Purpose: The aim of the study was to explore and compare reporting practices on provisions for liabilities in different countries.

Methodology: The research was limited to the types of provisions that are addressed in the International Accounting Standard 37 – Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets. For the purpose of the study, fnancial statements of the biggest public companies in Great Britain, Germany and Poland have been chosen to be taken into consideration. The following detailed issues have been explored: – Presentation of the types of provisions in a statement of fnancial position and additional notes to a fnancial statement, – Presentation of the amounts of provisions made, used, and reversed during a given period and the effects of changes in the discount rate, – Scope and quality of descriptions of the nature of obligations presented by entities. The results of the analysis have been viewed from two perspectives – the areas of compliance and non-compliance of reporting on provisions with IFRS have been identifed and a comparison of the extent of compliance with particular requirements between companies from different countries has been developed.

Findings: The results of the analysis have revealed that companies from selected countries demonstrate different levels of compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Substantial differences in the scope and the quality of descriptive disclosures on provisions have been also identifed.

Originality/value: The study contributes to the research on cross-country differences in reporting practices and indicates the need for a further analysis of the underlying determinants.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to summarize studies aiming to defne matters related to the quality of explanations found in corporate governance statements published by listed companies. Another important aspect of the conducted analysis is the identifcation of various dimensions of explanation quality.

Methodology: The character of the conducted research is that of an overview of literature devoted to the subject. Apart from scientifc articles, it covers European Union regulations, regulations characteristic of countries selected for the analysis (member states of the European Union), and applied solutions aimed at guaranteeing the desired quality of explanations for deviation included in corporate governance statements that are in the centre of attention.

Findings: The conducted analysis organizes the current knowledge concerning actions aimed at improving the quality of explanations for deviation from principles of corporate governance. Without a doubt, the primary pillar consists of the level of information and its quality, as found in explanations for shareholders. It is this quality that determines if the shareholder understands the processes occurring in the realm of corporate governance in the company.

Research limitations: The conducted analysis should be treated as an introduction to related research issues. It should be stressed that research into explanations provided by companies is still in the process of development, and the number of publications devoted to this topic is still modest.

Practical implications: The study fts in the research into the phenomena of the “comply or explain” mechanism as applied in practice, which according of many researchers, continues to be poorly investigated. In terms of the directions for further research, there are promising topics including e.g. identifcation of factors that may translate into the quality of such statements (e.g. ownership structure, identity of shareholders), the role that should be played by institutions involved in developing CG codes (i.e. their successive versions), and the involvement of the board of directors/ supervisory board in the evaluation process.

Originality: The present paper identifes the key factors perceived as determining the quality of corporate governance statements. In addition to that, it outlines new avenues for further investigation.

Purpose: This article explores the gap in the business history literature devoted to Central and Eastern Europe and discusses the potential of conducting business history research in Poland.

Methodology: This is an explorative and tentative study based on a recently developed database of 387 Polish companies which are more than 100 years old.

Findings: The article explores the reasons behind the lack of business history debate in the Polish academia and discusses its future potential. We argue that given the size of population and a unique historical context, the Polish sample is worth studying as it can provide valuable contributions to well established debates in the feld of business history debates covering issues such as continuity, longevity, and survival strategies.

Research limitations and implications: This is an explorative and tentative study and therefore has several limitations, including a limited scope of companies included in the database, sources of data, and poor quality of corporate archives.

Originality and value: This is the frst article explicitly discussing the potential of conducting business history studies in the context of empirical data concerning Polish long-lived companies.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the topic of knowledge safety, defned as the state of knowledge being safe from loss, leakage, attrition, oblivion, waste or theft. The paper frst presents a theoretical background and review of previous studies on knowledge loss and ways of overcoming it, and then illustrates the topic of knowledge safety with ten case studies from the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector.

Methodology: The paper is based on an analysis of Knowledge Management (KM) literature devoted to knowledge loss and its potential types in companies, and on the results of case study research. Knowledge safety was frst defned and contrasted with other terms, and then examined in 10 selected SMEs. The research resulted in a clarifcation of what SMEs understand by the term of “knowledge safety” and what kind of measures they take to ensure it.

Findings: As the analysis shows, the examined SMEs attribute diversifed signifcance to the issue of knowledge safety. For some of them, such problem does not exist at all and they state that they can ensure knowledge safety in all aspects of their operations. Some companies perceive it mainly through the safety of the knowledge stored in electronic databases, while others link it with the human factor only.

Research limitations: Research results are limited to ten companies operating in Poland. As such, they cannot illustrate the whole picture of the existing small or medium-sized companies.

Research implications: The fndings of both literature review and case study analysis indicate that there is a need to further examine the issue of knowledge safety by analysing the potential factors which may endanger knowledge safety and the methods to eliminate such risks.

Practical implications: The paper examines important aspects of knowledge safety and provides guidelines on how it can be ensured by managers or owners of SMEs.

Originality/value: The term of knowledge safety has been absent from the related literature so far. The paper defnes it and explores both the theoretical and the practical aspects thereof. The paper also suggests further research possibilities in this area.