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Mandatory CSR reporting—literature review and future developments in Germany

Nichtfinanzielle Berichterstattungspflicht – Literaturzusammenfassung und Mögliche Entwicklungen in Deutschland

NachhaltigkeitsManagementForum | Sustainability Management Forum volume 26, pages 3–17 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

The last years have seen an upsurge in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting regulation around the world. Based on a summary of the literature, this paper provides an overview over possible consequences of CSR reporting regulation and derives potential future developments brought by the introduction of the European CSR Directive in Germany. The results suggest that mandatory CSR reporting leads to a shift in companies’ reporting behaviour. In particular, more companies report on CSR issues and overall quantity of reporting is increased. However, this does not go along with an increase in reporting quality. Moreover, results indicate that consequences of companies’ changed reporting behaviour (i. e., second-order consequences) are under-researched. Lastly, this paper suggests that German companies will, subsequent to the CSR Directive, increase the number of topics covered in their CSR reports, possibly at the expense of overall reporting quality. It remains an interesting question for future researchers to examine the extent to which mandatory CSR reporting may bring about other consequences, on a company-, investor- or society-level.

Zusammenfassung

Basierend auf einer Literaturzusammenfassung präsentiert dieser Artikel einen Überblick über mögliche Konsequenzen einer nichtfinanziellen Berichterstattungspflicht und leitet daraus mögliche zukünftige Entwicklungen in Deutschland nach Einführung des CSR-Richtlinie-Umsetzungsgesetzes ab. Die Ergebnisse suggerieren, dass die nichtfinanzielle Berichterstattungspflicht zu einer Änderung der Berichterstattungspraxis von Unternehmen führt. Insbesondere berichten mehr Unternehmen über ihre nichtfinanzielle Performance und der Umfang der Berichterstattung steigt. Jedoch geht das nicht zwingenderweise mit einer Verbesserung der Berichterstattungsqualität einher. Der Literaturüberblick zeigt darüber hinaus, dass potenzielle Konsequenzen aus einer veränderten Berichterstattungspraxis noch zu wenig erforscht sind. Schließlich suggeriert dieser Artikel, dass nach Einführung des CSR-Richtlinie-Umsetzungsgesetzes mehr deutsche Unternehmen nichtfinanzielle Informationen veröffentlichen werden, möglicherweise auf Kosten der Berichterstattungsqualität. Es können sich Konsequenzen aus der veränderten Berichterstattungspraxis ergeben, wie zum Beispiel ein Sinken der Unternehmensprofitabilität oder ein Rückgang der Luftverschmutzung. Zukünftige Forschung ist notwendig, um diese Konsequenzen zu identifizieren und daraus mögliche Handlungsempfehlungen für den Gesetzgeber abzuleiten.

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Fig. 1
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Notes

  1. Throughout the literature, authors have used other terms besides CSR to refer to the same underlying concept, such as ‘sustainability reporting’ and ‘non-financial reporting’. Although one can discriminate between these terms, most of the literature that I review has used them interchangeably.

  2. Non-financial reporting.

  3. Arguably, the consequences described in Section 4.3.1 (e. g., firm value) affect investors as well. However, I choose to label these consequences as company-level consequences, as they affect investors indirectly through their direct effect on the company.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Chair of Financial Accounting and Auditing, Paderborn University, Warburger Str. 100, Room Q5.107, 33098, Paderborn, Germany

    Maryna Gulenko

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  1. Maryna Gulenko
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Correspondence to Maryna Gulenko.

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M. Gulenko declares that she has no competing interests.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 2 List of papers covered in the review and country(ies) covered
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Table 3 Mandatory CSR regulations covered in the reviewed papers
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Gulenko, M. Mandatory CSR reporting—literature review and future developments in Germany. NachhaltigkeitsManagementForum 26, 3–17 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00550-018-0476-9

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Keywords

  • Company Reports
  • German Society
  • Second-order Consequences (SOC)
  • German Setting
  • Dumitru