Social responsibility as the dominant driver of the evolution of reporting from financial to non-financial: theory and methodology

Elena Zhidkova,Svetlana Karelskaia,Svetlana Bychkova,Elena Abdalova

doi:10.21603/2308-4057-2021-1-135-145

Abstract

Introduction. For over half a century, corporate social responsibility has been in the center of scientific discourse. Its basic concept has become part of strategic management, changing the content of financial reporting and leading to new forms of corporate reporting. Study objects and methods. The article substantiated the importance of studying corporate social responsibility (CSR) concepts and national models. The study covered the CSR basic concept, targets and paradigms. The evolution of CSR was considered in terms of its impact on the formation of non-financial reporting. Results and discussion. The authors identified two stages of non-financial reporting development and two directions for the convergence of financial and non-financial reporting. They proposed an assessment matrix to measure facts, actions, and resources in the past, present, and future. This matrix can help companies to generate information for integrated reporting by showing the impact of each type of capital (financial, production, human, intellectual, social, and environmental) on their value creation. Within a promising direction for developing non-financial reporting in conjunction with financial reporting, the authors set requirements to reflect the impact of climate risks on the company’s activities in accordance with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. The authors discussed both standardized and their own approaches to CSR indicators. Finally, they addressed the problem of reliability of non-financial reporting, discussed various forms of its verification (taking evidence from food industry enterprises), and set specific principles to control non-financial reporting indicators. Conclusion. The authors identified further promising areas of research in the theory and practice of CSR. Their findings can be used in scientific debates on CSR and in the practice of corporate reporting.

Highlights

For over half a century, corporate social responsibility has been in the center of scientific discourse
This review aims to fill some gaps in scientific discourse as to how the concept of social responsibility affects the evolution of corporate reporting
Our critical analysis of scientific literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) revealed the following: 1. The understanding of social responsibility may vary depending on the level, but CSR is at the center of theoretical debate and practice, since it is at the corporate level that most CSP participants interact with each other

Summary

Introduction

For over half a century, corporate social responsibility has been in the center of scientific discourse. The authors identified two stages of non-financial reporting development and two directions for the convergence of financial and non-financial reporting They proposed an assessment matrix to measure facts, actions, and resources in the past, present, and future. Within a promising direction for developing non-financial reporting in conjunction with financial reporting, the authors set requirements to reflect the impact of climate risks on the company’s activities in accordance with the recommendations of the Task Force on ClimateRelated Financial Disclosures. The authors discussed both standardized and their own approaches to CSR indicators. There is a reconsideration of the concept of financial accounting that defines its information boundaries.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion