The Predictors of Non-Financial Reporting Quality in Romanian State-Owned Enterprises

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the predictors of non-financial reporting (NFR) quality by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The predictors under consideration are the quality of the corporate governance system (assessed through a comprehensive index), state ownership concentration, industry sector characteristics, and company size. Our cross-sectional sample consists of data for 63 state-controlled enterprises in Romania for the financial year 2018. The data were collected by hand, using two new instruments: a content analysis scale for NFR according to the European Directive 2014/95/EU and a corporate governance index for SOEs. We classify Romanian SOEs into two clusters: ‘high disclosure – good governance’ and ‘low disclosure – poor governance,’ for which we present the particularities of NFR and corporate governance. In line with agency theory and stakeholder theory, we show that the NFR quality score is positively correlated with the corporate governance score, company size, environmental impact, monopolistic position, and the state’s strategic interest, but negatively correlated with state ownership concentration. Our results also indicate that an increase in the state’s blockholding will negatively affect the quality of the corporate governance system, and will ultimately decrease the quality of the company’s non-financial disclosures. We conclude that the quality of the governance system is a mediating variable between the state’s ownership concentration and the quality of NFR. Our results are helpful to professionals and policymakers in understanding the path toward the material harmonization of reporting practices at a European level for SOEs and private entities alike.