Nowadays, the buzzwords for organizations to be prepared for the competitive environment’s challenges are sustainability, digitalization, resilience and agility. However, despite the fact that these concepts have come into common use at the level of both scholars and practitioners, the nature of the relation between sustainability and resilience has not yet been sufficiently clarified. Above all, there is still no evidence of what factors determine greater resilience to change in an organization that also wants to be more sustainable, especially in times of crisis and discontinuity. This research aims to explore from a theoretical point of view, through the construction of a conceptual model, how these dimensions interact to help the business to become strategically resilient by leveraging digitization and agility as enablers. A new view of resilience arises from the study, which goes beyond the well-known ability to absorb or adapt to adversity, to also include a strategic attribute that could help companies capture change-related opportunities to design new ways of doing business under stress. A key set of strategically agile processes, enabled by digitalization, creates strategic resilience that also includes a proactive, opportunity-focused attitude in the face of change. Strategic resilience to lead to organizational sustainability must be understood as a multi-domain concept quite similar to the holistic view of sustainability: environment, economy and society. Finally, the research offers a set of propositions and a theoretical framework that can be empirically validated.

This study investigates and measures the impact of intangibles on firm growth. We distinguish between internally and externally generated intangible assets and analyse the role played by firm size, measuring if it can alter the relationship between intangibles and performance. In doing so, we combine the resource-based view of the firm -as a cornerstone for this survey -with accounting principles. In particular, we focus on intangible 'assets' recorded in firms' books according to international accounting standards. The empirical analysis explores a proprietary database of 294 listed companies headquartered in Europe. Findings confirm that intangibles are crucial in fostering firm performance, show that this effect varies with firm size and that an additional boost is created by externally generated intangibles.

This paper aims to analyze the value relevance of financial statements prepared according to International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The study focuses on two of the different sets of accounts presented by companies: the parent company financial statement and the consolidated version. We have developed a panel data from a sample of Italian listed companies by collecting accounting figures from consolidated and separate financial statements, since Italy mandates listed companies to prepare both reports according to IAS/IFRS. Using an Ohlson price model, we have tested our hypotheses, performing regressions of share price or market capitalization on book value and earning. Firstly, we compared the consolidated financial reports' value relevance with that of the separate financial statements. The evidence suggests that, although the separate reports also have a high value relevance, this does not provide investors with additional information. Secondly, we investigated the value relevance of the consolidated financial statements alone, by focusing on the specific nature of the group's equity book value and net income. Both are made up of two components: one referring to the parent company and the other attributable to non-controlling interests (NCI) as a consequence of the presence of minority shareholders within the group. We analyzed the value relevance of group financial statements, taking into account the presence/absence of minority shareholders and their portion of equity and net income. By dividing groups with minority shareholders from groups without these, we verified whether the presence of non-controlling interests can affect the value relevance of consolidated reports, and whether NCI equity and net income are value-relevant. In fact, all modes used to test value relevance are based only on the parent company equity and net income, leaving aside that group equity and net income are divided into two parts. The evidence suggests that NCI financial values slightly increase the fit of the model, and that NCI equity and net income are statistically significant in affecting the market capitalization of companies.

This paper aims at emphasizing some drawbacks arising from the alternatives consolidation approaches allowed by the IFRS 3 revised 2008. We develop our analysis working on simulated figures to demonstrate that subsidiaries with similar underlying economics might have a different impact on the calculation of the group equity and income. That is merely due to the accounting treatment chosen by the parent company. This fact does not respect the consistency among values within consolidated financial statements and causes lack of comparability among consolidated financial statements prepared by different reporting entities. Since nowadays there is not any Standard requiring disclosure suitable for the comprehension of this matter, we suggest which relevant disclosure should be provided to better understand the composition of the group results

Based on a sample of European listed companies, the present study has investigated value relevance of consolidated financial statements prepared according to IASs/IFRSs and whether presence or absence of non-controlling interests is relevant to capital markets investors. Several previous studies deal with value relevance of consolidated annual reports, but none of them considered the influence of non-controlling interests on investor’s choices. To analyze if and how minority shareholders presence can affect investors’ choices, we have analyzed the value relevance of consolidated financial statements with minorities and, on the other side, annual reports from groups without non-controlling interests. To do it, we have used a valuation framework based on Ohlson theory and we have tested our hypothesis through an Ohlson derived price model. Findings provide evidence that consolidated financial statements prepared according to IASs/IFRSs are value-relevant. Moreover, contrary to expectations, financial information related to non-controlling interests is not so significant to investors’ choices.

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The development of sustainability reporting has accelerated in recent years (Turzo et al., 2022) due to the activities of numerous actors. The United Nations (UN) adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has given an added impetus to financial reporting as companies (Pedersen, 2018) are shown as one of the main players that can sensitively contribute to the achievement of these goals. To support this, a set of indicators on sustainable development (Mair et al., 2018) was developed for implementation in non-financial reporting under a joint of International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) project. This study concentrates on the effectiveness of the core indicators chosen by UNCTAD as showcased in the ISAR-UNCTAD sessions from 2017 to 2022. Case studies were conducted across various industries, geographies, and company sizes, aiming to evaluate the implementation of these indicators. Most companies could report on most core indicators, although challenges in consistent measurement, comparability, and reporting on environmental and social indicators were observed. The analysis concluded that while most indicators could be reported, providing further technical guidance, and building capacity at all levels is crucial for effective SDG reporting and realizing the 2030 Agenda. As companies become more familiar with the core indicators, the process of preparing sustainability reporting based on the guidance on core indicators (GCI) becomes easier.