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Abstract: This paper reviews 107 academic research publications appearing between 1988 and 2011 that studied accounting changes in post-communist economies. While there has been a significant amount of prior research [...]

The research problemWe observed the impact of European, international, and national mandatory financial and non-financial regulations on the corporate environmental disclosure of listed companies in the Euronext 100 between 2002 and 2017.MotivationOur study was motivated by the perfect European context created by the implementation of the IASs/IFRSs, mandatory since 2005, to enhance financial statement comparability across European companies, and by the national transposition of the 2014/95/EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive requiring European listed and large corporations to disclose information relative to their environmental footprint starting January 1, 2017.The test hypothesesH1:Financial legislation through the IASs/IFRSs implementation improves the level of environmental disclosure in Europe.H2:Non-financial legislation through the Non-Financial Reporting Directive improves the level of environmental disclosure in Europe.Target populationThe paper is useful for: (1) researchers wanting to observe the evolution of environmental disclosure in Europe and the main factors influencing it; (2) CEOs and managers who seek to improve their own financial and non-financial reporting; (3) policymakers to know the impact of national and international regulations on environmental disclosure and practices; and (4) users of annual financial statements.Adopted methodologyWe hand collected data using the financial environmental grid proposed by Barbu et al.[(2014a). Mandatory environmental disclosures by companies complying with IAS/IFRS: The case of France, Germany and UK. The International Journal of Accounting, 49(2), 231–247] for both descriptive and monetary items from the annual financial statements of all French, Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese companies included in the Euronext 100 index. We used descriptive statistics and regression models to analyze this data.AnalysesThe results are interpreted through the lenses of neo-institutional theory, legitimacy theory, and homogeneity theory.FindingsThe results show that mandatory financial and non-financial regulations improved the level of environmental disclosure of European companies from different countries over time, but the level of reporting was still very low. The force of coercive isomorphism is not strong enough to cause companies to be more environmentally responsible and to report more, but normative and mimetic isomorphism, and gaining legitimacy, could have a positive influence on the environmental reporting practices of European companies. Taken as a whole, the policy of “one size fits all” is not appropriate for environmental regulation in Europe and needs to be adapted because each country has a specific culture, tradition, and education regarding environmental values. These values should be improved to promote a better environmental conscience, better individual responsibility, and a tangible feeling of truth and transparency in disclosures, with all these generating real environmental practices and reliable reporting without any trace of greenwashing.

This paper offers our insights concerning the issues raised by Prof. Charitou (2022) [Discussion of “The evolution of environmental reporting in Europe: The role of financial and non-financial regulation”. The International Journal of Accounting, 57, a–b] in commentaries on the article “The Evolution of Environmental Reporting in Europe: The Role of Financial and Non-Financial Regulation” [Barbu, E. M., Feleaga, L., & Ferrat, Y. (2022). The International Journal of Accounting, 57, c–d]. As suggested by Charitou (2022), we explain the pertinence of our financial environmental grid of 12 items based on IAS/IFRS, and we propose a complementary non-financial environmental grid of almost 100 elements useful to ensure an exhaustive analysis of corporate environmental disclosure and environmental governance. Furthermore, we analyzed the results through the influence of national regulation on environmental disclosure and practices, and we explain why it is important to work on the synergy among environmental, social, and economic pillars and with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to improve corporate social and environmental responsibility.

There is very little material in English language academic journals regarding accounting history in Romania. Most prior research has focused on a specific year or a short period of time without providing a theoretical explanation or interpretation. The goal of this article is to provide a longitudinal presentation of developments in Romanian accounting during the 20th century and to propose a neo-institutional explanation of this evolution. The study identifies a normative influence in Romanian accounting practices during the first 50 years of the 20th century, a coercive one, imposed until 1989, by a centralised communist system, and from 1989 to the present, a mixed isomorphism oriented around French, European and international accounting systems. Lacking a period of introspection, the authors feel that there is little hope that Romanian accounting will rediscover its unique culture, or will manage to build upon or improve its indigenous base in the current international context.