The Influence of Institutional Investors on Companies’ Disclosure

This chapter focuses on Integrated Reporting (IR) and institutional investors, which are arguably one of the main audiences for IR. In particular, it tests whether institutional investors engaged in activism aimed at pushing companies to join the IIRC Pilot Program and whether membership in this program has attracted institutional investors. The reasons underlying our hypotheses are connected to the (expected) increase in companies’ disclosure quality and in management’s orientation towards the long-term. The two hypotheses were tested on a sample of 156 companies, over the 2010-2014 period. Our preliminary empirical results disconfirm both our hypotheses and we argue that further research is necessary, specifically regarding the short and long-term orientation of institutional investors internationally.