Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics (DEAMS), University of Trieste, Italy.
Department of Economics and Management (DEM), University of Trento, Italy.
J Environ Manage. 2023 Nov 1;345:118891. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118891. Epub 2023 Aug 31.
Over the last two decades, the non-financial disclosure requirement has become a major concern for companies, consumers, governments, and policymakers. While compelling evidence has accumulated over time on the positive effect that moving away from disclosing non-financial information within mandatory financial statements, conflicting findings have emerged on the relative merits that choice of non-financial reporting format, in particular between sustainability and integrated reporting, can have on analysts' forecast accuracy. In addition, recent evidence from a non-voluntary setting has suggested that such choice could influence the effect of ESG disclosure and consequently reduce information asymmetry. Aiming to shed some light on these propositions within a voluntary setting, we conducted an empirical study focusing on a representative sample of listed European companies. We retrieved and analysed the last ten years (2012-2021) of publicly available financial information about the top 600 companies listed in the Eurostoxx. Our findings indicate that both a sustainability and an integrated report are significantly associated with improved forecast accuracy, relative to an annual report. We also find that ESG disclosure is significantly moderated by such choice. The environmental pillar score was found to strongly and positively affect forecast error, independently from other controls including the social and governance pillars. For companies opting to disclose non-financial information within an annual report, alternative forms of communication will therefore become critical to ensure that financial analysts, and ultimately investors, are informed about the company's sustainability-related activities and plans. Future research should be directed at examining the magnitude and direction of these effects among small and medium-size listed companies and in other decision-making settings to test the generalisability of these findings.
在过去的二十年里，非财务信息披露要求已经成为公司、消费者、政府和政策制定者的主要关注点。虽然随着时间的推移，越来越多的证据表明，在强制性财务报表中披露非财务信息的做法逐渐消失，会产生积极影响，但对于非财务报告格式（特别是可持续性报告和综合报告）的选择相对优势，分析人士的预测准确性却出现了相互矛盾的结果。此外，最近来自非自愿环境的证据表明，这种选择可能会影响 ESG 披露的效果，从而减少信息不对称。为了在自愿环境中阐明这些观点，我们进行了一项实证研究，重点关注了一组有代表性的欧洲上市公司样本。我们检索并分析了在 Eurostoxx 上市的前 600 家公司过去十年（2012-2021 年）的公开财务信息。我们的研究结果表明，与年度报告相比，可持续性报告和综合报告都与提高预测准确性显著相关。我们还发现，ESG 披露会受到这种选择的显著调节。环境支柱得分被发现与预测误差呈显著正相关，独立于包括社会和治理支柱在内的其他控制因素。对于选择在年度报告中披露非财务信息的公司来说，因此，其他形式的沟通将变得至关重要，以确保金融分析师，最终是投资者，了解公司与可持续性相关的活动和计划。未来的研究应该致力于检验这些影响在中小型上市公司和其他决策环境中的大小和方向，以检验这些发现的普遍性。
