Trends in private sector engagement with biodiversity: EU listed companies' disclosure and indicators

The EU biodiversity strategy highlights the relevance of the private sector and its prominent role as potential degrader and as protector of biodiversity. However, the topic of biodiversity seems to be downplayed and disregarded by most companies, and the potential proxies leading them to report on the matter are not yet clear. This exploratory paper aims at assessing the companies' actual engagement with the EU biodiversity strategy, and the factors influencing the relevance and quality of their disclosure indicators. To that purpose, 170 listed companies from the 5 biggest economies in the EU have been studied after their reporting indicators on biodiversity in 2018 and 2021, focusing on country, sector and impact intensity as potential drivers, as well as on the changes in reporting and indicators between those years. Our findings highlight an increased but heterogeneous engagement with biodiversity among EU listed companies, with limited relevance given by the companies to standard and quantitative performance indicators, and a strong influence on reporting of factors such as the companies' country of origin, and the companies' sector/activity. All of which suggests different approaches to biodiversity within the private sector and insufficient corporate action to meet the EU biodiversity strategy goals

Financial institutions facing the challenge of the european taxonomy of sustainable investments and the circular economy disclosure

In the face of the European taxonomy of sustainable investments launched by the European Union, this paper analyses how entities within the banking sector inform about the circular economy to their stakeholders, to contribute to sustainability objectives. To this end, we have analysed the sustainability reports of a sample of Spanish financial institutions. Besides, the use of financial instruments for circular models such as renting has been analysed as a case study for a specific financial company

Non-financial disclosure: isomorphism effect in the face of new regulation

The purpose of this paper is to study the mimetic isomorphism process among firms in a context of expectations of further non-financial disclosure regulation. From the new institutionalism theory approach, we study the effect that the 2014/95/EU Directive transposition into the Spanish law had on 120 companies over an eight-year period and the isomorphism determined by their activity and leadership in reporting before (expectations period) and after the law enactment. Before the law, a trend to increase disclosure was observed, especially among environmentally sensible sectors and low-level reporting firms, while afterwards, the trend was reversed except for leading companies, highlighting the prevalence of the mimetic and normative isomorphism. This work deepens understanding of the adoption processes of coercive norms based on mimetic behaviors and coercive isomorphisms and helps in predicting the effect of a given norm after its announcement and approval, supporting more efficient designs for future legislation

“Medición del nivel de accountability de economía circular y sostenibilidad en el sector de fabricación de mobiliario industrial y shopfitting en España: Caso de estudio sectorial y de una empresa Aragonesa”

Este trabajo de investigación estudia la información no financiera que las empresas del sector de fabricación de muebles de oficina y establecimientos comerciales en España reportan. Específicamente, se analiza su adopción de prácticas de economía circular, así como su nivel de accountability y sostenibilidad, y como estos factores están relacionados con sus resultados económico-financieros.El estudio se divide en tres partes. La primera parte implica un análisis de los datos económico-financieros de las empresas seleccionadas para la muestra. La segunda parte se centra en la información no financiera proporcionada por las empresas, especialmente en lo que se refiere a su adopción de prácticas de economía circular y sostenibilidad. En la parte final, se realiza un caso de estudio para examinar el impacto que conlleva la implantación de este tipo de prácticas en una empresa en específico, y se lleva a cabo una entrevista para profundizar en la relevancia del papel de los stakeholders en la presentación de información no financiera.<br /

Active Participation and Interaction, Key Performance Factors of Face-to-Face Learning

During the last decade and, particularly, from the restrictions on mobility brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, online and digital teaching is positioning itself as an alternative to face-to-face teaching. As of today, however, the soundness of this alternative teaching in terms of learning outcomes and students’ success is not yet clear, even though it is particularly important, since it may determine future teaching plans, strategies and methodology. This article presents the results of a teaching research project analyzing the impact of active participation and face-to-face interaction of students on their performance from a quantitative approach. Through an empirical study carried out with several groups of university students in financial accounting over a four-year period, we analyze the effect of including face-to-face techniques of participation and teaching innovation on students’ success and performance. The quantitative results indicate a significant improvement in all the indicators of the “experimental” groups, compared to face-to-face standard teaching groups and streaming teaching groups. By enhancing active participation, better marks and performance are achieved, especially in the continuous evaluation system. The qualitative results, based on the opinion of the students, also indicate their preference for models of active participation and interaction, as well as their positive perception of the success of the initiative. The advantages derived from innovative face-to-face teaching are evidenced since it favors group interaction and active participation of the students, which are crucial elements for performance and academic success

Non-Financial Disclosure: Isomorphism Effect in the Face of New Regulation

The purpose of this paper is to study the mimetic isomorphism process among firms in a context of expectations of further non-financial disclosure regulation. From the new institutionalism theory approach, we study the effect that the 2014/95/EU Directive transposition into the Spanish law had on 120 companies over an eight-year period and the isomorphism determined by their activity and leadership in reporting before (expectations period) and after the law enactment. Before the law, a trend to increase disclosure was observed, especially among environmentally sensible sectors and low-level reporting firms, while afterwards, the trend was reversed except for leading companies, highlighting the prevalence of the mimetic and normative isomorphism. This work deepens understanding of the adoption processes of coercive norms based on mimetic behaviors and coercive isomorphisms and helps in predicting the effect of a given norm after its announcement and approval, supporting more efficient designs for future legislation

Accounting for Carbon Footprint Flows in Wine Production Process. Case Study in Spanish Winery

Companies are gradually becoming conscious about the necessity of reducing their environmental impact and adopting low-carbon strategies in order to cope with increasing institutional and social demands. However, remaining competitive while reducing the environmental impact and improving the corporate image requires adopting sophisticated mechanisms boosting eco-efficiency and keeping costs tight. Material Flows Cost Accounting (MFCA) is an instrument that allows the monitoring of, measurement of, and accounting for physical and monetary processes along the production process. If extended to the supply chain, and applied to the energy usage and CO2 emissions, it allows one to account for the Carbon Footprint (CF) of a company and its products at any given stage of the value chain. The current paper presents a case study developed under the framework of a three-year project to introduce an energy use and carbon emissions monitoring and accounting system in a large winery company in Spain, based on the MFCA approach and CF accountability. Including the supply chain of the company and the whole farming cycle of its main input, the case study presents the method and phases adopted to implement the project, its direct and indirect results and outcomes, and the conclusions that can be extracted, which may be inspirational for practitioners and scholars envisaging similar projects

Measurement of the Human Capital Applied to the Business Eco-Innovation

Despite the growing number of studies on eco-innovation, the specific human capital applied to the eco-innovative processes by firms has not been thoroughly analyzed to date. Due to this gap, this study carries out an empirical research about the definition and measurement of the human capital applied to business eco-innovation in terms of knowledge. For this purpose, we define a human capital specific index (HCSI) to analyze the influence of firms’ human capital in their eco-innovative activities. The results have been obtained through the analysis of a sample of eco-innovative Spanish firms and they show some relevant implications for practitioners regarding the decision-making process in promoting eco-innovation and for the management control of eco-innovative processes. One of the study contributions for academics is to increase the knowledge about the measurement and the impact of the specific human capital applied to eco-innovation by firms in the theoretical framework of the resource-based view theory (RBV)

The Impact of Organizational Culture on the Effectiveness of Corporate Governance to Control Earnings Management

The relationship between culture, earnings management and corporate governance has been studied in different ways, but the influence that culture has over the actual effectiveness of corporate governance to control earnings management has not, even though it should be a determinant factor to define successful governance schemes. Using Hofstede four organizational models as a framework, in this paper, we analyze a sample of companies listed in 16 different stock markets in terms of organizational culture, assessing their governance standards and performance in relation to earnings management, and measuring their actual effectiveness. The results confirm that earnings management is conditioned by organizational culture and that corporate governance acts as a brake on earnings management, regardless of the cultural field in which it is analyzed. However, its effectiveness depends on organizational culture, mostly on the uncertainty avoidance and the power distance. Therefore, modelling a country based on its organizational culture does limit the success of corporate governance policies and standards. This study brings in a new perspective for policy makers and practitioners to design and enforce their corporate governance policies targeting earnings management, according to the prevailing culture. The previous literature on the subject is complemented and enriched by this significant contribution, through which limitations in terms of the number of countries studied could be overcome by further studies addressing specific regions or sectors

Environmental disclosure and Eco-innovation interrelation. The case of Spanish firms

The actual drivers of companies’ environmental disclosure have been widely studied and yet with no conclusive results. Most literature looks for the link between environmental performance and environmental disclosure, as reflection of the company instrumental or normative approach to sustainability. However, over the last decade, a growing number of companies are joining the ranks of eco-innovation, focusing their strategy on environmental innovation, and paving the way for new approaches to environmental disclosure. The main objective of this paper is to assess if eco-innovation in companies can be acting as a non-intended driver to disclosure of environmental reporting, in connection to the Resources Based View theory, and the search for competitive advantage. An extensive research has been undertaken with Spanish eco-innovative companies, evaluating their environmental disclosure standards from a two-fold perspective: managers’ perception and public available environmental reporting. The findings bring in interesting implications about the mismatch between managers’ perception of their environmental disclosure and accounting standards, and the actual disclosure of environmental reporting made available to their stakeholders. Within the studied sample, eco-innovation appears to be a driver for environmental disclosure from an inside-out approach encompassed in the RBV theory, where environmental information is primarily meant for managerial purposes and only secondarily to inform stakeholders