NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING OF TOP COMPANIES IN TURBULENT ENVIRONMENT

ABSTRACT

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.