A Case for Disclosures by Start-Ups in India

There has been a rise in mandatory reporting requirements, alternatively referred to as disclosures on non-financial aspects, of large businesses across countries in recent times as the perils of environmental damages and climate change become more evident. In line with this, academic attention has focused on the motivations, determinants, and impacts on shareholder value of disclosures by listed and large businesses alone, with little attention on start-ups as a category in itself. The potential in startup businesses for innovation, use of technology, job creation, and novel solutions to problems merits attention, as they remain outside the purview of mandatory reporting, which can be linked to their success rate. This paper seeks to contribute to the scant academic literature on start-ups by proposing a set of disclosures for those centred on five stakeholders. The paper reasons that the proposed disclosures could improve the success rate of start-ups, as they entail engagement with relevant stakeholders, along with encouraging beneficial business impacts on the environment/ecosystem in which the start-ups operate and draw from. India is a fertile ground for this topic since it has the third highest number of start-ups in the world and has recently made disclosures mandatory for large listed businesses.