We propose to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure and institutional/environmental factors among a sample of European listed companies. We find that, by using several traditional explicative variables, institutional factors affect the level of CSR disclosure, in a context where the EU Commission has been paying growing attention to social and environmental accountability of listed companies (see the EU Dir. 95/2014). Our findings are further supported by multivariate regression, where ESG score (measure of CSR disclosure) is regressed on nine variables which represent the expression of institutional factors. By looking at the institutional determinants of CSR disclosure, we are seeking to pose a challenge for future research agenda, in order to understand whether CSR does actually reflect an effective commitment of firms to accounting practices and rules, as a form of social behavior, or whether it is just a tool to manage stakeholders’ perception and to comply with regulation.

This paper aims to define and measure the environmental impacts associated with three distinct industry techniques used in the production of fresh tomatoes, from planting to harvesting. A comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is conducted to evaluate the environmental performance of producing one kilogram of fresh processing tomatoes. The study includes three Italian companies representing different Business Models: standard production, integrated production, and precision farming. The impact evaluation method used is ReCiPe, at both midpoint and endpoint levels. The results reveal that the adoption of advanced technology, such as precision farming, in managing the agricultural production of fresh tomatoes leads to a significant reduction in environmental impacts across all categories analyzed. Interestingly, the largest contribution to climate-changing gases comes from the use of fertilizers. Precision farming demonstrates a remarkable reduction of CO₂ emissions by 52% compared to integrated production and 67% compared to standard production. This analysis provides valuable insights for managers and policymakers in developing strategies for large-scale, sustainable production using innovative techniques. The main contribution of this study lies in comparing the performance of three different Business Models employed in Italian fresh tomato production.

We propose to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure and institutional/environmental factors among a sample of European listed companies. We find that, controlling by several traditional explicative variables, institutional factors affect the level of CSR disclosure, in a context where the EU Commission has been paying growing attention to social and environmental accountability by listed companies (see the EU Dir. 95/2014). Our findings are further supported by multivariate regression where ESG score (measure of CSR disclosure) is regressed on nine variables expression of institutional factors. By looking at the institutional determinants of CSR disclosure, we are seeking to put the challenge for the future research agenda, in order to understand if CSR does reflect effective commitment of firms to accounting practices and rules, in social behavior manner, or it is just a tool to manage stakeholders’ perception and to comply with regulation.