Prior literature has investigated the disclosure of financial statements in two main directions: i) disclosure level evaluation, analysing the approach firms have towards accounting (mandatory and voluntary) disclosure; ii) disclosure determinants analysis, investigating the reasons why some firms disclose more or less information than others. While literature prevalently investigates listed firms, this paper tries to exami- ne disclosure level evaluation and disclosure determinants analysis of small firms, which represent a key drive for growth and innovation. In addition, the paper compares the level of disclosure of small healthy and unhealthy Italian entities, by an analysis of two non-paired samples. The main expected result is that the crisis of a firm affects the disclosure index.
Keywords: Small entities, abridged financial statements, mandatory disclosure, voluntary disclosure, disclosure index; crisis of a firm.