Fostering sustainability mindset: How non-financial disclosure and corporate risk assessment may drive ESG value creation - Finanziamento dell’Unione Europea – NextGenerationEU – missione 4, componente 2, investimento 1.1.

The proposed project aims to enhance companies' ability in the European Union (EU) to improve their performance in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) dimensions and mitigate the associated risks. In particular, it aims to develop models and instruments for increasing corporate accountability. The project's theoretical and practical relevance can be related to two initiatives undertaken at the EU level. The first is the Next Generation EU (NGEU) recovery fund, initiated in 2020 to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic impact, which authorizes the European Commission to borrow funds on the capital markets to address economic and social damages. Second, on April 2021, the European Commission released a proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) that amends and extends the sustainability reporting requirements introduced by the EU Directive 2014/95/EU (EUD). In the light of these initiatives, there is a need for scholars and practitioners to develop a better understanding of the mechanisms effectively implementable at the EU level to induce responsible corporate behaviour and stimulate long-term value creation