Non-financial reporting by utilities: a structured literature review

Purpose: This paper aims to carry out a comprehensive overview of the academic debate on utilities’ non-financial reporting by highlighting the main issues and the emerging gaps. Design/methodology/approach: Using a structured literature review, this study identifies the state of the art, maps the evolution of non-financial reporting in utility companies and reveals unexplored issues and aspects. Findings: A critical analysis of the existing academic debate shows the development of utilities’ non-financial reporting literature and the focus of this debate. It provides insight into how utilities pay attention to non-financial reporting, what role this plays in corporate actions and relationships with stakeholders and what research gaps need further investigation. Research limitations/implications: This study provides some useful recommendations to practitioners and regulators to be more conscious of the weaknesses and criticalities of utilities’ non-financial reporting and to address them when building such reporting. However, this study considered only articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Originality/value: A comprehensive literature review in the utilities’ non-financial reporting area is timely, given the increase in this type of reporting. The study has an original focus and develops an analytical framework highlighting the peculiarities of utilities.