Non financial information: a European perspective
Author:
Professor emeritus Alain BURLAUD, Professor Maria NICULESCU
JEL:
M14, D80
DOI:
Keywords:
financial information, non-financial information, green growth, responsible growth, performativity, norms, indicators
Abstract:
Globalization and trade development have generated the internationalization of managerial concepts and also the increased demand for norms and rules both regulatory and incentive of individual and collective behaviors. It is the case of corporate social responsibility (CSR) which has known a significant growth in the historical liberal economies and a mimetic appearance in the emerging economies. Given the stakes of CSR, the normalization bodies and international organizations try to give it a statutory basis. This is also the case of "Directive 2014/95/EU" as regards disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups.\r\nThe article analyzes this Directive through the neo-institutional theory of organizations. The authors approach is hypothetical deductive, having as hypothesis the fact that information is performative: it creates the real and modifies the behaviors. They seek to answer the question regarding the non-financial information impact on growth starting from European responsible discourse analysis and international and European legislation.\r\nThe disclosure of non-financial information, generating expectations from the public and commitments from managers, should therefore stimulate a "responsible" growth. However, the new Directive does not offer the means and procedures to materialize it. It creates obligations without specifying too much the content.\r\nThe "responsible growth", even though the term is very vague, constitutes a political option confirmed by the entire European Union courts. Yet, it cannot be express through a concrete reality; it cannot have an operationalized existence, unless it is associated with appropriate management tools, a necessity far from being confirmed.\r\n