Znaczenie informacji niefinansowych w rocznych raportach spółek

Celem publikacji jest zwrócenie uwagi na istotne znaczenie informacji niefinansowych ujawnianych przez spółki w rocznych raportach. W rozdziale przedstawiono różne definicje informacji niefinansowych oraz ich przykłady. Zaprezentowano także wyniki badań potwierdzające istotną rolę informacji niefinansowych w ocenie działalności przedsiębiorstw przez inwestorów i analityków.Publikacja dofinansowana przez STOWARZYSZENIE KSIĘGOWYCH W POLSCE ZARZĄD GŁÓWNY W WARSZAWIE ODDZIAŁ OKRĘGOWY W ŁODZI, ul. Narutowicza 35, 90-125 Łódź; tel. 042-631-95-23, 042-631-95-29, fax 042-630-26-37; www.skwp-lodz.pl, [email protected]

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR THE SPECIAL ISSUE OF Zeszyty Teoretyczne Rachunkowości

Sustainable Development, Accounting and AccountantsContext for the Special IssueAccounting, traditionally considered a tool for optimizing the economic per-formance of entities, has also been perceived as a means for addressing the social and environmental areas of their operations (Unerman et al., 2007; Bebbington et al., 2017; Carnegie et al., 2021) to inform managers seeking to make businesses sustainable (Wenzig et al., 2022; Lambert and Sponem, 2011). Therefore, accountants are regarded, at least potentially, as a crucial element of a company’s contribution to sustainable development (e.g., Tilt, 2009; Albu et al., 2011; Bebbington and Unerman, 2018; 2020; IFAC, 2016; ACCA, 2021). This is not a new notion. In fact, it has been developing over the years as social environmental ac-counting (SEA) and has been evidenced by the involvement of accounting re-searchers, practitioners, and accounting-related organizations in sustainability issues (Chung and Cho, 2018).SEA is defined as the communication of an organization’s social and environmental economic impacts to specific stakeholder groups and the general public. It requires expanding the responsibilities of companies beyond the traditional provision of financial statements to owners of capital, particularly shareholders. This necessity is based on the assumption that companies have responsibilities other than making money for shareholders (Gray et al., 1996, 2017; Carnegie, 2022a, 2022b). As Bebbington et al. (2017) note, the original framing of the SEA literature is concerned with the social and environmental impacts of organiza-tions and accounting (e.g., Gray et al., 1987; Gray et al., 1996). It was recently expanded to explore the interrelationship between sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals, governance, organizing, management, and accounting.SEA has been developing as an area of research in accounting, while the broad understanding of accounting per se has remained unchanged. One of the popular definitions of accounting by the American Accounting Association defines it as “the process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information to permit informed judgments and decisions by users of information” (AAA, 1996). Drawing on the extensive accounting literature in the sociological, interpretive and critical tradition since the early 1980s (including Gray et al., 1996), Carnegie et al. (2021) propose to redefine accounting in order to the discipline to reach its full potential for shaping a better world. They proposed the following new multidimensional definition of accounting: “Accounting is a tech-nical, social and moral practice concerned with the sustainable utilization of resources and proper accountability to stakeholders to enable the flourishing of organizations, people and nature” (Carnegie et al., 2021, p. 69). Their proposal poses new challenges for accountants and the organized accounting profession. Principally, accounting information systems and accountants must evolve to respond to sustainability-related concerns by adapting traditional characteristics and developing new, broader concepts and capabilities (Twyford and Abbas, 2023).There are concerns about whether and to what extent the accounting profession may be willing to consider and meet these challenges. As Deegan (2013) argues, the fact that t-accounts, and therefore debits and credits, have been in use since the 1400s, and did not cease to be used after negative numbers were introduced into mathematics, shows that accountants are reluctant to change and inspires little confidence that they are capable of making quick adjustments as environments and technologies transform. This view is support-ed by others (e.g., Wenzig et al., 2022; Krasodomska et al., 2020) who note that accountants express eagerness to learn, though rarely about sustainability. However, this knowledge may prove useful to them in the context of recent changes in the sustainability reporting and assurance landscape, introduced – in the Eu-ropean Union – by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and – at the global level – by the International Sustainability Standards Board mandated by the Inter-national Financial Reporting Standards Foundation.Guidance for AuthorsAgainst this background, the purpose of this Special Issue is to stimulate the debate on the challenges that contemporary accounting is facing in the con-text of sustainable development. We welcome submissions (ca. 32,000-44,000 characters long) on various aspects related to accounting and sustainability, literature reviews, and conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative studies. Possible topics include but are not limited to:•The contemporary understanding of accounting and the role of the ac-counting profession in relation to the sustainability agenda.•The current state of academic research on accounting and sustainability, sustainability reporting, Sustainable Development Goals reporting and as-surance.•The way existing management accounting systems and practices can sup-port managers in capturing commitment to sustainable development and/or undertaking efforts towards sustainability. •The organizational actors involved in external and internal sustainability reporting and the role of accountants and accounting systems.•The modifications that should be made to accounting education systems to enable them to equip future accountants and managers with the knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of sustainable development and how such modifications should be introduced.•The potential role of digitalization in helping accountants to get more in-volved in sustainability-related topics. The way AI transforms the roles of accountants and assurance providers regarding sustainability reporting and Sustainable Development Goals reporting.•The differences between sustainability-related challenges accountants face in large versus small companies, and whether these challenges are country or industry-specific. •The differences between mandatory versus voluntary sustainability re-porting initiatives in terms of consequences on the reporting quality and organizational responses.•The competencies that accountants or assurance providers need to suc-cessfully collaborate with non-accounting experts in sustainability-related areas. The factors that can facilitate such collaborations. •The way professional accounting organizations support the engagement of the profession in sustainability-related issues in various countries and in-ternationally. The factors that may influence their engagement in this field.•The extent to which accounting (and reporting) systems can address the Sustainable Development Goals and the relationships and interdependencies between them.•The impact of the recent regulatory changes within the European Union related to the forthcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and European Sustainability Reporting Standards on the engagement of the accounting profession in sustainability, sustainability reporting, re-porting on Sustainable Development Goals, and assurance of information provided.•The impact of global changes, including the recent consolidation among the main standard setters and the establishment of the International Sustain-ability Standards Board by the International Financial Reporting Standards Foun-dation on how the accounting profession approaches sustainability.The deadline for submitting papers is 30th June 2024.The accepted papers will be published in December 2024 (Zeszyty Teoretyczne Rachunkowości/The Theoretical Journal of Accounting, vol. 48, no. 4).To view the author guidelines for this journal, please visit the following page: http://ztr.skwp.pl/resources/html/cms/FORAUTHORS. Submissions for the Special Issue will be made through ICI Publishers Panel:http://ztr.skwp.pl/resources/html/cms/DEPOSITSMANUSCRIPT When submitting an article, please state that your paper is for Special Issue 2024 with Guest Editors in the additional comment in the Publishers Panel Index Copernicus system. The coordinators of this Special Issue are Anna Szychta and Marek Masztalerz ([email protected])

Towards sustainable development: The role of directors' international orientation and their diversity for non‐financial disclosure

Drawing on resource dependency and upper echelons theories, we examine the relationship between directors' international orientation (IO) and the scope of non-financial disclosures (NFD) in a two-tier board structure. Evidence from a regression analysis on a sample of non-financial firms listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange for the 2014–2018 period shows that the IO of supervisory board members significantly and positively impacts the scope of NFD. We also find that women with IO influence the scope of NFD, whereas accounting and finance experience decreases the focus on NFD elements, especially environmental information. The results imply that both the IO of the supervisory board and the bundle of characteristics facilitate the move toward sustainable development. The findings of our study should be of interest to companies, regulators and policymakers to integrate sustainability practices into their corporate strategies

Intellectual capital management in public universities?

Traditional university management is closely related to what is thought of as the long-established values of universities. Traditional universities are primarily seen as communities of scholars where research, critical thought, and the dissemination of knowledge take place (Dearlove, 2002; Kok et al., 2010). Therefore, university management needs to support and promote researchers to enable fulfilment of this traditional role by, for example, focusing on promoting academic freedom and autonomy (Kok et al., 2010)

Philosophy of language and accounting

Purpose: Accounting practices vary not only across firms, but also across countries, reflecting the respective legal and cultural background. Attempts at harmonization therefore continue to be rebuffed. The purpose of this paper is to argue that different wordings in national laws, and different interpretations of similar wordings in national laws, can be explained by taking recourse to the philosophy of language, referring particularly to Searle and Wittgenstein. Design/methodology/approach: The example of the substance over form principle, investigated in seven countries, is particularly suitable for this analysis. It is known in all accounting jurisdictions, but still has very different roots in different European countries, with European and international influences conflicting, which is reflected in the different wording of the principle from one country to the next, and the different socially constructed realities associated with those wordings. Findings: This paper shows that, beyond accounting practices, the legal and cultural background of a country affects the wording of national law itself. The broad conclusion is that different socially constructed realities might tend to resist any attempt at harmonized socially constructed words. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the debate surrounding the possible homogenization of accounting regulations, illustrating the theory of the social construction of both "reality" and "language" on the specific application of one common principle to various Member State environments

Involuntary Disclosures And Stakeholder-Initiated Communication on Social Media

This study explores firm responses to stakeholder-initiated involuntary disclosures, which are disclosures made by stakeholders about an organization but are against the will of managers, and subsequent stakeholder reactions. We analyzed 134,977 firm Twitter replies from seven companies to identify their responses to involuntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures and find that companies demonstrate different attitudes toward engagement in the exchange about involuntary disclosures. Whereas some companies communicate with stakeholders, others are almost silent. When a company engages in communication with its stakeholders, the communication is mostly one-way, and mortification or dissent are the likely response strategies. We also find that while stakeholders generally do not continue to engage with corporate communications, they are likely to respond when companies deny the information revealed by involuntary disclosure. Our results suggest that involuntary disclosures on social media are not able to improve communication between stakeholders and companies

Raportowanie zintegrowane a społeczna odpowiedzialność przedsiębiorstw

Koncepcja sprawozdawczości zintegrowanej powstała w 2010 r., a jej wytyczne ( Framework) zostały opublikowane przez Międzynarodową Radę ds. Zintegrowanego Raportowania (International Integrated Reporting Council – IIRC) w 2013 r. Początkowo była ona silnie związana ze społeczno-środowiskowymi aspektami działalności przedsiębiorstw, z którymi przez wielu autorów nadal jest utożsamiana. Celem artykułu jest przybliżenie krytycznych głosów, zgodnie z którymi związki zintegrowanego raportowania ze zrównoważonym rozwojem (sustainable development) czy społeczną odpowiedzialnością biznesu (Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR) znajdują się obecnie na dalszym planie. Raport zintegrowany ma przede wszystkim informować o procesie tworzenia wartości i jest adresowany do dostarczycieli kapitału (inwestorów). Jest on dodatkowym raportem, możliwym do opracowywania przez spółki obok sprawozdań finansowych i raportów społecznych. W zamierzeniu autorki rozważania zawarte w artykule przyczynią się do rozwoju naukowej dyskusji nad sprawozdawczością zintegrowaną i prowadzenia badań w tym zakresie

Raportowanie informacji niefinansowych w świetle procesów konsultacyjnych

Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie problemu raportowania informacji niefinansowych w kontekście procesów konsultacyjnych oraz dalszych prac wynikających z Dyrektywy 2014/95/UE podjętych przez Unię Europejską i zmierzających do opracowania wytycznych z zakresu ich ujawniania. Analiza liczby i treści komentarzy respondentów biorących udział w konsultacjach pozwala zauważyć, że zainteresowanie informacjami niefinansowymi rośnie. Wynika z nich także, że nie jest konieczne opracowanie nowych rozwiązań w zakresie ich raportowania czy też wprowadzenie powszechnego obowiązku ich stosowania. Istotnym problemem wydają się koszty niefinansowych ujawnień, problematyczna jest również ich weryfikacja przez biegłych rewidentów

Evaluation of the management report understandability with the use of the JASNOPIS application

Sprawozdanie z działalności to istotne źródło informacji o wynikach działalności spółek. Podobnie jak sprawozdanie finansowe, także sprawozdanie z działalności powinno cechować się zrozumiałością. W artykule przeprowadzono ocenę zrozumiałości sprawozdania z działalności Grupy LOTOS SA z wykorzystaniem aplikacji JASNOPIS. Jej wyniki pozwalają stwierdzić, że sprawozdanie zostało napisane trudnym językiem, w szczególności we fragmentach poruszających problem ochrony środowiska, badań i rozwoju czy strategii.Management report is an important source of information about the results of the company’s performance. Like the financial statement, the management report should be understandable. The article presents the use of the JASNOPIS application to assess the understandability of the LOTOS Group SA management report. The results reveal that the language in which the report has been written is difficult. This is particularly the case with the parts concerning the environmental protection, research and development or strategy

Sprawozdawczość zintegrowana jako nowy obszar badań naukowych w rachunkowości

Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie sprawozdawczości zintegrowanej jako interesującego, nowego obszaru badań naukowych w rachunkowości. Zakłada ona publikację raportu prezentującego, jak przyjęte przez przedsiębiorstwo strategia, zasady zarządzania, wyniki działalności i perspektywy rozwoju prowadzą do tworzenia wartości. W artykule omówiono stanowiące podstawę sprawozdawczości zintegrowanej koncepcje modelu biznesu oraz sześciu kapitałów. Na podstawie dokonanego przeglądu literatury przedstawiono kierunki badań z zakresu sprawozdawczości zintegrowanej, prezentowane w artykułach naukowych indeksowanych w bazach EBSCO i Emerald oraz postulowane przez Międzynarodową Radę ds. Zintegrowanej Sprawozdawczości (International Integrated Reporting Council – IIRC) we współpracy ze Stowarzyszeniem Dyplomowanych Biegłych Księgowych (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants – ACCA) i Międzynarodowym Stowarzyszeniem Edukacji Rachunkowości i Badań (International Association for Accounting Education & Research – IAAER). Wskazano też tematy opracowań podejmujących ten problem, przyjętych do prezentacji na Kongresie Europejskiego Stowarzyszenia Rachunkowości (European Accounting Association – EAA) w Glasgow w kwietniu 2015 r. Analizą objęto również dorobek polskich autorów podejmujących w swoich badaniach problematykę sprawozdawczości zintegrowanej. Przegląd literatury dotyczącej sprawozdawczości zintegrowanej oraz obecnie prowadzonych badań pozwolił na zidentyfikowanie luk badawczych i wskazanie problemów wartych naukowych dociekań. Zaliczono do nich m.in. zagadnienia związane z modelem biznesu, koncepcją wartości, sześcioma kapitałami, jakością i istotnością raportów zintegrowanych, zaspokajaniem przez raporty zintegrowane potrzeb informacyjnych użytkowników oraz rolą księgowych i biegłych rewidentów w opracowywaniu i weryfikacji sprawozdawczości zintegrowanej.