Panthera Inc is a Toronto-based producer of sports apparel, comparable in size to leading multinationals in the industry, such as Nike or Adidas. Challenged by several external stakeholders, Panthera Inc has to reconsider the materiality of information for several aspects of its financial and non-financial performance and align its disclosure strategy accordingly. The case is modular in structure and designed for use by accounting faculties. Part I requires to evaluate the materiality of several notes to the financial statements according to IFRS. In Part II, the company faces external pressure to introduce sustainability reporting, leading it to conduct a materiality analysis according to GRI. Part III sees the management considering the future reporting strategy of Panthera Inc, with Integrated Reporting in line with the IIRC being one possible option. Thus, throughout the case, students are confronted with materiality definitions from different reporting practices and the opportunity to practice their application.

The spread of CSR reporting is accompanied by an increase of external assurance. Firms are employing assurance to signal the credibility of their CSR reports towards stakeholders and improve their reputation. Whether this practice is socially and economically beneficial remains up for debate. The research question of this paper concerns whether external assurance is associated with transparency in CSR reports. A panel data model is used to iestigate the empirical relationship of external assurance and three indicators of transparency: reporting scope as an indicator for completeness, readability as an indicator for clarity and optimism as an indicator for reporting balance, with the latter two proxies derived from text analysis.We find an ambiguous relationship between external assurance and reporting transparency: External assurance is positively related to reporting scope and negatively to optimism and readability. This study adds to the scarce literature on external assurance for CSR reporting. We contribute one of the first iestigations on how external assurance relates to linguistic aspects of CSR reporting transparency.

Die Strategieberichterstattung von Unternehmen ist in der Wissenschaft und in der Führungspraxis ein weitgehend vernachlässigtes Thema, obwohl diese ein entscheidender Erfolgsfaktor für Unternehmen sein kann. Anhand des Wettbewerbs „Iestors‘ Darling“ und der 2018er Ergebnisse wird erläutert, welche Verbesserungspotenziale im Rahmen der Strategieberichterstattung deutscher kapitalmarktorientierter Unternehmen existieren.

The empirical research focuses on strategy disclosure in management reports of German capital market-oriented companies and analyzes whether and in what quality these companies disclose strategy related information. The three main objectives of the research are: (1) to develop a scoring model to measure strategy disclosure; (2) to describe the quality of strategy disclosure of the analyzed companies using a scoring model; and (3) tThe empirical research focuses on strategy disclosure in management reports of German capital market-oriented companies and analyzes whether and in what quality these companies disclose strategy related information. The three main objectives of the research are: (1) to develop a scoring model to measure strategy disclosure; (2) to describe the quality of strategy disclosure of the analyzed companies using a scoring model; and (3) to formulate qualitative principles for strategy disclosure. Disclosure about strategy and strategic objectives were hand-collected through content analysis of management report. The sample comprises 110 German listed firms from 2014 to 2017. Management reports were reviewed on information about strategy analysis, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy control. The results show that the quality level of strategy disclosure of the largest publicly listed German companies is mediocre in all three years. In general, there is a high level of information about the business eironment and opportunities/risks in the strategic context. In contrast, there is little disclosure for changes in strategy and strategic objectives and for the achievement of strategic objectives. The study develops a new comprehensive scoring model to measure voluntary strategy disclosure. Based on the scoring model principles are formulated for good strategy reporting. The results contribute to the previously little researched area of voluntary strategy disclosure in management reports and can be seen as a relevant source of information for iestors and business practitioners.

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