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Introduction. Companies' efforts to provide information in response to stakeholder requests were embodied in the preparation of various corporate governance and management reports, which led to the development of appropriate standards in this area. At the same time, issues such as the structure of the reports accompanying the financial statements for the various stakeholders, the order of presentation and the appropriateness of including certain financial and non-financial indicators continue to be relevant. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to determine the qualitative characteristics of the management report based on an analysis of regulatory requirements for its preparation, the experience of its preparation by domestic passenger transport enterprises and comparison with the best international practices. Results. It is advisable to distinguish the qualitative characteristics of the management report on the content of the report (accuracy and completeness; objectivity and impartiality; materiality of disclosed information; relevance and comprehensibility; reasonableness and persuasiveness of conclusions), and on the form of its presentation (clarity and accuracy; logical presentation; informativeness; data visualization (graphs, tables, images, photos, etc.). The content analysis of the management reports of the domestic passenger transport enterprises has been carried out. Positive and negative aspects of these reports are revealed. They are compared with best practice. Conclusions. The preparation of the management report requires considerable management effort, in particular, the additional time spending, the involvement of qualified specialists to provide quality information coverage, including the social and environmental activities of the enterprise. Simultaneously, the regulator should generate a positive attitude in the public to disclose certain information in the management report, which will help the state and the society to take timely measures to create a more sustainable environment, to ensure accountability of enterprises and to achieve the goals of sustainable development.

[ES] La Directiva 2014/95/UE impone nuevos requisitos en cuanto a la divulgación de información no financiera (IFN). El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la IFN divulgada por las empresas cotizadas españolas. Se trata de un estudio pionero en España, ya que se realizó durante el primer año en el que la divulgación de IFN era obligatoria, según los requisitos de la adaptación española a la mencionada Directiva. Determinamos si las decisiones sobre la presentación de la información no financiera adoptadas al respecto (es decir, hacerlo dentro del informe de gestión o como un informe de sostenibilidad independiente) dependen de las características de la empresa. Además, estudiamos si el contenido de dichos informes difiere significativamente. Los resultados muestran que algunas empresas españolas no divulgan la información no financiera obligatoria. Las empresas más grandes y rentables, que pertenecen a sectores específicos y que tienen un comité de sostenibilidad, son más propensas a divulgar esta información en un informe de sostenibilidad. Los contenidos de las memorias de gestión y de sostenibilidad presentan diferencias significativas., [EN] The Directive 2014/95/EU imposes new requirements regarding the disclosure of non-financial information (NFI). The aim of this paper is to analyse the NFI disclosed by Spanish listed companies. This is a pioneering study in Spain, since it was conducted during the first year in which NFI disclosure was mandatory, according to the requirements of the Spanish adaptation of Directive. We determine whether decisions on NFI reporting adopted in this respect (i.e. to do so within the management report or as a separate sustainability report) depend on the company¿s characteristics. In addition, we consider whether the content of such reports differs significantly. Findings show that some Spanish companies do not disclose mandatory NFI. Larger and more profitable companies, which belong to specific sectors and have a sustainability committee, are more likely to disclose this information in a sustainability report. The contents of management and sustainability reports present significant differences., The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (RTI2018-093423-BI00).

Unlike the vast majority of the EU member states, the Netherlands incorporated an option provided by the EU Accounting Directive that exempt companies from the obligation to file the management report with the trade register when a copy of it can be obtained from the company upon request. About 60% of the companies use this filing exemption option, but the availability of the management reports of these companies appears to be poor, because they are (very) reluctant to fulfill a request, rejecting it or do not respond to it at all. Therefore, it is interesting to examine whether the choice of how the management report is published, is associated with the level of compliance with disclosure obligations. In order to do that, we create a disclosure score based on the legal disclosure requirements. Multivariate analysis shows that disclosure compliance of management reports that are filed with the trade register is significantly higher than of those not filed but made available by the company. We also find a significant positive relationship between disclosure compliance and the length of management reports. Compliance levels appear not to be significantly associated with the timeliness of publication, company size and the size of the external auditor’s firm. Based on our research findings we advocate the removal of the filing exemption option on management reports.

Mere knowledge that the company has acquired own shares is not always of great importance. Information on the acquisition of own shares from dissenting shareholders or the squeeze-out of minority shareholders is not of great importance to the users of financial statements. In the first case, it is far more significant to disclose the significant event that allowed dissenting shareholders to resign from the company. However, the purchase of own shares due to certain reasons, such as the purchase of own shares at a premium in order to influence the market value of shares, the repurchase focused on preventing greater harm to the company, which is especially true at a time of financial crisis, or the repurchase of own shares as a means of disbursing shareholders, is of great importance to the users of financial statements. Therefore, modern legislation in developed countries obliges companies to disclose a range of information regarding own shares, including the reasons for the acquisition. The above is also proscribed by the relevant EU directives and national legislation. The paper points out that the legal norms governing the obligation of reporting on own shares in Serbia are not harmonized and that most public companies in Serbia, despite the legal obligation, do not disclose the reasons for the acquisition of own shares.

This paper deals with Brazilian empirical research published in journals between 2000 and mid-2015 that used, as a source of data, the Management Reports (MRs) released by publicly-traded companies together with their financial statements. MRs differ from each other, both in form as well as in substance, and due to this as well as to their other characteristics, they prove attractive for academic studies interested in official company discourse, more so because they involve documents that are public and retrievable over time, covering a substantial range of typically larger companies from different economic sectors. Driven by these characteristics, the goal of this study was to understand the way the academic world understands and uses the MR. The paper favored an interpretivist viewpoint, but used the triangulation allowed by the use of qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative (statistical, sociometric, and bibliometric analyses) methods. It was concluded that, for the core group of experts who dealt with the document, the MR is biased, incomplete, questionable, unclear, laborious, uncertain, but also useful - in the absence of another -, comprehensive, available, and retrievable over time. And it lends itself to the interest of company directors by increasing their value and at the same time legitimizing their companies, incorporating into discourse the use of contemporary management practices, consistent with the expectations of stakeholders. Finally, it suggests the possibility, unexplored in the articles analyzed, of employing the MR to study the dynamics of the institutionalization of administrative practices among companies in the country. RESUMO Este trabalho lida com as investigações empíricas brasileiras publicadas em periódicos entre 2000 e meados de 2015 e que utilizaram - como fonte de dados - o Relatório da Administração (RA) divulgado pelas empresas de capital aberto junto com as demonstrações financeiras. Os RA são diversos entre si, tanto na substância quanto na forma, constituindo-se, por essa e por suas outras características, em atrativo para pesquisas acadêmicas interessadas no discurso oficial das empresas, ainda mais sendo aqueles documentos públicos e recuperáveis ao longo do tempo, cobrindo uma gama considerável de empresas, tipicamente, de maior porte, de diversos setores econômicos. Compelido por tais atributos, o objetivo deste estudo foi apreender a forma com que a academia científica entende e utiliza o RA. O trabalho privilegiou a ótica interpretativista, mas recorreu à triangulação permitida pelo uso de métodos qualitativos (análise de conteúdo) e quantitativos (análises estatísticas, sociométricas e bibliométricas). Concluiu-se que, para o grupo central de especialistas que lidaram com o documento, o RA é enviesado, incompleto, contestável, dúbio, trabalhoso, incerto, mas também útil - na falta de outro -, abrangente, disponível e recuperável ao longo do tempo; e se presta ao interesse dos diretores de empresas em, simultaneamente, valorizar-se e legitimar as suas companhias, incorporando em discurso o emprego de práticas contemporâneas de gestão, coerentes com as expectativas daqueles destinatários dos RA. Ao final, sugere-se a possibilidade, não explorada nos artigos analisados, de empregar o RA para acompanhar a dinâmica da institucionalização de práticas administrativas entre as empresas do país.

This paper deals with the impact of voluntary strategy disclosure in management reports on the cost of equity capital. Such an impact is not obvious, as investors might consider strategy information as “cheap talk” and therefore ignore it. We analyze a sample of 100 German listed firms from 2002 to 2008, measuring strategy disclosure levels using hand-collected strategy disclosure scores. We find that higher disclosure levels are, on average, associated with lower cost of equity capital even after controlling for overall disclosure quality. The paper contributes to the field by providing evidence that voluntary strategy disclosures in firms’ management reports reduce the information asymmetry component of cost of capital and therefore can be considered as a relevant source of information for investors.