Social Media in Communicating about Social and Environmental Issues—Non-Financial Reports in Poland

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to analyze the dissemination of social reports among entrepreneurs in order to determine the number of reporting organizations and examples in which Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) areas enterprises report. We analyze the dissemination of social reports among entrepreneurs in Poland and determine the number of reporting organizations and examples in which CSR companies report. This work is a guide for entrepreneurs in Poland to build strategies and activities for transparency and communicating good practice. One of the research goals was to identify and evaluate communication activities with stakeholders in terms of responsible activities, social and environmental. The data analysis comes from a detailed literature review and the Responsible Business Forum (FOB) Reports database for 2008–2019 in Poland. The results of the survey show that many entrepreneurs in Poland, representing small, medium-sized (SME), and even large enterprises underestimate the importance of socially responsible activities. Entrepreneurs communicate with stakeholders to a limited extent and are not informed about good practices. The vast majority of the surveyed enterprises, especially large ones, prepare social reports, which result from obligation: requirements of Directive 2014/95/EU. The SME sector shows a lack of knowledge and uses individual marketing communication tools to a limited extent, limiting itself to advertising activities (very few companies prepare social reports). The article is a practical tip for enterprises showing the impact of business on changes towards sustainable development. Originality/value lies in the fact that the article presents selected research results on various aspects related to social reporting and communicating social and environmental activities to stakeholders.

1. Introduction

Generational changes among stakeholders, especially those characteristic of people born after 2000, consistently force changes in business models. The role of business in achieving the goals of sustainable development is of great importance [1,2]. The strength of the business is, on the one hand, the implementation of innovative green technologies and, on the other, involvement in shaping the consumer attitudes in environmental education among young people and society as a whole; these indirect actions aim to preserve biodiversity [3]. Economic growth alone is not enough, and social, and environmental progress is also needed. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are becoming a source of value for companies. New products, services, technologies, and distribution channels are being developed [4]. The Sustainable Development Goals are an incentive to work with suppliers who adhere to the highest standards of ethics and sustainable development. The goals of sustainable development become the basis for political decisions, and this creates opportunities for stable development for companies that base their strategies on SDGs [5]. The goals of sustainable development are the possibility of cooperation with other companies and organizations, multilateral partnerships, and strengthening relations with stakeholders around important business topics. Achieving goals also means stronger ties with customers and employees and a greater commitment to the issues of sustainable development. Following the goals of SDGs for an organization means higher efficiency in combination with new employee competencies and greater commitment [6]. Unfortunately, in Poland, there is still a lack of understanding of the idea of CSR and SDGs by the management and perceiving these activities as sponsorship [7]. We live in a time when the issue of leadership is one of the most important in building corporate strategies. Managers’ attitudes are of great importance in creating sustainable business models [7,8,9]. According to the Responsible Business Forum in Poland Report, more and more managers believe that environmental and social issues are becoming more important [7,10]. The emphasis on accountability is exerted by the customers themselves, whose requirements are increasing. Over time, the belief that CSR had a decisive influence on the functioning of the business has become established in Poland. Still, few managers perceive a competitive advantage in perceiving their company as socially responsible [11]. On the other hand, the key issues of climate change for the future of the world result in very rapid changes in legislation, primarily in the EU, imposing additional obligations on companies; for example, regarding production or non-financial reporting [7,10]. Failure to understand these changes on the part of managers may turn out to be a loss of market position, the more as changes in business models constitute a long-term process [12]. Also, the non-financial report is a process in building a dialogue with stakeholders, it requires the involvement of managers and people to define specific information [13].

The main purpose of the article is to analyze the dissemination of social reports among entrepreneurs, to determine the number of reporting organizations and examples in which companies from the CSR areas in Poland report.

• The analysis covers the number of organizations reporting in the Responsible Business Forum (FOB) reports and their long-term practices and the implementation of socially responsive practices in the long term, in this case related to the analyzed period 2008–2019.
• It was verified which social media platforms entrepreneurs most often use to inform about good practices.

The article is organized as follows. The first part of the article briefly outlines the motivation for this research and the purpose of this article. The second section provides a very brief theoretical background, integrated framework of factors affecting CSR, sustainability, and communication about thought social media and social reports. In the third section, the authors present the description of methods and data used. The next sections consist of the communication about Corporate Social Responsibility towards Sustainable Development. The paper ends with the discussion and concluding remarks.

2. Theoretical Background

Corporate Social Responsibility reporting is the regular disclosure by companies of information on the environmental and social impacts of their activities and on the policies deployed to prevent them. The term reporting refers to both the process of disseminating information and the report produced. Reports can vary in structure and content, ranging from sustainable reports to citizenship or environmental reports. Social media is the opportunity to submit an opinion about various topics. The role of recommendations communicated via social networking platforms is becoming stronger. In practice, enterprises in Poland approach CSR and SDGs with varying degrees of commitment and can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of leaders, entrepreneurs who improve practices and report socially every year. This is due to the commitment of the management board, which notices social benefits, assesses risks, and relates them to the vision and strategy for the future. The second group is made up of unconvinced observers who do not have the knowledge, beliefs, and do not see the benefits in social reports [13,14]. However, experts point out that generational changes and the pandemic have resulted in “no postponement”. Entrepreneurs who will not report on non-financial issues or, in the current reality, do not take into account the impact of companies on the climate in their business decisions, will backtrack and probably gradually lose their position in the competitive market [14,15]. It is becoming more and more common to believe that the implementation of long-term economic results and strategies is possible only with the simultaneous creation of appropriate relations with employees, the environment, and stakeholders [16]. It is therefore questioning whether and to what extent enterprises can inform their stakeholders in a correct, understandable, and useful way about CSR-related activities and the measurable results of these activities [17]. The authors of B. Yoon, Y. Chung [18] emphasize that social responsibility itself is a complex concept that does not ensure an appropriate balance between economic and social interests, but CSR tools can be effectively used on the way to achieving the goals of sustainable development. If CSR is associated with practices that should enable meeting stakeholder expectations, they require monitoring and even measuring the impact of actions on competitiveness and goodwill. Even more so, the organization’s corporate social responsibility reports should provide information on:

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what are the costs of CSR activities incurred by the corporation,

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how CSR activities affect the company’s financial results,

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whether the costs related to CSR activities do not exceed the benefits of this activity (for the market, the environment, society).

Social responsibility is an incentive to make decisions and concrete actions towards the implementation of sustainable development goals [8,17]. Also, some entrepreneurs who made their debut with their organizations in 2018 in the competition organized by the Responsible Business Forum for social reports confirmed that since non-financial information and the impact of enterprises on sustainable development will be obligatory soon, this process should be started earlier, and data prepared, so that they can be better used in the future [7,14]. Growing stakeholder awareness increases the demand for information on what companies do for the market, society, the environment, and employees [19]. The growing importance of non-financial issues, including social problems (low wages, social inequalities, child labor, poor working conditions) and environmental problems (air pollution, resource shrinkage, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change) cause the current business models to be seriously questioned. The increased policy of informing stakeholders about the activities of enterprises causes interest in the preparation of social reports [19]. The most commonly used terms include CSR reporting, social and environmental reporting, sustainable development reporting, Environmental, Social & Corporate Governance (ESG) standards, as well as social accounting, social and environmental transparency, sustainability transparency, social audit, and social control. Due to the variety and specificity of enterprises, it is difficult to define the full range of indicators allowing for measuring the effects of CSR [17,20]. In practice, compulsory non-financial reporting plans have been and are assessed differently. Reporting is described as being less detailed than social reporting. Experts point out that even GRI reporting does not provide adequate information and allows you to avoid sensitive issues [17]. In the business reality, indicators, measures, techniques, tools, or instruments increase information transparency and make it possible to compare CSR practices, and also help reduce the risk of making mistakes in ethical matters. The non-financial report should allow the understanding of the strategic context of the organization, why the enterprise exists, what its business model is, and how it creates value through financial and non-financial assets [16,20,21]. Globally as well, Non-Financial Reporting has long attracted the attention of practitioners and researchers. However, in the past, there have been very few initiatives mandating this kind of reporting. Recently, the quality and comparability of the disclosure have become key aspects due to a growing number of investors and financial analysts requesting reliable information on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) aspects to support their decision-making process. The aspect of non-financial information and the impact of enterprises on the market, environment, and society is of primary interest to customers. Social media is one of the fastest and most effective ways to share information. the increased use of social media has prompted many companies to take more interest in social media for various reasons, from communication to advanced networks or providing information, and also for non-financial reasons. Therefore, companies began to attach importance not only to websites, but also to interaction on social media. In today’s business context, companies report on good practices and promote them on social media. Social media is used as an information delivery platform to provide financial and non-financial information for evaluation investors and other stakeholders interested in investing activities.

3. Materials and Methods

This study focuses primarily on the formal implementation of the non-financial information (NFI) in organizations that are not required to prepare it. A stable economy develops financial markets and investors that pay attention to non-financial information [22]. The data comes from the Responsible Business Forum (FOB) Reports database for 2008–2019 in Poland [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34]. The edition of FOB Reports contains examples of good practices that were reported by 214 companies (2019), including 55 companies from the micro, small, and medium sectors. The reports contain nearly 2000 CSR activities consisting of two groups of practices. The first is new practices, listed for the first time in the report. The second group consists of long-term practices, already published in previous editions of the report, but implemented in the last year. In the year 2019, there were 983 initiatives in the field of corporate responsibility. The activities of enterprises in the Reports were also verified through websites and social media. Additionally, it is complemented by analyses and data from the Global Reporting Initiative database [35], media broadcasts, and corporate websites, including social media. The data were analyzed in three steps. First, the involvement of enterprises in good practices and communication about them based on social reports was examined. At this stage, the number of enterprises involved in the FOB initiative and the number of good practices reported by enterprises were verified. Secondly, innovative examples of good practice included in the reports from 2008–2019 in Poland were analyzed. The third step was to analyze information on good practices and the transmission of data and information from social reports on social media. Social media affects all aspects of human life [36]; for example, in 2019 Facebook had over 18 million users in Poland and over 2.5 billion worldwide. Data from the report indicate that 2.9 billion people use at least one of the company’s core products (Facebook or Instagram) each month [36,37]. For the work, enterprises, their good practices, and communication about them on websites and social media were verified. This work is the beginning of a thorough analysis of specific companies, their non-financial reports, and the use of social media in communicating about company practices.

4. Communication about Corporate Social Responsibility towards Sustainable Development

4.1. Non-Financial Reporting as a Sign of Growing Importance Stakeholders

Limiting the study of enterprises only to data from the financial statements may contribute to a failure to notice threats or opportunities in the environment of the entity conducting business activity [38,39]. The social report is a non-financial communication tool. There is currently increasing market pressure to also report non-financial issues [40]. Enterprises interact with different groups of stakeholders. All groups of stakeholders, their expectations, or tasks are important elements determining the direction of development of enterprises [41]. By functioning in the environment, they become the subjects of interaction in contacts with stakeholders [42]. A proactive strategy is about communicating with stakeholders and engaging with social issues. Entrepreneurs engaged in communication set strategic goals and communicate more willingly and their activities are more transparent [42,43]. In public opinion, the business has the strongest influence to lead change, supporting the community in organizations and society. Due to numerous critical comments regarding the perception of socially responsible initiatives undertaken by enterprises as marketing or PR, their formal summary in the form of a report becomes an important communication tool [44]. Actions can be justified with the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the organization, undertaken on the path of sustainable development. Legal and information needs mobilize entities to present non-financial data, taking into account international guidelines and standards, including GRI, ISO 26000, Global Compact, OECD, AA1000, or the Polish SIN (Non-Financial Information Standard) [45,46]. The development of IT systems meant that the currently functioning relationship management systems have become a standard in business activities in Western European countries. Relationship management systems are considered to be something standard in Western business, but they are also being increasingly appreciated in the Polish market [43]. This is due to the growing awareness of the impact of caring for good customer relations on the sales results of enterprises. According to reports [45], enterprises in Poland most often engage in CSR activities and communicate about them because they want to strengthen their image on the market (Figure 1).

The development of CSR in Poland is strongly influenced by European Union guidelines and legislative solutions [47,48]. It should be emphasized that the managers emphasize the still low interest in CSR matters, the lack of trust in the effectiveness of CSR, the lack of knowledge in this field and the people and department responsible for CSR [49]. Two-way communication with stakeholders is also important. The technological development at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries also opened up new possibilities for communication. It was quickly discovered that the Internet provides extraordinary socialization opportunities, which in turn resulted in the rapid development of social media, attracting users from all over the world. The Internet has become a new sphere of life where many people are trying to recreate themselves [50]. Social networks are becoming more and more present in our daily lives. According to the Global Web Index, digital consumers spend an average of 2 h a day on social media and messaging [51]. Social media affects all aspects of human life, including leisure and tourism. In 2019, Facebook had over 18 million users in Poland [36] and over 2.5 billion worldwide, which proves the scale of this phenomenon. Data from the report show that 2.9 billion people use at least one company’s core products (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram) every month [37]. Users are often unaware of the great influence they exert on their decisions. In Poland, entrepreneurs, on the other hand, communicate to act CSR most often via a website or social media [45] (Figure 2).

In practice, entrepreneurs most often communicate about CSR activities via the company’s website, then use social media. It is positive that fewer entrepreneurs do not communicate in general, but it still accounts for about 16% of enterprises in Poland. FOB reports and all events devoted to the announcement of the Report “Responsible Business in Poland 2020. Good Practices” are conducted online, which also allows for a wide audience.

4.2. Worldwide Non-Financial Reporting

There is a dynamic growth trend in the publication of non-financial reports worldwide, especially for large corporations. Data from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) [35] database indicate the ever-growing popularity of non-financial reports, including the publication of social and environmental information. The upward trend is observed in all regions of the world (Figure 3). Year by year, non-financial reporting is gaining importance, and managers are trying to make the quality of reports better and more transparent. However, for many companies, the topic of communicating non-financial data is still incomprehensible and new. The attitude of management not engaging in the practice of transparency can become a difficult task, especially when non-financial statements become required by law.

Non-financial reporting reduces the information risk about the activities of enterprises and reduces the imperfections of financial reporting [44,45]. Social reporting is conducive to creating good relations with stakeholders [52], increases the company’s recognition, contributes to strengthening the organizational culture and employee involvement, and also builds customer loyalty. Some studies also suggest a positive impact of non-financial reporting on the results and goodwill [53]. Taking into account several examples of countries such as, for example, Romania, Great Britain, France, and Belgium, the regulations on non-financial reports have been modified, similarly to Poland. Unlike Romania, which adopted the copying method, the UK, France, and Belgium preferred to reformulate this obligation. A similar wording used domestically may lead to an assumption of convergence between the Member States. These countries similarly allow companies to use different types of reporting frameworks. However, there are more subtle differences. The UK and France apply the obligation using the “if” clauses, which gives companies the freedom to decide whether to adopt the framework. Belgium mandates the use of a reporting framework or standards, but only allows international or European standards, revealing no nation-al ones that are allowed in France and the UK. No commitments have been made in Bulgaria. This lack of regulation means that businesses cannot rely on a well-established framework either. This choice is in line with little local knowledge of CSR and the reduction of adaptation costs of local companies; however, it generates problems in terms of understandability and comparability (stakeholders may have difficulty reading unstructured narratives). Finally, Romania did not make any adjustments, thus suggesting that companies in this country may somehow be aware of and prepared for CSR reporting. Comparison between legislation in Member States where CSR has played a role for a long time limited role (Romania, Bulgaria) and countries with CSR traditions are much better developed (France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom) suggest that these countries share at least a common understanding of the meaning of disclosure of non-financial information [54]. The Non-financial Directive 2014/95/EU (NFD) has created some convergence where the regulations are consistent on certain aspects. Since the Directive NFD allowed entities to base on both national and international frameworks when reporting non-financial information, there is a diversity of approaches, from “National frameworks” [55], to “International frame-works” [56] and “Other frameworks” [57]. Many papers are referring strictly to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the most representative and famous international initiative in the field of sustainability reporting [58], and also the most popular worldwide [55]. For this reason, papers are dealing only with the GRI framework [55] and also papers mentioning or presenting GRI alongside other frameworks [59,60]. A separate group refers to studies using GRI in empirical research [61]. Still, some papers did not mention any framework [62] in their debate concerning the Directive 2014/95/EU.

4.3. Social Reporting in Poland

In Poland, over the years 2008–2019, the number of enterprises that voluntarily prepare social reports has increased [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34]. In 2000, the Responsible Business Forum Association (FOB) was established, which to this day is one of the largest organizations dealing with the concept of corporate social responsibility comprehensively. Since its inception, the association has been preparing Responsible Business in Poland Reports, which show that every year more and more companies implement strategies and implement CSR projects in Poland [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34] (Figure 4).

Over ten years, the number of companies voluntarily submitting their reports increased. The arguments as to why entrepreneurs prepare social reports, even though it is not obligatory, were: increased acceptance by the environment, increased interest from contractors, increased sales, increased interest of potential employees, improved image, and increased popularity and presence in the media. The attitude and commitment of the managers were of great importance [13,15,47].

The most common good practices in the field of social responsibility according to the ISO 26000 Standard were those in the area of social involvement and development of the local community, work practices, and the natural environment [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34] (Figure 5). The fewest best practices were in the area of fair practices, consumer issues, and human rights. Fair Operating Practices most often concerned activities related to market education and good practices regarding relations with suppliers. Codes of ethics and dialogue with the company’s suppliers are becoming more and more important. Also, the least frequently represented practices in the field of human rights more and more indicate the trend of companies opening to diversity, different needs, ambitions, and expectations of employees. The influx of new generations puts the solutions proposed so far in the labor market into question. Human rights practices contribute to creating creative jobs.

Directive 2014/95/EU has exerted institutional pressure capable of harmonizing regulations at the national level. On 26 June 2017, the European Commission also published the “Guidelines for Reporting Non-Financial Information (Non-Financial Reporting Methodology)” [47,48]. The leaders of social reporting in Poland include: Bank Millennium, PKN ORLEN, Coca Cola HBC Polska, Grupa LOTOS, Orange Polska and Kompania Piwowarska [63]. On the other hand, when comparing the number of reporting companies to listed companies, it can be noted that the percentage of reporting companies was as follows: 4.6% in 2010 and 2011, 4.9% in 2012. The number of companies publishing integrated reports is even lower, in 2016 it was only 8 organizations [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,54]. In most cases, non-financial reporting mainly takes the form of reports referred to as “social reports”. The analysis of the number of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange included in the WIG20 index that reports social and environmental information allows for the conclusion that the scope of the transparency policy in this area is moderate. In terms of reporting, there are leaders, companies that report regularly at a high level, and companies in which there is no support from the management board as to the reporting of non-financial information. Leaders publish reports on websites and use social media for this purpose [17,47]. Most often, good practices of companies and non-financial information were treated as image-building and publicized in social media such as Facebook and Instagram. Social reports are usually posted on the websites of enterprises and initiatives and good practices are most often publicized on Facebook (55%) or Instagram (41%) [64]. It is important for the entrepreneur when the platform enables the free transfer of information between users and ensures that many people can participate in the discussion and that “opinion leaders” or entrepreneurs as users can reach other Internet users. Entrepreneurs emphasize that social media is the best way to communicate with clients. A great chance for feedback in social media, e.g., when it comes to introducing a new product or service, gaining new customers thanks to their presence on social media [64]. The ease of setting up and running a social media channel compared to producing and broadcasting an advertisement in traditional media is also a plus. Properly managed social media channels arouse greater interest among users than advertising in traditional media. In the long term, social responsibility and the achievement of sustainable development goals, as well as non-financial reporting, are becoming necessary conditions for all types of organizations [65].

Results show a positive relationship between the preparation of social reports and communication of good practices and the involvement of management and the company’s experience in the field of non-financial reporting. Large companies with reporting experience prepare the most reports and at a high level. There is a lack of social reports from medium and small enterprises; they show a lack of knowledge and experience in the field of CSR, SDGs, and social reports.

5. Discussion

Changing the philosophy of business towards sustainable development in the face of global changes takes on a new meaning. Stakeholders indicate the need to inform and report on responsible corporate practices [66,67,68,69]. On the one hand, these are incentives for business investments in new technologies, knowledge, and innovations favorable to society and the environment; on the other hand, they create a competitive advantage for these enterprises on the market [70,71].

The issue of applying good practices in the field of social responsibility and communicating them was of interest in theory and practice. It was of interest to, inter alia, Aureli et al. [21], Stefănescu et al. [65]. They underlined that the provisions of the EC had been transposed into the national law of the Member States by the end of 2016. Companies covered by this directive are required to report from 1 January 2017 through the preparation of a non-financial statement or a consolidated non-financial statement that should contain information on at least the minimum information required by elements of the EUD. Or, you can present this claim as a separate sustainability report, or in an administrative or annual report. Besides, if firms do not report one of the required minimum information, they must explain why they are not providing this information. The Non-financial Directive 2014/95/EU (NFD) has created some convergence where the regulations are consistent on certain aspects. Since the Directive NFD allowed entities to base on both national and international frameworks when reporting Non-financial information, there is a diversity of approaches, from national frameworks [55], to international frameworks [56] and other frameworks [57]. In Poland, the Responsible Business Forum Association, since its inception in 2000, encouraged organizations to prepare voluntary social reports [13,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,46]. The advantage of using reporting in social and environmental matters is a better understanding of the business model of a given economic organization by the environment, the goals and assumptions of the policy of communication with the environment are clearer, as well as the established standards of relations with stakeholders who can better understand the intentions and plans of the organization’s management.

Publishing social reports in which financial and non-financial data coexist with a comprehensive descriptive page contributes to the asymmetry of information in the absence of a credible and factual message from an economic organization [72,73]. The authors emphasized that corporate social responsibility and voluntary practices, as well as reporting the result thereof, result in a competitive advantage leading to the policy of sustainable development [18,42,66]. Social media play a role in informing about the activities of enterprises responsible for society and the environment [51,52]. Managers admit that properly run social media channels generate more interest among users than advertising in traditional media. Entrepreneurs willingly use social media to publicize and cultivate image, communicating about their good practices in achieving the goals of sustainable development; it is an element of the image and building trust in companies that want to communicate not only financial results. The article examines the scale of good practices and reports in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on the example of Polish enterprises. The Social Reports published by the Responsible Business Forum (FOB) in Poland in 2008–2019 [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34] were used. The analysis covers the number of organizations reporting in FOB reports and their many years of practice, implementation of socially supported practices. It was verified as to which social media platforms are most often used by entrepreneurs to inform about good practices. It was indicated that social media is not a popular source of information on non-financial data, but it is gaining importance. The results show a positive relationship between the preparation of social reports and the communication of good practices, the involvement of management, and the experience of managers and the team in non-financial reporting. The largest number of re-ports and at a high level are prepared by large companies with reporting experience and those that report periodically. There is a lack of social reports from medium and small enterprises; they indicate a lack of knowledge and experience in the field of CSR, SDGs, and social reports.

6. Conclusions

The 2030 Agenda introduces 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 goals to address the most compelling sustainable development challenges worldwide [71,72,73,74]. The goals of sustainable development have become a determinant of business operation and the creation of new business models and competitive advantages. As practitioners have pointed out, the increasing number of annual non-financial reports being published has not been followed by a subsequent increase in SDG disclosures. The reports of especially large enterprises are subject to the obligation. This shows that “walking” and “talking” about SDGs are not the same and may indeed be misaligned [5,8,10].

The article reviews the literature, reviews social reports, and examines the scale of entrepreneurs’ involvement in initiatives related to non-financial information reporting. Based on the literature and social reports of enterprises, the importance of implementing non-financial information reporting standards by organizations was presented. The number of enterprises voluntarily involved in the preparation of social reports was examined and presented. The scale of good practices and the number of CSR reports were presented in the list of Social Reports published by the Responsible Business Forum in Poland in 2008–2019. In the case of enterprises not covered by the obligation to report voluntarily, there is an upward trend in the number of reports and good practices. This is indicated by the reports prepared by the FOB in 2008–2019. At present, however, the contribution of the SME sector is still insufficient due to the lack of knowledge and the creation of specific good practices. Despite the increase in reports and good practices, the phenomenon is not satisfactory. The European Commission is working on the preparation of a map of achieving a uniform reporting standard and reporting obligations for various organizations. Managers who are already not taking steps towards social reporting may not be catching up with leaders. In Poland, a group of entrepreneurs who are leaders in reporting is visible, their practices are improved and publicized in the form of social reports, information on websites, and social media. The second group of entrepreneurs is companies that are in no way prepared for reporting and not ready for stakeholder demands. The research is of a review nature, and the theoretical part must be expanded in terms of attitudes and knowledge of managers about the goals of sustainable development and the practical involvement of enterprises in the creation of specific business models based on SDG and competitive advantages. Its results are a valuable source of information for enterprises that will soon have to prepare non-financial reports. Lack of transparency can weaken or eliminate these companies’ position in the market. The approach to the use of social media in communicating good corporate practices also requires further research, especially in the field of diversity or generational change, for example. The recommendations for enterprises are:

• A social report should be properly prepared, consistent and credible, in line with a specific communication strategy with the environment, presenting achievements rather than undefined visions of the future, but containing future goals and the manner of their implementation, responses to possible threats, as well as statistical data describing a given organization.
• Periodic social reports have a positive impact on the perception of a given economic organization and improve its competitive position in the market.
• The form of the report and messages on social and environmental activities should be friendly to stakeholders using various computer systems and reading tools. It is recommended to use the information on websites and social forums of enterprises to enable easy data analysis, collecting to track historical changes.

Limitation and Further Research

We reviewed the literature on CSR and social activity reporting, focusing mainly on theoretical studies and reports prepared by the Responsible Business Forum in Poland. We recognize that we have not included all non-financial reporting studies as part of the research objective during this period, nor have we included their systematic timing approach, communicating good practice using various social media. Rather, we reviewed relevant articles, reports, and information on websites available on the market. We have made a basic review of the development and evolution of sequences in sustainable business and non-financial reporting. This is, of course, because literature is vast and widely scattered across disciplines and is, therefore, a major constraint on this re-review of narratives. While we searched for all relevant basic research, we believe that other studies may be included to complement the discussion of resource-based theories, institutional theories, and stakeholder theories in the context of CSR; this affects various non-financial data. Future research may extend this review and explore the contribution of various company theories to CSR through a systematic review. Moreover, while future research may still explore the complex interdependencies between corporate strategy and their social consequences, there is also environmental and economic sustainability using an integrative theoretical framework with the potential to use other theories. Given that stakeholder theory can play a significant role in CSR, future work could examine the factors influencing corporate CSR choice for sustainability, the interplay between internal and external, or major and secondary stakeholders, to better understand how corporations can develop a business plan that can manage conflicting imperative strategies. Industry best practices related to CSR and sustainable development strategies and multi-stakeholder reporting of activities should also be applied to help companies adopt a business model with a clear focus on delivering lasting value to all stakeholders. In addition to being used quickly and effectively, given the number of people a company can reach via social media, it is one of the most effective communication platforms of recent times. Businesses in particular have recently shown an interest in social net-works as they are profitable, along with possessing other social media characteristics. Companies generally prefer to use social media for purposes such as marketing and sales, while ignoring its use in the areas of financial communication and good non-financial practice. Due to the limited amount of research and information on communicating CSR in social media, a further in-depth analysis could focus on expanding empirical research among entrepreneurs on communicating socially responsible practices via modern social media; this also requires further analysis.