WEB communication of non-financial information in the companies of four European stock indices

Abstract

Both the UN 2030 Agenda and Directive 2014/95 / EU have promoted the disclosure of information on non-financial indicators and make it mandatory for all companies and public interest entities (EIP). Therefore, the companies of the European stock indexes must communicate the information recognized by the acronyms ESG, the environmental (Environmental), the social (Social) and the Governance (Governance). In addition, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) allow the dissemination of said information through the websites and its communication to stakeholders. Based on this premise, this research aims to evaluate the web disclosure of non-financial information by companies of four European stock indices (IBEX35, AEX25, DAX30 and CAC40) by means of an exploratory, descriptive and analytical study of ESG information and through a regulatory compliance analysis. The results reveal the existence of scattered, incomplete information, disclosed in heterogeneous measures and with important differences between European companies in terms of disclosure on websites, as well as the possible margin to improve it and the limitations regarding the scope of verifiability of the ESG.