Non-financial reporting by an international corporation in the light of new mandatory regulations

Abstract

Purpose: Directive 2014/95/EU gave the EU Member States a certain flexibility when transposing it into national law. Each Member State could, therefore, decide to introduce regulations of varying degrees of stringency. Thus, the purpose of the article is: 1) to indicate the main differences in the implementation of the Directive and the national provisions in countries selected for the study; 2) to determine and compare the range of non-financial indicators published by branches of an international corporation that operates in the selected countries, after the introduction of changes to the reports; 3) to determine differences in the reporting of non-financial ratios existing between entities operating within one capital group in the EU and outside of it. Methodology/approach: Comparative analysis and content analysis were used to achieve the objectives of the article. Findings: The results suggest that countries should adopt into their national laws various items, including the definition of a large entity that is required to make non-financial disclosures, the need for external verification of this type of information, and the adoption of sanctions for failing to publish such information. The content analysis of individual branches’ non-financial reports also revealed a wide range of non-financial indicators. What is more, significant differ-ences were found between the scope of the non-financial indicators published by the capital group and those of its subsidiaries. Originality/value: To date, little research has been done on the impact of this regulation on the practice of non-financial reporting. Our research, therefore, expands the knowledge on the subject, despite the fact it does not cover a large number of enterprises. It constitutes a new approach to non-financial disclosure analysis since the study covers non-financial reports of a capital group and its subsidiaries that operate in different countries.