STAKEHOLDER SALIENCE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: AN INVESTIGATION THROUGH ITALIAN COMPANIES’ NON-FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES

This research analyzed mandatory and externally audited non-financial reports of large Italian companies to explore the impact of the pandemic on corporate stakeholder salience. The findings indicate that, during the pandemic, stakeholders' identity and priority order did not change. Nevertheless, new material topics emerged, particularly regarding human resources and the natural environment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that reviews the stakeholder salience pattern through non-financial disclosures flowing from the specific European Union Directive, and particularly mandatory non-financial disclosures of Italian companies. From this point of view, the achieved results look valuable because they feed the existing literature on stakeholder salience with additional and consistent evidence from a recent and, thus, underexplored reporting tool. Other interesting aspects concern stakeholder prioritization under ordinary and stressful conditions. From that point of view, this study makes three main contributions. First, it implements an original research tool: the priority index. The second innovative aspect concerns the analysis of materiality disclosures to investigate stakeholder prioritization. Finally, the third key point is investigating changes in stakeholder prioritization under a challenging event different than the most common financial crisis.