Analysing the Link Between CSR Reporting and Financial Performance Variables of Belgrade Stock Exchange Companies

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting has been subject of various discussions of academicians and accounting practitioners. Although the importance of CRS reporting is not under question, the quality of disclosed non-financial information is still under review. In the light of the new Serbian Law on Accounting (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia 73/2019) and EU Directive 2014/95 requirements regarding non-financial information, this article investigates the state of non-financial reporting development in Serbian companies in the pre-EU Directive period in order to give suggestions to policymakers how to establish and structure the implementation of the EU Directive and expected challenges on this path. The current state of development of non-financial activities is measured by using content analysis and by creating a non-financial reporting index, namely the CSR index for the Serbian companies listed at Belgrade Stock Exchange. CSR index has been corelated with accounting variables (size of the company, auditor type (non/Big 4), revenue and financial results) in order to get deeper understanding of its value drivers. Serbian companies, listed as large, audited by Big 4 and with better financial performance variables, are companies with the higher value of the CSR index and have a higher quality of non -financial reporting. Big companies can serve as a benchmark for the rest of the companies in the economy, but also those companies will have fewer challenges in the EU non-financial Directive implementation in the post-Directive period. Therefore, Serbian policymakers should focus their attention and implementation procedures on the rest of the economy struggling with the non-financial reporting.