School of Finance – HSE University

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On October 14, 2020, professors of the School of Finance Kuzubov Sergey and Evdokimova Maria have prepared an article based on the results of many years of research on the topic ‘Non-Financial Report Issuing and Assurance in the BRICS countries: an Empirical Investigation of Determinants and Effects’.

The researchers consider non-financial information disclosure in three aspects: the role of the board of directors in initiating disclosure in accordance with both the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Integrated Report (IR); the quality of the information disclosed: the likelihood of confirming the GRI report; disclosures of non-financial information and the impact of non-financial statements on the cost of capital, cost of debt and weighted average cost of capital (WACC).

It has been found that presence of women in the board of directors and the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) / Sustainability Committee increases the likelihood of a non-financial report release. In addition, it was confirmed that the CSR / Sustainable Development Committee has a positive effect on the likelihood of independent assurance of non-financial reporting. The researchers have found out that the issuance of a non-financial statement reduces the company's debt value, cost of equity and WACC, but significant effect was not revealed. It was identified 5 industries where the cost of equity and debt capital declined after the release of non-financial statements: energy, industry, information technology, healthcare and materials. Moreover, according to the analysis, companies that issue non-financial statements have lower growth rates in the cost of equity.
On June 25, 2020, the research working group of the Center for Interdisciplinary Intellectual Capital Research held an online meeting where the text of the guidelines developed by the World Intellectual Capital Initiative (WICI) for CFOs was discussed.

These guidelines were designed to provide a clearer understanding of the role of intangible assets in value creation for CFOs. As a result of the meeting, the research working group has formulated its suggestions for additions and improvement of the manual content quality before its targeted publication. These proposals were sent directly to WICI on June 30th.

In the next academic year, in addition to the work of the research group itself, the Center will conduct scientific and practical research by student teams in two areas: ‘Methods for measuring intellectual capital and best practices in advanced corporate reporting’ and ‘Audit of non-financial reporting’. Student teams include students from Russia, the CIS countries, China and the Middle East of different years of study - from the second year of Bachelor's to Master's degrees. New scientific and practical research will be carried out in both Russian and English.

On June 25, 2020, the research working group of the Center for Interdisciplinary Intellectual Capital Research held an online meeting where the text of the guidelines developed by the World Intellectual Capital Initiative (WICI) for CFOs was discussed.