Non-Financial Reporting for SMEs and the Crisis 2019-nCoV

Background

The problem of non-financial accountability of SMEs is a topical and not completely solved problem, both in the theory and in the practice of companies and regulators. At the same time, the pressure on SMEs from other companies is increasing to provide non-financial information about their situation to other, large companies in order to be or in cases when they are their suppliers or subcontractors. Pressure from financial institutions on SMEs to provide non-financial information as a funding requirement is also increasing. (European Commission, 2020a, p. 22).

The Covid 19 crisis allows this issue to be addressed in favor of achieving SMEs sustainability. In this crisis, support programs have been set up for SMEs. The state’s assistance for SMEs is a temporary measure, which in many specific cases turned out to be inadequate. This is understandable due to the lack of experience on the part of modern governments with a crisis of this kind. At the same time, pre-crisis programs and regulations, which have not been changed in view of the Covid crisis, for the transition to a sustainable economy continued to operate.

In this chapter, we focus on the non-financial reporting regulations on corporations and the chance to create non-financial reporting applicable to SMEs in a Covid 19 crisis in order to support their sustainability, not temporary and partial measures in their support.