Integrated Reporting: A New Paradigm of Corporate Reporting

The landscape of corporate reporting is changing quickly. The concepts, elements and principles that characterize the way organizations plan, manage and report their annual performances are currently being questioned, debated, and redesigned throughout the world. However, widening the scope of corporate performance and reporting is a major issue. Research needs to bridge the gap between social and financial performance by considering corporate performance in a wider perspective. At base, IR is a relatively new but powerful idea: enhancing the way organizations think, plan and report the story of their business. Organizations are using IR to communicate a clear, concise, integrated story that explains how all of their resources are creating value. This paper examines the rise of what has been widely claimed to represent a new and striking future for corporate reporting, namely the notion of "Integrated Reporting" (IR). Unfortunately, there is poor empirical research work undertaken which has focused on published integrated reports. This research study provides initial analysis of the content and structure of the corporate integrated reports published in 2013 and available on the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Emerging Examples Database. As part of this study, Integrated Reports were analyzed for company information, report information and report content. Moreover, they were also evaluated as to the extent these adhered to the integrated reporting (IR) Guiding Principles, Content Elements, and the multiple capitals model. Findings of this study indicate that "early integrated reports were mostly lengthy, fail to adhere to all the guiding principles, and covered four of the six capitals suggested." At present, no universally accepted global framework for IR exists and it is still largely a voluntary practice. We believe that IR of both financial and non-financial performance should be made mandatory, and it should become a universal practice for all the global listed companies within the next 5-10 years.