Reporting for sustainable development in Poland – the analysis of the actual state of affairs and the proposed directions of changes

The University of Szczecin, The Faculty of Management and Economics of Services, 8 Cukrowa St., 71-004 Szczecin, Poland

^* Corresponding author: hanna.czaja@wzieu.pl

Abstract

The aim of the article is the quantitative and qualitative analysis of non-financial reporting in Poland, with particular consideration given to different aspects of generating useful information for sustainable development. The following considerations concentrate on the analysis of the actual state of affairs and the proposed directions of changes in this scope and, to make the analysis, the following research hypothesis was formulated: legislative changes concerning the obligation to disclose non-financial information by some public trust entities will contribute to the development of reporting non-financial information in Poland. Both the quantitative and qualitative analysis of reporting for sustainable development in Poland confirmed the low level of development. Before the introduction of amendments in Polish legislation, i.e. until the end of 2017, a total number of the voluntarily published non-financial reports amounted to around 300-400, which is by far insufficient. It is estimated that, as a result of the introduced legislative changes, in 2018 the number of prepared reports will increase of about 300, which will have a considerable influence on the development of the Polish reporting system. In the study, the authors applied the following research methods: literature studies, the analysis of legal regulations and secondary sources as well as the method of inductive reasoning and synthesis.