ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to study non-financial information disclosed by European SMEs as a way to identify sustainability risks.

We analyze a sample of all the voluntary non-financial reports disclosed according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards for European SMEs from 2016 to 2019.

We obtain that the reports are made voluntarily with basic adherence to GRI and without external assurance. It means that European SMEs choose the basic option to divulge information on sustainability what can not include the identification of sustainability risks.

In the current momentum of discussion about non-financial information normalization in Europe the obtained conclusions can be useful to bear in mind SMEs´ specificities.

Social implications of requirements of sustainability information to European companies are clear when every company has to add efforts to contribute to a sustainable economy.

Nowadays, when non-financial information is compulsory in Europe for certain companies and there is a discussion about the scope of this requirement, it is important to note that SMEs are the backbone of the European economy and that this information on sustainability risks can be a benchmark worldwide.

摘要

本文的目的是研究欧洲中小企业披露的非财务信息，以此作为识别可持续性风险的一种方式。

我们分析了 2016 年至 2019 年根据欧洲中小企业全球报告倡议组织 (GRI) 标准披露的所有自愿非财务报告的样本。

我们了解到，这些报告是在基本遵守 GRI 的情况下自愿做出的，没有外部保证。这意味着欧洲中小企业选择披露可持续性信息的基本选项，其中不能包括识别可持续性风险。

在欧洲目前关于非财务信息规范化的讨论势头中，所获得的结论对于牢记中小企业的特殊性可能是有用的。

当每家公司都必须努力为可持续经济做出贡献时，可持续信息要求对欧洲公司的社会影响就很明显了。

如今，当某些公司在欧洲必须提供非财务信息并且就该要求的范围进行了讨论时，重要的是要注意中小企业是欧洲经济的支柱，而有关可持续性风险的这些信息可能是全球标杆。