This research aims to contribute to the scientific debate about the lack of interlinkages between mandatory non‐financial reporting and sustainable business models. For our purposes, a counter‐accounting analysis was conducted on the non‐financial reports of a sample of 145 Italian firms interested by the Directive 2014/95/EU effects. Specifically, the study adopts an empirical approach to evaluate environmental information transparency, which represents one of the main critical issues concerning the non‐financial declarations prepared by European Italian Public Interest Entities (PIEs) to comply with Directive 2014/95/EU. The results highlight that corporate governance and report characteristics affect environmental transparency. Furthermore, the results confirm the overall attitude to avoid the disclosure of unfavourable or unavailable environmental information through impression management strategies. Finally, the analysis underlines the opportunities for policymakers to rethink mandatory non‐financial reporting to sustain the ecological transition of European PIEs.

Purpose: According to the Directive 2014/95/EU on non-financial information (NFI), from 2017 onwards, large companies of member states will be required to provide a series of social, environmental and governance disclosures. This paper, focusing on the evaluation of the quality of NFI in the UK and Italy before the implementation of the EU Directive, aims to investigate which factors affect the quality of NFI in the comparison between the UK and Italy. Design/methodology/approach: To evaluate the “state of the art” of NFI in corporate social disclosure of British and Italian listed companies, a non-financial score is created, based on specific items concerning the requirements of the EU Directive. To this aim, the authors analyzed the corporate disclosures of 343 large listed companies. Findings: Findings show that the UK is more compliant than Italy. So, regulation could be important to improve NFI in Italy more than in the UK. The results could represent relevant evidence for European policymakers of the action agenda “emphasizing the importance of national and sub-national CSR policies”. Originality/value: This research represents a preliminary analysis on the EU Directive and on its potential effects. Moreover, this study strengthens the previous literature on the quality of non-financial disclosure.

According to Directive 2014/95/EU on disclosure of non-financial information from 2017 onwards, large companies (exceeding 500 employees) headquartered in Member States will be required to provide a series of social, environmental, and governance statements. The Directive was transposed into Italian law by Legislative Decree 254 of 30 December 2016.The aim of this paper is to evaluate the information gap for Italian companies and,consequently,the adjustments required by the new Directive on non-financial information. In order to analyze the level of non-financial and diversity disclosure, we created an assessment model called “Non-financial information score”, which records the required information as a percentage. We apply it to a sample of 223 large companies.The results (with an average NFIscore of about 49%) show that, in spite of what has previously emerged in the European debate about the application of the Directive on the part of large companies, an information gap remains, although the implementation of the directive should help to fill it in the coming years.In this sense, the potential contribution of the EU directive to non-financial disclosure in Italy appears to be greater than we had expected. Thus, in accordance with the literature, this paper appears to confirm the role of regulation in improving the quality of disclosure of non-financial information.

Since 2016, the European context has been characterised by the introduction of the Directive 95/2014/EU on mandatory non-financial reporting. The Directive has been transposed in the Italian context through the Legislative Decree 254/2016. However, following evidence previously collected from other jurisdictions, a high degree of scepticism by academics still characterises the debate on the effectiveness of this form of regulation. In fact, the literature highlights that the effects of a mandatory approach to non-financial reporting are limited to an increase in the annual quantity of information provided and not by an effective organizational change. Therefore, the contribution of our paper is twofold: a gap analysis between the overall degree of non-financial reporting quality between the years 2015 and 2017 and an empirical analysis, factors of which have impacted on the quality of non-financial reports prepared in 2017.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the evolutionary pathways adopted by a digital platform to favor the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem inspired by circular economy behaviors, becoming an enabler in the development of a coevolutionary relationship between entrepreneurial ecosystems and circular economy.Design/methodology/approach: An in-depth single-case study method has been applied, investigating the case of circularity.com, the first and only circular economy industrial symbiosis platform in Italy.Findings: The paper shows how digital platforms can transition towards circular business models, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, the findings show how sustainable platforms' need to revise their business models to effectively engage with stakeholders. The analysis also shows the central role covered by entrepreneurial ecosystems in the transition towards a more circular and sustainable business models.Originality/value: This paper contributes to theoretical development by offering new and insightful explanations of firms' behavior and coevolution, moving beyond the classic interpretation of industry dynamics and analyzing a unique case study. This study has implications for both practice and research, as it offers a better and more holistic understanding of the enabling role of digital platforms for a circular economy.