<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> Corporate reporting is generally perceived as a type of accounting fit for purpose for the 21 century, taking into consideration not only the traditional shareholders’ needs and views but also stakeholders’. Academic literature tends to over-appreciate the non-financial nature of corporate reporting, forgetting that numbers can have their own narratives, which can be read in between the lines. It is true that numbers present certain uncertainties and an extra level of reporting can provide a better interpretation, in a complementary or continuous manner. The present research looks at the current European Union binding legislation and academic and professional judgements towards it. The ultimate questions to be answered is if corporate reporting is improved information? and whose needs are really served: shareholders, the traditional users of accounts, or stakeholders, always hidden, but intuitively taken into account. Findings of the research show that public good is largely perceived as the duty of private interest, as regulated by the public authorities. This mainly happens as shareholders and whoever puts money at risk still are the primarily user group, but the context and consequences of reporting are wider than before. The approach taken by this paper was first of all to discover inside outs of corporate reporting and secondly to look how industry self-regulators interact with public authorities, for the common good. The added value of the present papers is represented by its policy recommendations presented as conclusions.</p></abstract>

Corporate reporting is generally perceived as a type of accounting fit for purpose for the 21 century, taking into consideration not only the traditional shareholders’ needs and views but also stakeholders’. Academic literature tends to over-appreciate the non-financial nature of corporate reporting, forgetting that numbers can have their own narratives, which can be read in between the lines. It is true that numbers present certain uncertainties and an extra level of reporting can provide a better interpretation, in a complementary or continuous manner. The present research looks at the current European Union binding legislation and academic and professional judgements towards it. The ultimate questions to be answered is if corporate reporting is improved information? and whose needs are really served: shareholders, the traditional users of accounts, or stakeholders, always hidden, but intuitively taken into account. Findings of the research show that public good is largely perceived as the duty of private interest, as regulated by the public authorities. This mainly happens as shareholders and whoever puts money at risk still are the primarily user group, but the context and consequences of reporting are wider than before. The approach taken by this paper was first of all to discover inside outs of corporate reporting and secondly to look how industry self-regulators interact with public authorities, for the common good. The added value of the present papers is represented by its policy recommendations presented as conclusions.

What are the objectives of corporate reporting? Sustainable value for who?

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"What are the objectives of corporate reporting? Sustainable value for who?"}

Corporate reporting is generally perceived as a type of accounting fit for purpose for the 21 century, taking into consideration not only the traditional...

What are the objectives of corporate reporting? Sustainable value for who?

Published Online: Jun 15, 2018

Page range: 436 - 445

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2018-0039

Keywords
corporate reporting, sustainable reporting, public good, Directive 2014/95

© 2018 Razvan Hoinaru, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

What are the objectives of corporate reporting? Sustainable value for who?

Published Online: Jun 15, 2018

Page range: 436 - 445

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2018-0039

Keywordscorporate reporting, sustainable reporting, public good, Directive 2014/95

© 2018 Razvan Hoinaru, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
corporate reporting, sustainable reporting, public good, Directive 2014/95