DOI - Mendel University Press

DOI identifiers

DOI: 10.11118/978-80-7509-820-7-0109

NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING OF LARGE UNDERTAKINGS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Iva HASÍKOVÁ, Radka NESVADBOVÁ, Kateřina BATELKOVÁ, Milena OTAVOVÁ, Jana GLÁSEROVÁ


Directive 2014/95/EU was implemented in Czech accounting legislation with effect from 2017. It introduced an obligation for certain undertakings to report non-financial information. The paper deals with non-financial information and its reporting by large undertakings in the Czech Republic. It defines the theoretical basis of non-financial reporting and the degree of implementation of the Directive in Czech accounting legislation. The analytical part of the paper is based on the content analysis of annual reports or separate non-financial reports of the large undertakings, for which the reporting of non-financial information is mandatory, for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018 according to the GRI methodological procedure. On the basis of the comparison of annual reports in the years analysed, the impacts of the implementation of the Directive on the reporting of nonfinancial information and the approach of the undertakings concerned to its reporting are identified. Furthermore, the relationship between the size of the undertaking within the category of large undertakings with more than 500 employees and the reporting of nonfinancial information for 2018 is examined. In total, annual reports or specialized nonfinancial reports of 568 undertakings were studied.
Purpose: One of the aims of this paper is to answer the question of whether there has been a qualitative or quantitative change in the non-financial reporting of enterprises for which disclosure is mandatory. It also deals with the answer to the research question whether the size of a company in the category of large companies affects the willingness of companies to report non-financial information.
Methodology: A comparison of reported non-financial information was made for 2016 and subsequently for 2017 and 2018, i.e., for the years before and after the implementation of the Directive. On the basis of comparison, it was examined whether the legislative measure adopted contributed to higher quality non-financial reporting. The total number of undertakings is 15. The content analysis of a total of 45 reports for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018, which was performed manually, enabled to assess the approach of the undertakings studied to non-financial reporting. Subsequently, the data were processed using MS Excel. The research was based on indicators which included economic, environmental, labour law, human rights and social areas. Specific non-financial indicators were based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) methodology.
Findings: It was found that more than half of the undertakings surveyed are not interested in full reporting of non-financial information and at the same time it was statistically proven that there is a significant relationship between willingness to report non-financial information and the size of the undertaking with respect to turnover, assets, and number of employees.

Keywords: annual report, Directive 2014/95/EU, large undertaking, non-financial information

pages: 109-118, Published: 2021, online: 2021



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