Over the past decade, the value of assets managed through Sustainable Investing Techniques has reached numbers that investors would have never thought to witness. Following the progression of this trend, non-financial reporting now plays a fundamental role in the communication with investors. It can be used to provide information about the company's strategy and its environmental and social policies. Firms with better sustainability performances are able to increase their attractiveness to the capital market, to generate significant operational benefits, including increased productivity driven by better motivation. Also, thanks to a greater interaction with customers, shareholders and employees, the company is able to improve its competitive performance. These rewards, however, depend heavily on the transparency with which sustainability initiatives and their results are communicated. For this reason, over time, policy makers have been requested to regulate this new reporting process, providing precise guidelines. The European Union itself, through the revision of the regulatory framework on non-financial reporting, has made a strong commitment in this direction. This dissertation aims at studying the communication strategies regarding non-financial information applied by Italian listed companies, trying to highlight which are the results currently achieved in terms of transparency (quantity and typology of information disclosed) and pure ESG performance. In particular, the research focuses on companies currently listed on the Small and Mid-Cap Indexes of the Italian Stock Exchange and the scope is to identify some virtuous and emerging examples to be studied in depth through the development of specific business cases. The analysis carried out highlights how firms, even on the Italian market, are becoming more and more virtuous as regards the disclosure of non-financial information. However, companies still have problems in linking their sustainability practices to objectives and remuneration systems, and therefore, to the long-term corporate strategy. Also, companies with higher market capitalisations would seem to be the ones with generally better disclosures.
Negli ultimi dieci anni, il valore degli asset gestiti attraverso tecniche di Investimento Sostenibile ha raggiunto numeri che gli investitori non avrebbero mai pensato di vedere. Seguendo l'andamento di questa tendenza, la rendicontazione non finanziaria si trova ora a giocare un ruolo fondamentale nella comunicazione con gli investitori. Può essere utilizzata per fornire informazioni sulla strategia aziendale e sulle politiche ambientali e sociali. Le aziende con migliori prestazioni di sostenibilità sono in grado di aumentare la loro attrattiva per il mercato dei capitali, generare significativi vantaggi operativi, tra cui una maggiore produttività guidata da una migliore motivazione della forza lavoro. Questi riconoscimenti, tuttavia, dipendono fortemente dalla trasparenza con cui le iniziative di sostenibilità e i loro risultati vengono comunicati all'interno dei report non finanziari. Per questo motivo i policy maker sono stati chiamati a regolamentare questo nuovo processo di rendicontazione, fornendo precise linee guida. La stessa Unione Europea, attraverso la revisione del quadro normativo sulla rendicontazione non finanziaria, ha assunto un forte impegno in questa direzione. La presente tesi si propone di approfondire le strategie di comunicazione in materia di informazioni non finanziarie applicate dalle società quotate italiane, cercando di evidenziare i risultati attualmente raggiunti in termini di trasparenza (quantità e tipologia di informazioni divulgate) e pure performance di sostenibilità. In particolare, la ricerca si è concentrata sulle società attualmente quotate negli Indici Small e Mid Cap di Borsa Italiana e lo scopo è stato quello di individuare alcuni esempi virtuosi ed emergenti da approfondire attraverso lo sviluppo di specifici business case. L'analisi svolta evidenzia come le imprese, anche sul mercato italiano, stiano diventando sempre più virtuose per quanto riguarda la comunicazione di informazioni non finanziarie. Tuttavia, le aziende sembrerebbero avere ancora problemi nel collegare le loro pratiche di sostenibilità agli obiettivi e ai sistemi di remunerazione e, quindi, alla strategia aziendale di lungo termine. Inoltre, le società con una maggiore capitalizzazione di mercato sembrerebbero essere quelle con una maggiore qualità nella divulgazione.
The quality of non-financial disclosure of mid-cap and small-cap companies listed on the Italian exchange : a benchmarking analysis
Rossi, Gabriele;Pompeo, Eleonora
2019/2020
Abstract
Over the past decade, the value of assets managed through Sustainable Investing Techniques has reached numbers that investors would have never thought to witness. Following the progression of this trend, non-financial reporting now plays a fundamental role in the communication with investors. It can be used to provide information about the company's strategy and its environmental and social policies. Firms with better sustainability performances are able to increase their attractiveness to the capital market, to generate significant operational benefits, including increased productivity driven by better motivation. Also, thanks to a greater interaction with customers, shareholders and employees, the company is able to improve its competitive performance. These rewards, however, depend heavily on the transparency with which sustainability initiatives and their results are communicated. For this reason, over time, policy makers have been requested to regulate this new reporting process, providing precise guidelines. The European Union itself, through the revision of the regulatory framework on non-financial reporting, has made a strong commitment in this direction. This dissertation aims at studying the communication strategies regarding non-financial information applied by Italian listed companies, trying to highlight which are the results currently achieved in terms of transparency (quantity and typology of information disclosed) and pure ESG performance. In particular, the research focuses on companies currently listed on the Small and Mid-Cap Indexes of the Italian Stock Exchange and the scope is to identify some virtuous and emerging examples to be studied in depth through the development of specific business cases. The analysis carried out highlights how firms, even on the Italian market, are becoming more and more virtuous as regards the disclosure of non-financial information. However, companies still have problems in linking their sustainability practices to objectives and remuneration systems, and therefore, to the long-term corporate strategy. Also, companies with higher market capitalisations would seem to be the ones with generally better disclosures.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/170869