Abstract
The interest of the Polish capital market in sustainable development, including sustainability reporting (SR), is evidenced by the creation of the so-called RESPECT Index, a pioneering project in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) which selects companies which are advanced in the application of sustainability development; thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate SR in Polish enterprises in comparison to enterprises in the remaining CEE countries and to find an answer to the question if the RESPECT Index companies differ, in regard to sustainable reporting, from other Polish enterprises included in the study and, if there is a difference, whether it has an influence on the general evaluation of SR in Poland.
The main research questions of the study were: (1) How does SR in Poland compare to SR in the remaining CEE countries? (2) How does the SR of the RESPECT Index companies compare to SR in the remaining Polish enterprises included in the study? In order to answer the research questions, an in-depth analysis of the form, characteristics, and content of the reports, as well as the management of SR, was conducted for the whole sample and separately for the RESPECT Index companies.
The main results of the study on SR in Polish enterprises allow for a positive evaluation, especially in comparison with the remaining CEE countries. The forms of SR in Poland are advanced and, in some respects, similar to those in Western Europe (WE). The influence of the RESPECT Index companies on SR in Poland can also be regarded as positive. The quality of SR of the RESPECT Index companies is better than that of the companies not included in the index.
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Notes
- 1.
It is also possible, in the context of the Polish accession to the EU, that Polish cultural and historical heritage contributes to the willingness to adapt as Poles have often aimed to be at the forefront of the implementation of external regulations. That issue, however, is not the subject of this study as it would require separate, in-depth research, including sociological aspects of the phenomenon.
- 2.
The Warsaw Stock Exchange was the first stock exchange in CEE to introduce (in 2009) an index of companies managed in a responsible, sustainable way, which communicated their social responsibility at an appropriate level, according to predefined criteria. That index was called the RESPECT Index. We have included more information about it later in the study.
- 3.
To a lesser extent, we have compared SR in Polish enterprises and in WE countries.
- 4.
We compare SR in Poland with SR in the following CEE countries: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.
- 5.
The results of those studies are presented in the first chapter of this book.
- 6.
The engagement of enterprises in sustainable development is largely determined by how innovative the branch is (Ratajczak and Szutowski 2016).
- 7.
The average length of the reports is 94 pages, which is almost the same as the result for the WE companies (96 pages).
- 8.
The first corporate social responsibility (CSR) indices were created in the United States. The Dow Jones company was a precursor in that field. In 1999 it began to publish the Sustainability Index (SI). A year later the Calvert fund began publishing the Calvert Social Index (CSI) and in July 2001 the English FTSE company published the FTSE4Good Index (GPW 2016b).
- 9.
Responsible investment is also called ethical investment, sustainable investment, or green investment (GPW 2016d).
- 10.
So far, there have been nine editions of studies within the framework of which companies were selected for inclusion in the RESPECT Index. From 16 to 24 companies were included in it in each edition.
- 11.
The greatest change occurred with the 7th edition in December, 2013, when the Deloitte company became the sole external partner of the index and the survey used for qualifying companies for inclusion was heavily edited.
- 12.
In editions from 1 to 6, the index only included national companies.
- 13.
The first six editions were organized twice a year, with 6-month interludes.
- 14.
Companies from the sWIG80 index were also taken into account in the case of the first six editions.
- 15.
In the new version of the survey (from December, 2013, beginning with the 7th edition), the number of questions varies from edition to edition. There were 48 questions in the 7th edition, 49 questions in the 8th edition, and 51 questions in the 9th and 10th editions.
- 16.
Until (and including) the 6th edition, that is, until January 2013, the criteria included strategy and organization management (CSR policies, functioning on the stock exchange, the management system) and environmental factors (environmental management, materials and raw materials, energy and water, waste, fines, employees, the market, and clients). In the 1st edition (2009), there was one more group: economic factors (the timeliness of the payment of financial liabilities, profits, remuneration, and support for social actions). Beginning from the 2nd edition, the questions only include nonfinancial factors (GPW 2016a).
- 17.
A wide range of studies on the influence of paying attention to environmental, social, and governance issues on value creation in an enterprise (Mikołajewicz and Nowicki 2016a) and on the cost of capital (Mikołajewicz and Nowicki 2016b) show the benefits outweigh the costs. In-depth analyses conducted with the use of the case study method (Mikołajewicz and Nowicki 2016c, d) allow us to come to similar conclusions.
References
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Ratajczak, P., & Szutowski, D. (2016). Exploring the relationship between CSR and innovation. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 7(2), 295–318.
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Kochalski, C., Mikołajewicz, G., Nowicki, J., Ratajczak, P. (2017). Sustainability Reporting in Poland: An In-depth Analysis with Reference to the RESPECT Index Companies. In: Horváth, P., Pütter, J. (eds) Sustainability Reporting in Central and Eastern European Companies. MIR Series in International Business. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52578-5_7
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