Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to investigate both the extent of non-financial policy disclosure and its determinants that refer to regulatory changes as well as to skills and competencies of companies in sustainability reporting.

The sample comprised 71 selected Polish listed companies subject to the Directive 2014/95/EU over 6 years. Content analysis was used to measure the extent of policy-related disclosure. The econometric model was estimated using panel fixed effects.

 The extent of non-financial policy disclosure is significantly better than before the implementation of the Directive. Furthermore, we found that the Directive enforcement, company experience in sustainability reporting and company membership in a risky industry are significant determinants of non-financial policy-related disclosure.

Our study enriches the literature on non-financial disclosure by providing self-constructed non-financial policy disclosure index based on requirements of the Directive 2014/95/EU. It also contributes to the understanding of the role of relevant variables in non-financial policy-related disclosure in voluntary and mandatory context.