Antonietta Cosentino

Purpose: This paper aims to examine how European sustainability reporting intersects with assurance practices in the social pillar, focusing on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) disclosure within Italian Other Systemically Important Institutions (O-SIIs). It assesses the extent to which disclosed D&I key performance indicators (KPIs) are covered by assurance, and how disclosure and assurance vary across institutions and providers absent fully shared benchmarks. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a two-phase qualitative content analysis grounded in signaling, governance and institutional theory and a decision-usefulness perspective. An original interpretive model, developed inductively around five dimensions (Governance and Strategy, Workforce Composition, Inclusive Practices, Access and Impact, Assurance and Verification) aligned with European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), is applied deductively to seven O-SII banks in Italy in 2025, whose 2024 reports coexist under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) regimes within the same national context and reporting year. Findings: All seven banks formalize D&I policies, targets and workforce and inclusion metrics, confirming D&I as a structural governance component. Yet none receives point-by-point assurance on individual D&I KPIs: all are limited to report-level assurance, regardless of regime or provider, revealing a persistent fracture between disclosure depth and verification depth. Practical implications: Findings point to the need for shared benchmarks, standardized KPI definitions and clearer ESRS-based assurance perimeters, identifying ISSA 5000’s entry into application as a critical juncture for closing the D&I disclosure-verification gap. Originality/value: This paper offers a dual contribution: an original interpretive model bridging D&I disclosure and assurance, and its first empirical application to O-SII banks straddling the CSRD/NFRD transition, showing assurance signaling weakens when engagement design converges at a common, minimum standard.

Since the early 1980s, the economic literature has recognized the importance of valorizing the differences in the corporate context as a necessity and has been fueled by studies using the term "diversity management" (Kelly & Dobbin, 1998; Keil et al., 2007). The attention placed on the issue by both public and private sector organizations has grown exponentially, embracing new contexts and also new shades of diversity (Di Santo et al., 2013). Gender is a focal element of the organizations' multiplicity, the respect for which requires equal representation of men and women in the workplace (Wawryszuk-Misztal, 2021). The EIGE (European Institute for Gender Equality) Indicator considers different variables, among of which there are employment and education, two closely interdependent aspects which are even more prominently encountered in academia. Gender inequality in academic careers is, in fact, a global phenomenon, although the causes and consequences vary in different national contexts (Piva and Rovelli, 2022). One tool increasingly used by universities to demonstrate their commitment to pursuing gender equality is the gender budget, a document that assesses and restructures budget items considering women’s priorities and needs as well as those of men (Addabbo et al., 2015; Bilyk et al., 2021; Lucchese et al., 2022). This paper aims to investigate whether and how gender budget can communicate the evolution of the gender diversity management approach. The paper uses a qualitative analysis based on a single case study to answer the research question. In particular, the research is focused on gender budgeting elaborated by the oldest university in Europe: University La Sapienza, set in Rome, Italy. Sapienza University is the most prominent university in Rome and the first to implement this tool. The authors will carry out a documentary analysis of the latest gender budget (2021), comparing it with the previous ones (2016-2020), to see if it is possible to understand how Sapienza's commitment to reducing the gender gap has evolved over the years. From a theoretical point of view, the research contributes to gender studies and non-financial reporting research, focusing on the role of clear and transparent communication in conveying the value and enhancement of diversity. From a managerial perspective, findings could increase the universities' awareness about which information the gender budget should contain to represent the organization's dynamic engagement against gender inequalities.

Purpose: This paper aims to verify which intangible assets attributable to intellectual capital (IC) influence the anti-cyclical nature and the resilience of social enterprises (SEs) during systemic crises and whether these factors take on particular connotations in female-run SEs.Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative methodology based on multiple case studies is used to answer the research questions. A set of SEs operating in the catering sector is analyzed. The analysis is carried out by in-depth interviews with male and female managers of SEs to understand which resilience IC factors were most activated during full emergency and recovery stages.Findings: The results confirm the anti-cyclical nature of SEs and their resilience to systemic crises. No distinct differences emerge between female and male SEs. Concerning the IC, relational capital (RC) is the most relevant intangible asset for small and medium-sized SEs. Internal and external relations support them during the crisis and the consolidation of trusted ties, formal and informal, external and internal, favor the Recovery. The RC is a crucial resource even in bigger SEs, but some differences are detected concerning the smaller ones. In the smaller SEs, informal relations prevail, while formal relations prevail in the larger ones, particularly with institutions. Furthermore, the RC is the sole or primary resource in the smaller SEs, while the bigger SEs can count on more varied intangible resources.Originality/value: This study offers an original contribution to studies on IC by focusing on the factors little analyzed by existing studies: (1) SE management, (2) the contribution of IC to the resilience of non-profit-oriented enterprises and (3) the search for elements of differentiation between SEs with male and female leadership.