In the last decade, the use of sustainability reporting as a tool for communicating and reporting on the performance of sustainability objectives by companies has led to a growing awareness of its value and development in the corporate world. Therefore, exploring this phenomenon for a better understanding and identifying its characteristic elements is important. This study aims to systematically review the literature to establish the distinctive elements of sustainability reporting and provide a complete theoretical framework that allows the classification of the drivers that are crucial for adopting sustainability reporting. Through the analysis, we describe the characteristic elements of sustainability reporting in a homogeneous and concise summary. The drivers that result, may prove useful not only in the context of non-financial reporting but also in encouraging adequate economic-business reflections that may inspire new research trajectories for scholars in this field.

Background: In the broad scientific debate on the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the strategic planning of universities and on the use of monitoring the results of the strategy of the indicators relating to the pursuit of sustainable development goals (SDGs), there is a lack of studies demonstrating the effective degree of institutionalization of CSR in universities. Methods: This analysis constitutes a pilot study relating to the Italian university context. The study was carried out through an analysis on the contents of the three-year strategic performance plans (2020–2022) drawn up by individual universities and compulsorily published on the national portal of the Public Function Department, as required by article 10, paragraph 1, letter (a) of Legislative Decree 150/2009. A matrix was made with the information extracted by the documents and relative to the presence of the SDGs in the strategic performance plan. Consequently, using a Likert scale, the different degrees of institutionalization of CSR in the strategic plan of the universities were coded. Results: The results of the pilot study highlighted that the strategic planning of Italian universities’ CSR practices and the challenges of sustainable development are hardly ever systematically addressed. Therefore, there is a low degree of institutionalization of CSR in the Italian university system, even though the literature shows a high cultural and scientific commitment to establish university and post-graduate study courses with corporate social responsibility and sustainable development content and an increasing trend in the use of the accountability tools such as the social report or the sustainability report. Conclusions: It is necessary to share the results of scientific research on CSR and SDGs with the government and governance bodies of universities in order to harmonize the CSR and sustainability culture of these bodies with that of academics.

Background: Our study aims to verify the impact of corporate governance index on financial performance, namely return on assets (ROA), general liquidity, capital adequacy and size of company expressed as total assets in the banking sector for both a developing and a developed country. In addition, we investigate the interactive effect of corporate governance on a homogenous and a heterogeneous banking system. These two banking systems were chosen in order to assess the impact of corporate governance on two distinct types of banking system: a homogenous one such as the Romanian one and a heterogeneous one such as the Italian one. The two systems are very distinct; the Romanian one is represented by only 34 banks, while the Italian one comprises more than 350 banks. Thus, our research question is how a modification in corporate governance legislation is influencing the two different banking systems. The research implication of our study is whether a modification in legislation, thus in the index of corporate governance, is feasible for two different banking sectors and what the best ways to increase the financial performance of banks are without compromising their resilience. Methods: Using survey data from the Italian and Romanian banking systems over the period 2007–2018, we find that the corporate governance has a significant, positive and long-lasting effect on profitability and capital adequacy in both countries. Results: Taking the size of the company into consideration, the impact of the Index of Corporate Governance (ICG) on a homogenous banking system is positive while the impact on a heterogeneous banking system is negative. Conclusions: Our study provides evidence of the impact of IGC on financial performance and sheds light on the importance of the size of the company. Therefore, one can state that the corporate governance principles applied do not encourage the growth of large banks in heterogeneous banking sectors, thereby suggesting new avenues of research associated with new perspectives.

This paper examines the impact of the internet usage and knowledge intensive activities on households’ healthcare expenditures Similarly, the paper aims to recognize and understand, from a value-creation perspective, the correlation between: internet access of households (IA), individuals frequently using the internet (IU), individuals searching on internet for health-related information (HI), payments made by households for healthcare (PHH), expressed as euro per inhabitant and employment in knowledge-intensive activities (KIA). The approach utilized in the present study consists of two steps. First, a theoretical framework was conducted to determine the existing relationship between major variables. Next, the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) approach was applied in a case study at European level to prove the three hypothesis we consider. By analyzing the connection between the major variables, a positive and long- lasting impulse response function was revealed, followed by an ascending trend. This suggests that a self-multiplying effect is being generated; and it reasonable to assume that the more individuals use the Internet, the more electronic acquisitions occur. We can thus reasonably conclude that the improvement of the internet usage and knowledge intensive activities on households’ healthcare expenditures process is strongly dependent on people’s capability. Improving IU and KIA is the new reading key in the decision-making process in health system approach.