**4. Findings**

#### *4.1. Quantitative Findings*

Table 2 depicts the number of publications per journal. We selected journals with two or more articles published on non-financial information regulations because the majority (35 journals) published one study from the selected years. *Sustainability* was the journal with the highest number of publications, with seven papers. It published articles on the issue of non-financial information regulations four years in a row, from 2017 to 2020. Journals published on disclosure laws on non-financial information do not necessarily have to be pure legal journals. The journals include *Accounting in Europe*, *Business Strategy and the Environment*, *Journal of Business Ethics*, *Meditari Accountancy Research* and *Sustainability*. The results implied that the requirement of disclosures on non-financial information is also a concern and of interest to other disciplines beyond the legal fraternity. This trend indicates the importance of disclosing non-financial information and how to manage it to ensure its effectiveness. The findings also highlighted the disciplines interrelating with disclosure laws on non-financial information, including accounting, business management, ethics, and the economy.


**Table 2.** The total number of publications per journal from 2014 to early 2021.

Source: WoS and Scopus database.

Figure 2 shows that the number of papers discussing non-financial information regulations generally increased from year to year. However, only one article was found to be published in 2021, as this review paper covers publications until March 2021. Nevertheless, seeing the trend in 2020, the authors anticipated that more publications would follow on this issue as the year progressed, considering its importance.

**Figure 2.** Number of documents by year.

Findings on the publications according to country can assist other researchers in identifying the researched areas and determining future research areas [43]. Based on the findings in Figure 3, researchers focused on the issue of non-financial information regulations in China, European Union countries in groups, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The publication containing studies on the European Union countries in groups continued every year from 2014 to 2020. However, in 2017, no study related to this matter was conducted in European Union countries. Nevertheless, studies were conducted in European Union member-states individually; Italy, Poland, and Romania, in 2017. The study on European Union countries in 2014 unsurprisingly discussed the integration of sustainability information in corporate reporting. It analyzed how legislation could support integrated reporting [44], considering that the introduction of < IR > Framework was in December 2013. The study conducted in China in 2014 investigated the relationship between regulatory pressures exerted by the government on the breadth of corporate social-responsibility reports [45].

**Figure 3.** Documents by country.

There were two studies conducted in the Netherlands in the year 2014. The studies deliberated on using extraterritoriality and soft law in admonishing companies that disregarded human rights in their operation [46], and examined the effect of the regulatory environment on the application of integrated reporting [44]. The study conducted in Africa in 2014 intended to make companies accountable for false and misleading statements voluntarily published by them [47]. Interestingly, there has been no study on non-financial information regulations in Africa for four years consecutively, after 2014. The most probable reason for this absence lies in the fact that in that most studies conducted in Africa focused on examining the acceptance of integrated reporting. Examples include works that examined first, the development of integrated reporting by companies [48,49]; second, the challenges in preparing integrated reports [50]; third, the potential of integrated reporting in developing value-creation [51]; and fourth, the application of <IR> principles to sustainability disclosures [52], rather than scrutinizing the impacts of regulations on non-financial disclosures. A study conducted in the United Kingdom in the year 2014 focused on the area of corporate accountability regarding human-rights violations [46].

In 2015, the number of publications relating to non-financial information regulation increased to 11. Nevertheless, they then went down to only five publications in 2016, where the studies were conducted in Canada, China, European Union countries in groups, India, and the United States. However, the number of publications relating to this matter surged to 24 in 2019. There were four studies in the United Kingdom and three in both Italy and the United States. Therefore, inspecting the issues explored and discussed by these

studies is interesting. A study in the United Kingdom focused on corporate accountability for labour standards, precisely the Modern Slavery Act 2015 [53]. The subsequent study examined the effects of mandatory disclosure under the Companies Act 2006, Regulations 2013, on disclosed sustainability-information [54]. Another study examined how the United Kingdom adopted the 2014/95/EU Directive into their legal system [55], while Ho and Park [29] investigated the approaches by the United Kingdom regarding ESG matters.

Studies in the United States investigated the disclosure approaches to ESG matters [29], corporate accountability of companies that failed to disclose critical climate-change information [56] and the potential of disclosure mechanisms in ensuring the preservation of human rights by companies [57]. As for the studies in Italy, the researchers explored the level of the legal-system adaption to the requirements of the 2014/95/EU Directive [55], the quality of non-financial information after the implementation of the Legislative Decree 254/2016 [58] and the effects of the introduction of mandatory non-financial-reporting obligations by the 2014/95/EU Directive [27]. It is noteworthy that the studies conducted in the United Kingdom and the United States overlapped in one area relating to corporate accountability, implying concern by the scholars.

Another significant finding presented in Figure 3 is a lack of studies in countries aside from the United Kingdom, the United States, European countries, and China. Only three studies relating to disclosure laws were conducted in Southeast Asian countries. Mohan [59] supports the National Action Plans by Southeast Asian countries generally to take cognizance of the international standards for uniformity among these countries, especially on corporate accountability. A study in Singapore examined the effects of mandatory sustainability-reporting-requirements on the stock market [60]. A study in Indonesia investigated the relationship between government regulations and the extent of sustainability-information disclosure [61]. There has been no study in Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, or Vietnam. Therefore, researching these countries regarding disclosure laws on non-financial information would be of significance and interest.

#### *4.2. Qualitative Findings*

The second part of the findings focuses on the qualitative discoveries derived from the ATLAS.ti version 9 software. Eight themes or patterns have been identified in trying to answer the research question. The themes identified are fiduciary duties of directors, corporate accountability, disclosure approaches, stakeholder engagement, the effectiveness of regulatory interventions, the impact of regulations, Directive 2014/95/EU, and the role of different actors, as presented in Figure 4.

Despite being subject to the same category, there are different groupings for the themes of Directive 2014/95/EU, the impacts of regulations, and regulatory interventions' effectiveness. The basis for such differentiation lies in the fact that Directive 2014/95/EU attracts a specific discussion. On the other hand, the other two themes touched on other disclosure laws, such as the United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the Bribery Act 2010. The articles grouped under the impact of regulations discussed the effect of regulations on different constructs, such as quality of reporting, the quantity of reporting, and corporate behaviour. The articles grouped under the theme of the effectiveness of regulatory interventions discussed the extent or effectiveness of a specific disclosure law in administering non-financial disclosures in corporate reporting. Several articles were grouped under more than one theme. The qualitative findings then proceeded as follows, for the analysis of each theme.

**Figure 4.** The patterns and trends in the literature on non-financial information regulations. Source: Authors' interpretation from the documents synthesized from WoS and Sco-pus database.
