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This study aims to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance for European listed companies. The purpose of this study is to understand if and how the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak influenced the behavior of European companies in terms of best practices in ESG. In this paper, we consider the ESG score as a proxy of management practices. The ESG score was collected for all companies included in the STOXX 600 index (from the Refinitiv Eikon database) and analyzed using fixed and random effects. The sample is composed of 600 European listed companies and covers the period from 2018 to 2021. The results show that even in a health crisis with economic repercussions for the whole world, companies have continued to increase their commitment to ESG targets. The results are robust, also considering the different components of the ESG score (environment, social, governance) individually. This paper validates the significance for companies to improve their ESG performance even during unstable times. Our analysis has implications from several perspectives, adding supplementary information and considerations to the uncompleted debate examining the effects of external shocks on ESG performance.

Purpose This paper aims to explore the role played by digital transformation (DT) in enabling continuous accounting (CA) and its impacts on intellectual capital (IC). In so doing, the paper provides momentum for the emerging trends of the DT movement in the field of accounting. Design/methodology/approach The analysis relies on the exploratory case study of Oracle, a multinational computer technology corporation that is constantly involved in DT processes. Data sources include semi-structured interviews and internal documentation. Findings The paper shows how CA is facilitated by DT, a process that allows collaborative relationships, learning and transparency. These activities contribute to IC empowerment through three main mechanisms: empowerment through dialogue, empowerment through learning and increased reliability of data. Practical implications The findings have practical implications by showing how DT applied to accounting provides a highly transparent way to collect, manage and analyze financial data, freeing time for high-value activities, optimizing decision-making processes and increasing IC. Originality/value DT and digital technologies have created new opportunities for companies – worldwide – to elaborate and communicate accounting information. The originality of this research derives from connecting DT to the relatively innovative topic of CA.

This chapter analyses the role that organizations can play in the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Drawing on the experience of three corporate leaders in different industries, we analyse the potential advantages they can obtain by leveraging the interconnections between SDGs, integrated thinking and integrated reporting. In particular, we find that both integrated thinking and SDGs can support organizations in defining risks, prioritizing activities, and developing clear and successful strategies for better and more holistic approaches to sustainable development and value creation.

A worldwide debate on the effectiveness of business reporting information has engaged organizations, policy makers, regulators, and members of the capital market. The documents through which organizations disclose their annual performance are being questioned and criticized, as they appear inadequate for responding to stakeholder needs. In 2013, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) launched a project with the aim of redesigning corporate reporting processes and outputs, introducing integrated reporting (IR). At the center of IR are the six capitals defined by the IIRC representing the basis for an innovative form of evaluating and presenting performance. New topics on the global sustainable development agenda are growing in importance, requiring companies to enrich their disclosure and connect business to environment. In this study, we examined how a group of leaders in IR, 134 European companies from the IIRC IR reporters list, are currently disclosing IR capital and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), developing three evaluation scores: Capital Disclosure Index, SDG Disclosure Index, and SDG Compliance Index.

This research investigates the extent to which the voluntary disclosure of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), assumed to be the most recent innovation in social disclosures and corporate sustainability reporting, is diffused among Italian listed companies through different instruments of disclosure (voluntary or non-voluntary). Our findings reveal that SDGs awareness amongst the business community is high and that the majority of highly-traded, liquid, and highly-capitalized Italian companies have introduced SDGs in their disclosure and story-telling practices, while the exact nature and requirements of the SDGs, and the definitions of specific key performance indicators (KPIs) related to those goals, are still missing. Italian companies prefer using non-financial statements and sustainability reports to disclose information about their commitments to SDGs, and most of them started to report information about SDGs in 2016. Additionally, this research seeks to identify the significant differences between SDG reporters in different sectors, under the assumption that operating in a specific sector could significantly affect a company&rsquo, s decision to disclose information on their SDGs. This research highlights, following the recent evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure and sustainability reporting, the increasing relevance of SDGs in Italian companies&rsquo, disclosure practices and, at the same time, the gaps to be covered for their effective implementation.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an enormous challenge for the future of the planet, but achieving these outcomes requires an urgent response from business. Integrated thinking and reporting can play an active role in rationalizing this process, delivering SDGs and addressing the challenges that managing complexity imposes. The outcomes and contributions of companies to the SDGs, in fact, are becoming an important value driver for investors worldwide. Achieving value requires an understanding of stakeholder needs and some of them, i.e. investors, may require that companies prioritize specific SDGs. The approach to SDGs and value, as described, is meant to contribute to the sustainable development process through integrated thinking and reporting practices. The interrelationship between integrated thinking and SDGs is currently a lively and engaging theme, worthy of further exploration, both theoretically and practically, around the globe.

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the role of socioemotional wealth (SEW) in family firms’ (FFs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and practices. The authors draw on the notion of “Socioemotional endowment” (Gomez-Mejiaet al., 2010), to interpret how the different dimensions of the FIBER model impact on the instrumental, moral or relational motives that push companies toward CSR.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop an integrated framework that analyzes motives of CSR practices (distinguishing between moral, instrumental and relational ones) and dimensions of FF’ SEW. The idea is that it is not possible to analyze the CSR attitude of FFs without distinguishing among the five dimensions of SEW (family control and influence; identification of family members with the firm; binding social ties; emotional attachment; and renewal of family bonds to the firm through dynastic succession).FindingsThe authors posit that FFs are particularly likely to engage in instrumental, moral or relational CSR practices depending on the FIBER dimension that they consider as primary reference point to achieve the goal of preserving SEW. In particular, out of the five FIBER dimensions, relational and instrumental motives appear to be more present in firms’ priority, when they deal with CSR activities.Originality/valueMost of the literature on CSR and FFs concentrates on the differences between family and non-family firms (non-FFs) in approaching social responsible practices. Instead of debating whether FFs are more or less socially responsible than non-family organizations, the authors add to this literature by arguing that it is much more relevant to analyze which approach family firms (as an heterogeneous group) are more likely to adopt in relation to CSR. In so doing, they contribute to FFs studies on sustainability, by demonstrating that CSR engagement can be differently influenced and interpreted through the five dimensions of the FIBER model.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the enabling role of accounting and reporting practices as discourses about sustainability unfold inside organizations. In particular, the authors investigate how managers attempt to connect the concept of “sustainability” to their specific experience, as they seek to make sustainability meaningful (i.e. filling it with unfolding meaning) through accounting and within particular discursive spaces. Design/methodology/approach The authors rely upon the case of LOGIC, a large international oil and gas company operating in more than 70 countries worldwide. The authors analyze the evolution of discourses concerning sustainability inside the company, as well as the changing accounting and reporting practices, with a particular focus on integrated reporting. Findings The authors show that accounting and reporting practices (such as integrated reporting within LOGIC) provide the conditions for “sustainability”—as a discursive concept—to become meaningful, while evolving themselves as they are attached to this concept. They do so by enabling individuals (the management team within LOGIC) to connect their diverse experiences and aspirations to the concept of sustainability. Rather than filling sustainability with stable meaning, the authors observed that individuals are attracted by the gaps left by accounting representations, leading to the development of new practices and unfolding meanings within specific discursive spaces. Originality/value Most of the literature on sustainability accounting and reporting practices concentrate on the need for these practices to mirror what companies do about sustainability. Differently, the authors add to the very few studies on “aspirational” reporting that have emphasized the enabling effects of the gap between what companies say and do about sustainability. The authors do so by demonstrating that accounting is “aspirational” not only because it stimulates corporate efforts toward an imaginary better future, but also because it attracts managers’ particular aspirations through its representational gap. The authors show that this gap enables meaningful connections between individuals (their particular experience and aspirations) and “sustainability,” bringing this concept into their specific discursive space and, thereby, leading to the emergence of new practices.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the link between corporate social performance (CSP) and cost of debt financing. Despite academic debate has focused on the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and CSP (expressed through accounting and market measures of profitability), few empirical researches have analysed the relations between CSR, cost of debt and its relation with the risk profile of a firm. The literature on the cost of debt determinants generally documents a negative association between measures of the risk of the firm and its cost of debt. The literature on CSR defines risk reduction as one of the potential benefits related to CSR activities. Thus, the expectation is that high CSP scores are inversely related to cost of debt. Design/methodology/approach Using a unique data set of 332 firms over a time period of five years antecedent to the global financial crisis, a linear regression model is applied. Findings The results show a positive relation between CSP and cost of debt, demonstrating that CSR is not a value driver with an impact on the firm’s risk profile. Practical implications The research has also practical implications as it makes managers aware of the potentiality of CSP to reduce the firm’s cost of debt. Originality/value These findings enlarge the empirical research on the value of CSP, expanding it towards a quite new area of investigation: the cost of external financing.

Purpose The chapter builds on the literature of Agency and Signalling Theories to analyse the corporate governance factors associated with the voluntary decision to prepare an Integrated Report according to the International Framework promoted by the IIRC. Methodology/approach The chapter is based on the results of a probit regression run with regard to a sample of 35 companies that joined the Pilot Programme in 2011 and 137 similar companies that did not. Findings The analysis of two samples of European companies reveals that adhesion to the IR Pilot Programme is positively related to the gender diversity and size of the board. Research limitations Further research is required in order to study the differences between listed and non-listed companies in terms of variables affecting the adoption of the Framework and to increase the time range of our study. In addition, it would be interesting to include other variables capturing different aspects other than corporate governance, since the decision to join the Programme, as the results of our analysis have shown, may also be influenced by other factors, such as strategy decisions and communication policies. Originality/value The chapter adds to the existing literature by showing the main governance characteristics that impact the decision to adhere to the IR Pilot Programme. It is also important to the existing literature regarding the role played by gender diversity in corporate governance mechanisms and CSR policies.

This chapter has three main aims. First, it discusses the concept of Integrated Report (IR) as a privileged instrument of companies’ voluntary disclosure practices that answers to the investors and regulators’ call for a greater focus on companies’ strategy, governance, future performance and risks, overcoming a great part of the traditional financial statement’s limitations. Second, it introduces key issues currently being debated relating to the IR Pilot Program and the main characteristics of the companies that decided to adhere to it. Finally, it shows some empirical first results about the corporate governance factors associated with the voluntary decision to prepare an Integrated Report according to the IR International Framework. In so doing the authors draw some conclusions about how Corporate Governance structure and mechanisms—such as legal environment, composition of the board of directors or ownership structure—are related to company’s disclosure policies and the decision to adopt Integrated Report.

This study investigates the impact of Corporate Social Performance on stock prices of Italian listed companies. The main stream of literature focuses on the relation between CSR and financial performance, showing contradictory results that still feed a debate, which has not yet reached a unanimous and widely shared position. Concerning the selection of the measure of performance, we chose stock prices as a proxy for financial performance, in order to measure the perception and reaction of financial markets to the companies’ socially responsible behaviors. Using different social performance indicators concerning environment, community and employment activities, we found evidence that a good social performance has a negative influence on stock prices in the Italian Stock Exchange Market. This phenomenon is particularly evident if the environmental strategies of the Italian listed companies are considered. Hence, the Italian investors perceive these practices as avoidable expenses reducing shareholders’ income and companies’ value and recognize a negative market premium, in terms of lower stock prices, to socially responsible enterprises. This evidence is consistent with the peculiarities of the Italian capitalism structure, which, because of its backwardness in CSR topics and related issues, seems to be not yet mature enough to evaluate appropriately the value of these policies