Foreign capital as a determinant of the non-financial reporting development in insurance companies of the Visegrad Group countries

Abstract

Insurance companies are institutions of public trust, and this affects their corporate culture, strategies and management systems. One of the image concerns is reporting on socially responsible actions in non-financial reports. The prime objective of the research presented in this paper is to analyze the dependence between the level of non-financial reporting in the insurance market and the share of foreign capital, measured based on the market size of foreign insurance companies compared to all insurance companies, and the share of foreign insurance companies in non-financial reporting. The study concerned insurance markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, and the overall market of the Visegrad Group countries. The theoretical section provides a review of the literature and applicable legislation to indicate the causes of non-financial reporting by insurance companies. Next, the correlation was used to determine the relationship between the variables studied, the regression method was applied to determine the impact of the variables studied, in particular foreign capital, on the level of non-financial reporting. A model was constructed, and the results of its estimation were analyzed. Analysis of the data demonstrated that the greater the share of foreign capital, the higher the level of non-financial reporting. The study results indicate that the share of foreign insurance companies can become a determinant in the development of non-financial reporting. © Marzanna Lament, Blanka Jarolímová, 2021