDARDISATION

Business Administration and Management

Name and surname of author:

Peter Krištofík, Marzanna Lament, Hussam Musa

Year:

2016

Volume:

19

Issue:

2

Keywords:

Corporate Social Responsibility, reporting, management

JEL clasification:

M14 - Corporate Culture - Social Responsibility, M41 - Accounting

DOI (& full text):

http://dx.doi.org/10.15240/tul/001/2016-2-011

Anotation:

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is an important part of communication with stakeholders and a response to the need for non-ﬁnancial reports. Regrettably, the rules of non-ﬁnancial reporting are almost not regulated. CSR reports are drafted using a variety of principles and guidelines, which limits comparisons across enterprises, transparency and assessment of progress. The reasons for reporting non-ﬁnancial information cited in the specialist literature, and by enterprises preparing CSR reports are examined, and the beneﬁts of standardising reports of nonﬁnancial information are determined. The literature review and empirical research into the motivations for CSR reporting and the trends in reporting of non-ﬁnancial information helped to verify the initial hypotheses: 1. Communication with stakeholders is the fundamental reason for reporting non-ﬁnancial information. This is conﬁrmed by the literature review, with most authors believing this is the prime reason for preparing CSR reports. Authors indicating other motivations still treat it as the fundamental cause which exists jointly with other motivations. 2. The need to standardise CSR reporting to ensure its transparency and clarity is noted by reporting organisations. This is proven by surveys of organisations drafting CSR reports – approximately 80% of all reports follow the GRI guidelines. This means the reporting enterprises wish their reports to be clear, transparent and comparable and for their stakeholders to be able to fully satisfy their information requirements. This is also evidence of the care for good relations with stakeholders, who receive standardised data although this is not binding on enterprises. A growing tendency for CSR reporting to follow guidelines other than the GRI can be noted in the entire period under analysis. This will not necessarily be a single compulsory standard, yet a model report would need to be followed to assure transparency and comparability. The…

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is an important part of communication with stakeholders and a response to the need for non-ﬁnancial reports. Regrettably, the rules of non-ﬁnancial reporting are almost not regulated. CSR reports are drafted using a variety of principles and guidelines, which limits comparisons across enterprises, transparency and assessment of progress.
The reasons for reporting non-ﬁnancial information cited in the specialist literature, and by enterprises preparing CSR reports are examined, and the beneﬁts of standardising reports of nonﬁnancial information are determined.
The literature review and empirical research into the motivations for CSR reporting and the trends in reporting of non-ﬁnancial information helped to verify the initial hypotheses:
1. Communication with stakeholders is the fundamental reason for reporting non-ﬁnancial information. This is conﬁrmed by the literature review, with most authors believing this is the prime reason for preparing CSR reports. Authors indicating other motivations still treat it as the fundamental cause which exists jointly with other motivations.
2. The need to standardise CSR reporting to ensure its transparency and clarity is noted by reporting organisations. This is proven by surveys of organisations drafting CSR reports – approximately 80% of all reports follow the GRI guidelines. This means the reporting enterprises wish their reports to be clear, transparent and comparable and for their stakeholders to be able to fully satisfy their information requirements. This is also evidence of the care for good relations with stakeholders, who receive standardised data although this is not binding on enterprises. A growing tendency for CSR reporting to follow guidelines other than the GRI can be noted in the entire period under analysis. This will not necessarily be a single compulsory standard, yet a model report would need to be followed to assure transparency and comparability.
The Regulations of the Directive 2014/95/EU are a step forward since they will help to standardise rules of reporting non-ﬁnancial information and will improve its transparency and utility.

Section:

Business Administration and Management