How to make corporate social disclosures comparable?

Hanna Czaja-Cieszyńska,Dominika Kordela,Beata Zyznarska-Dworczak

doi:10.9770/jesi.2021.9.2(18)

Abstract

How to make corporate social disclosures comparable?

Highlights

A rising trend for corporate social disclosures in sustainability reporting may be viewed as a response to the growing needs of stakeholders and legislative changes introduced by governments in that respect
Undoubtedly the transposition of Directive 2014/95/EU into the Polish legislation has increased the scope of corporate social disclosures, which is visible while comparing the disclosures for 2018 with those for 2017 (Figure 1)
It is possible to notice the improved level of advancement in non-financial information disclosures in 2018, compared to 2017, which is confirmed by the position metrics such as the mean, median, quantile I and III

Summary

Introduction

A rising trend for corporate social disclosures in sustainability reporting may be viewed as a response to the growing needs of stakeholders and legislative changes introduced by governments in that respect. The amalgamation of disclosure requirements with social goals tends to signal a convergence of private and public goals in the corporate sphere (Choudhury, 2016). This trend is due to two other factors reducing the information asymmetry between stakeholders and organizations, as well as improving corporate accountability. The transparency provided by social disclosures may encourage stakeholders to engage in these issues. The research results so far indicate that social disclosures are expected by stakeholders to be credible and comparable (Widiarto Sutantoputra, 2009; Fifka, 2013; de Souza Gonçalves et al, 2014; Martínez‐Ferrero et al, 2016)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion