Non-financial key performance indicators: regulations and guidelines versus business practice

Abstract

According to Directive 2014/95/EU, large public interest entities (PIEs) must disclose, i.a., a description of their business model, policies regarding environmental, social and employee matters, as well as non- financial key performance indicators (KPIs). The aim of the paper is to identify the practices of large PIEs operating in Poland as regards non-financial KPIs disclosures and to recognize any regularities among them. Our sample consists of 169 public companies that are required to provide non-financial dis-closures according to the Act on Accounting. The data was hand-collected from non-financial statements (reports) in 2019. The main research method is content analysis. The data was examined using cluster analysis. Research findings indicate that although companies present KPIs in a very diverse way, some regularities can be observed. Two groups of PIEs have been identified: (1) those that reveal KPIs on oper-ational and social activities, and (2) those that report environmental and employee indicators. Further analysis made it possible to identify companies that focus on reporting KPIs on (1) the environment, (2) operating activities, and (3) with generally moderate disclosure levels of non-financial KPIs in operational, environ-mental, and social areas. The results of the research increase knowledge in the field of reporting of non-financial information by large PIEs and are of practical importance for companies themselves, as well as for institutions and organizations which deal with corporate reporting in Poland.

Keywords

• key performance indicators
• Directive 2014/95/EU
• non-financial reporting
• public interest entities