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Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to present the results of research among Polish annual report users on their information needs regarding improving the financial and non-financial information in annual reports. Methodology/approach: The study was conducted using two research techniques. The first one is an online survey addressed to respondents of an external database; the second one is individual inter-views. The 694 responses were analyzed to find a relationship between the responses and the characteris-tics of the respondents, such as gender, age, or education. The survey was conducted among people se-lected randomly who had experience in professions such as tax advisor, accountant, chartered accountant, financial analyst, financial advisor, investor, controller, management accounting specialist, internal auditor, and manager. Findings: The data analysis showed the legitimacy of the actions taken to improve the ap-proach to both the scope and structure of annual reports in the context of their users’ needs. However, like any empirical study, the results of this study should be interpreted with caution. While the research is an attempt to fill the research gap in the area under study, it is also relevant to practice. Originality/value: The results can contribute to a better understanding of the needs of users of business information, and thus, the opportunity to meet them.

The purpose of the article is to determine the scope and form of information currently disclosed by enti-ties under the concept of a "business model" based on the disclosure of non-financial information in the annual reports of fourteen WIG20 index companies. The study involved analysing disclosures about the business model, analysing the content of annual reports of companies, and checking the scope and con-tent of the disclosed information in the section of the report regarding the business model. In total, 28 annual reports for 2017 and 2018 were analysed. The survey included 22 types of non-financial infor-mation systematically disclosed under the definition of “business model”. The study used descriptive analysis, comparative analysis, and deduction methods. As a result of the research, it was found that information on the business model disclosed in annual reports can be comparable between entities and can be and often already are comparable over time – when the same entity reports the information over two different years. In addition, it was found that in the set of reported information about the business model, there was clearly a common part in all the surveyed companies, which was information on the value creation chain. The article is the result of an original empirical study and closes the gap in scientific research on the mandatory disclosure of information about the business model in annual reports. The survey is one of the first attempts to analyse non-financial information compulsorily disclosed by Polish companies after 2018.

Beginning in 2017, stock-exchange-listed companies in Poland have been obliged to publish non-financial information. This is due to the implementation of Directive 2014/95/EU in Polish law, which requires the dis- closure of extended non-financial information on the part of specified large public-interest companies and capi- tal groups. Taking the above into consideration, the aim of this article is to answer the following questions: 1) What is the state of the non-financial disclosures made by stock-exchange-listed companies in Poland? 2) What are the differences in reporting non-financial information by companies from various industries? 3) What factors affect the disclosure of non-financial information? In total, 53 companies were researched. The results obtained indicate that the form of the disclosures varies. Most commonly, non-financial information was presented in management commentaries. The scope of the information presented was diverse. The most non-financial disclosures were made by companies from the chemical and the energy sectors. The following factors influenced the publication of this type of information: the entity’s size, its market value and the industry to which a given company belongs. In contrast, no positive associations between the economic performance of a company and non-financial disclosure, nor between the financial leverage of a company and non-financial disclosure have been found, with the exception of companies from the low-profile sector. The studies involved content analysis and the Tobit regression model. Existing results of research on non-financial reporting made by stock-exchange-listed companies in Poland did not en- compass the last reporting period prior to the introduction of the changes to the Act on Accounting. Therefore, the results obtained allow us to determine the degree of preparation on the part of the researched companies belonging to various sectors (of larger and smaller environmental nuisance).