Financial Analysis Versus Extra-Financial Analysis In Measuring The Performance Of The Sustainable Organization

The internationalization of economy through business delocalization, crises, and turbulences of financial markets, the change of the consumers' profile caused by the emergence of the segment of consumers sensitive to ecological topics, the dematerialization of economy, are some of the phenomena that have determined new visions on economical development at worldwide level. The statement of the principles of sustainable development has nowadays subjected organizations to the critical eye of a society ever more careful about ethical values. Specialized literature mentions the declared bankruptcy of "organizational government" mechanisms based exclusively on strictly financial values, and the necessity to "govern companies" through a multi-partner approach, by reconciling the interests of all the stakeholders, based on social responsibility and on pertinent communication that integrates financial, social, and environmental information. The communication requirements that appeared following these changes make the measurement of organizational performance not exclusively related to the criteria of financial self-analysis, but performed in a global manner, through both financial and non-financial criteria, with the latter derived from possessing immaterial assets and from the social awareness of companies. Therefore, financial analysis is subject to a process of renewal, through the emergence and integration of a new component, the extra-financial analysis. Together, these two types of analysis will be able to provide the financial community answers related to: the economical impact of environmental and social elements, risk factors, social and environmental opportunities, and the causes of the difference between the market value and the economic value of an organization (its goodwill). The difficulty in performing an extrafinancial analysis comes from the lack of homogeneity of the practice in the field, from the fact that the reporting system of sustainable development remains a voluntary approach, from the absence of international norms regarding socially responsible investments, and from the existence of extra-financial indicators that are very poorly normalized.