CSR Reporting Practices in Poland

There is an increasing number of companies, which take into account the social, ethical and ecological aspects in their business activities in Poland. Simultaneously, such companies are more and more keen to communicate CSR engagements to their stakeholders. The aim of this chapter is to examine the voluntary CSR reporting practices in Poland among companies (including listed in the RESPECT Index), NGOs, associations, foundations and public institutions in the period of 2005–2017. A content analysis of CSR reports published in CSRinfo database have been applied in order to achieve the research aim. The number of CSR reports in Poland varies from one report in 2005 to 47 in 2017. The analysis embraces 357 CSR reports prepared by 109 organizations from 29 sectors in the last 13 years. The results of the research indicate that CSR disclosures are not very widespread in Poland, and even though evolving, are still in their early stage of development. Furthermore, the content and the quality of CSR reports differ significantly, as well as the level of conformity with the international guidelines and recommendations. Only few companies decided to implement integrated reporting. However, there are some good examples of valuable disclosures to be followed. Undoubtedly, the introduction of Directive 2014/95/EU will be an important challenge for Polish companies. This chapter concludes recommendations on how to improve the credibility and utility of CSR reports published by Polish companies.