An Empirical Investigation into the Boundary of Corporate Social Reports and Consolidated Financial Statements

One aspect of the reporting of companies with a group structure that should not be overlooked, in terms of both the social and environmental report and the financial/economic report, has to do with setting the boundary of the report. Disclosure of information about where this boundary has been drawn is of fundamental importance as it serves to identify the very object of the report. Thus the issue is crucial, since the fact that a report may refer to one group of companies rather than another may radically change the given results. This research is based on the conviction that social and environmental reporting should be as integrated as much as possible with financial/economic reporting, so that information about the boundary issue will be consistent among social, environmental and financial reporting. The research presented in the paper was conducted over a time span of three years (2005, 2006 and 2007) and examines the social reporting of companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange who presented social and environmental reports on a voluntary basis over the period under consideration.