Disclosures on the Sustainable Development Goals in the non-financial reports of companies listed 
on the Warsaw Stock Exchange Cover Image

Ujawnienia dotyczące Celów Zrównoważonego Rozwoju w raportach niefinansowych spółek notowanych na Giełdzie Papierów Wartościowych w Warszawie
Disclosures on the Sustainable Development Goals in the non-financial reports of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange

Author(s): Arleta Szadziewska, Anna Szychta, Halina Waniak-Michalak
Subject(s): Economy, Business Economy / Management
Published by: Stowarzyszenie Księgowych w Polsce
Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Accounting and Reporting Standards; non-financial report; Warsaw Stock Exchange; core SDG indicators

Summary/Abstract: Purpose: The article aims to determine whether and how companies listed on the War-saw Stock Exchange (WSE) presented their commitment to the Sustainable Develop-ment Goals (SDGs) in integrated or non-financial reports prepared from 2019 to 2022.Methodology/approach: Content analysis of 235 reports of listed companies (from 55 to 62 depend-ing on the year) was used to identify the number and type of disclosed indicators of companies’ implementation of the SDGs according to the guidelines of the Intergov-ernmental Working Group of Experts on International Accounting and Reporting Standards (UNCTAD-ISAR), and the panel regression method was applied to verify four research hypotheses.Findings: Although about 2/3 of the companies have declared their commitment to the SDGs, the number of companies that disclosed information on the implementation of the SDGs was lower. Of the 34 core SDG indicators intended for enterprises, according to the UNCTAD-ISAR, companies listed on the WSE used, on average, only 32% in 2019 and 37% in 2022. Thus, the average number of indicators increased from 11 to 13 in this period; the highest number of disclosed metrics was 22 in two very large entities. The study indicates that company size, its belonging to a “sinful” industry, and the number of declared SDGs influence the number of SDG indicators disclosed. The reporting standards used (GRI or other) did not affect the number of SDG measures presented by the company.Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of the research is the inclu-sion of only companies listed on the WSE.Originality/value: The study contributes to the literature on the sustainable develop-ment reporting of business entities and measuring the implementation of SDGs at the micro level.

  • Issue Year: 48/2024
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 97-131
  • Page Count: 35
  • Language: English
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