NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING OF TOP COMPANIES IN TURBULENT ENVIRONMENT

Nowadays, the non-financial reporting of companies shows more and more interest both among companies and investors, who are no longer interested only in the reported figures. However, the pandemic period also left its mark among large companies. Our research concerns the global top 50 companies and the non-financial reports published by them before, during and after the pandemic generated by the novel coronavirus. The purpose of our paper is to illustrate how these entities present the story and the CSR actions taken during a time when most companies struggled to survive. To achieve these objectives, we used qualitative and quantitative research. Namely, we analyzed the entities' non-financial reports, to identify their social responsibility actions and we used the NVivo program in order to highlight which are the most representative words used in non-financial reporting in the three analyzed moments, namely before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic The results of the study reflect that in a turbulent environment, companies tend to present less complex reports and use more ambiguous tone. Also, our research highlights the fact that CSR activities undertaken ware greatly reduced during the pandemic period.

Implicaţii financiare ale pandemiei Covid-19. O analiză empirică DuPont privind valoarea adăugată economică raportată de ţările europene dezvoltate

Pandemia recentă cauzată de noul coronavirus a generat diverse preocupări legate de vulnerabilitatea financiară şi rezilienţa entităţilor în faţa unor şocuri puternice. În acest context, cel mai bun mod de a obţine rezilienţa financiară este identificarea factorilor de dezvoltare economică durabilă, ce se rezumă, în principal, la strategiile concepute ce vizează crearea de valoare adăugată pentru acţionari. Modul în care sunt alocate resursele firmelor indică premisele pentru atingerea potenţialului de creare de valoare adăugată. Acest studiu reflectă o imagine generală a capacităţii firmelor de a crea valoare adăugată în vremuri marcate de incertitudine. În acest scop, a fost efectuată o analiză factorială, având în vedere modelul DuPont, ce are la bază un e&scedilde firme care provin din economii europene bine dezvoltate. De asemenea, pentru o mai bună înţelegere a contribuţiei fiecărui indicator financiar al modelului de analiză financiară DuPont, în cadrul studiului s-a estimat un arbore de decizie CHAID. Rezultatele arată efecte generalizate asupra indicatorului de valoare adăugată economică calculată, indiferent de ţara din care provin firmele luate în considerare în analiză sau de domeniul în care îşi desfăşoară activitatea. De asemenea, rezultatele subliniază faptul că în anul 2020 majoritatea firmelor raportează rezultate semnificativ mai bune în termeni de valoare adăugată economică. O parte esenţială a discuţiei este legată de impactul economiilor realizate asupra costului capitalului economic.Alternate :The recent COVID-19 pandemic has raised various concerns related to firms' financial vulnerabilities and resilience. The best way to achieve financial resilience is to identify drivers of sustainable economic development, mainly resumed to strategies designed aiming for shareholders' value creation. The way firms' resources are allocated indicate the premises for reaching the potential of value creation. This study provides a general picture of firms' capacity to create value add. For this purpose, was performed a factorial analysis, considering a DuPont model. The analysis is performed on a sample of firms originating from well-developed European economies, considering a four-based DuPont factorial model analysis. For a better understanding of the contribution of each financial ratio of the DuPont financial analysis model, a CHAID decision tree was estimated. The results show generalized effects on the calculated economic value-added indicator, no matter the country firms considered in the analysis are originated from, or the industry the operate in. However, in 2020, most of the firms have reported significantly better results in terms of economic value-added, so, an essential part of the discussion is related to the impact of savings made on the cost of the economic capital.

Psychological and Behavior Changes of Consumer Preferences During COVID-19 Pandemic Times: An Application of GLM Regression Model.

The life we considered normal was disrupted due to measures taken to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Quarantine, isolation, social distancing, and community containment have influenced consumer behavior and contributed to the rapid development of e-commerce. In pandemic times, even those unfamiliar with the online environment have had to adapt and make acquisitions in this new manner. Hence, we focused our research on measuring the perception of consumers on how the restrictive measures imposed to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus had influenced their decision to buy a product or service from the online environment, given that purchases are highly subjective and influenced by cumulative effects of economic, social, psychological and behavioral factors. Our paper comes with additional insights from the literature. It adds empirical evidence that reveals that the number of transactions and the value per transaction increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights that online purchases will continue as such even after the pandemic.

Telemunca în sfera auditului financiar în contextul generat de pandemia COVID-19

În contextul socio-economic sensibil generat de pandemia COVID-19, telemunca a reprezentat, pentru multe domenii, o modalitate de a continua desfăşurarea activităţii respectând măsurile impuse de legislaţie pentru combaterea răspândirii noului Coronavirus. Pe de o parte, telemunca oferă o flexibilitate în stabilirea programului de lucru, elimină timpii de deplasare înspre şi de la locul de muncă şi permite atragerea angajaţilor competenţi de pe orice colţ al globului, prin intermediul digitalizării. Pe de altă parte însă, desfăşurarea activităţii profesionale de acasă reprezintă o provocare. Timpii necesari pentru transferul activităţii în spaţiul virtual, respectiv pregătirea suplimentară necesară pentru utilizarea tehnologiilor informaţionale inovatoare pot diminua eficienţa şi pot afecta echilibrul dintre muncă şi viaţa extraprofesională. Focusul lucrării de faţă este asupra profesiei de audit, profesie care a trebuit să regândească auditarea de la distanţă astfel încât să respecte măsurile de restricţie, dar în acelaşi timp să evite afectarea calităţii misiunilor de audit. Prin intermediul chestionarului diseminat în rândul profesioniştilor practicieni, membri ai CAFR, am identificat percepţia auditorilor financiari din România cu privire la variabilele care influenţează eficienţa muncii de audit desfăşurată în "noul normal" şi măsura în care telemunca poate deveni o practică în viitor în misiunile de audit financiar.Alternate abstract:In the sensitive socio-economic context generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking was, in many fields, a way to continue the activity while complying to the measures imposed by law in order to fight the spread of the new Coronavirus. On the one hand, teleworking offers flexibility in setting the work schedule, eliminates travelling time to and from the worksite and allows to attract competent employees from all over the world, by means of digitalisation. On the other hand, working from home is a challenge. The time required to transfer the activity in the virtual space, and the additional training necessary for the use of innovative information technologies can reduce efficiency and affect the work-life balance. This paper focuses on the audit profession, which had to rethink remote auditing so as to comply with the restrictive measures, but at the same time to avoid affecting the quality of audit missions. The questionnaire distributed among professional practitioners, members of the CFAR, helped us identify the perception of Romanian financial auditors on the variables influencing the efficiency of the audit work carried out in the "new normal" and the extent to which teleworking could become a practice in future financial audit missions.