El objetivo de este artículo es identificar los factores que impulsan las decisiones de los directivos en materia de información en un entorno caracterizado por la concentración de la propiedad y la escasa aplicación de la ley. Investigaciones anteriores indican que el tono de la carta a los accionistas está correlacionado con los resultados. Sin embargo, el tono puede estar sesgado hacia lo positivo cuando una empresa es muy sensible a los incentivos del mercado de valores o está controlada por inversores mayoritarios. El sesgo puede reducirse gracias a las actividades de supervisión de los inversores institucionales en las empresas de capital cerrado. El estudio tiene dos implicaciones importantes. En primer lugar, cuando los directivos sesgan el texto, pierden la capacidad de comunicar noticias positivas sobre su empresa. En el marco de las expectativas racionales, los inversores pueden detectar el sesgo basándose en los incentivos situacionales conocidos y desestimar la información sesgada. En segundo lugar, los resultados sugieren que los directivos manipulan el tono estratégicamente, y no de forma inconsciente, para satisfacer las necesidades de los principales grupos de accionistas. This paper aims to identify the drivers of management reporting choices in a setting characterized by ownership concentration and weak enforcement. Previous research indicates, that tone of the letter to shareholders is correlated with performance. However, tone can be biased towards the positive when a company is highly responsive to stock market incentives or controlled by majority investors. Bias can be reduced by the monitoring activities of institutional investors in closely held companies. There are two major implications of the study. First, when managers bias the text, they lose the ability to communicate positive news about their company. Under rational expectations investors can detect bias based on known situational incentives and disregard the biased information. Second, the results suggest that managers manipulate tone strategically, rather than unconsciously, to satisfy the needs of key shareholder groups.

This paper aims to research the topics related to risk included in non-financial disclosure (NFD) of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and explore factors that influence the risk topics ratio in NFD. We applied a content analysis using topic modeling to discover latent risk topics in NFD. Next, with Ward’s clustering, we identified four groups of companies with a homogenous risk topic mixture. For causal analysis, to explain the differences in risk topics ratio, we used qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), which allowed us to obtain three paths (variable configurations) leading to the high ratio of risk topics in NFD. Our results suggest that companies disclosing risk information extensively in their NFDs concentrate almost solely on social risk matters. In contrast, companies talking briefly about environmental and social (E&S) risk prepare their NFDs with a more balanced distribution of E&S topics and their financial implication. In general, the companies’ exposure to E&S risk and the use of NFD standards and guidelines as well as the type of NFD impact the space dedicated to risk information. This paper contributes to academics and regulators, filling the gap about risk disclosure in the NFD, identifying the nature of corporate risk disclosures, and upgrading research about determinants of risk information in non-financial disclosure.

This study examines how European automotive companies disclose circular economy (CE) information in light of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) E5. Using a mixed‐methods, data‐driven approach that combines keyword analysis and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modelling on 53 corporate sustainability reports, the research identifies the main CE disclosure themes and evaluates their alignment with ESRS E5 requirements. Results reveal a strong dominance of symbolic communication, focused on compliance rhetoric and waste management, over substantive disclosures that reflect genuine engagement with circular strategies such as reuse, remanufacturing or regeneration. The findings expose the sector's limited preparedness for the new EU sustainability reporting framework and highlight a persistent reliance on linear production models. The study offers empirical evidence on the symbolic–substantive dichotomy in CE reporting and provides actionable insights for policymakers, regulators and firms aiming to strengthen substantive sustainability disclosure.