Risk disclosure in sustainability reports of Italian public utilities

Corporate Social Responsibility may be seen as an essential element of corporate risk management contributing to a company’s survival. The link between CSR and risk management is even deeper in public utilities because they have to be accountable while carrying out activities that potentially impact on the current and future citizenry. The presence of local governments or/and the State as Italian utilities’ shareholders may lead those companies to disclose even more information than private ones, although a difference in sustainability disclosure may be found when the closeness of the relationship with the local communities is weaken. Accordingly, this paper investigates the features of the risk disclosure within the sustainability reports of Italian utilities companies listed at the Milan Stock Exchange, while detecting the role played by the local government or State ownership in this issue.