Around the world, some leading companies have started developing inte- grated reporting (IR), which expresses the interconnections between a firm’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects, as well as the contexts within which it operates (Frias-Acetuino et al., 2013). The International In- tegrated Reporting Council (IIRC) released in 2013 a framework about the integration of financial and non-financial information within a unique corpo- rate report. The adoption of such an IR is mandatory just in South Africa for listed companies since 2011, while it is voluntary adopted in all the other countries around the world. According to the IR framework (2013) an IR includes eight Content Ele- ments even if companies, adopting an IR in compliance to the framework, are let free to disclose which and how much about each of them. The Content El- ements are “fundamentally linked to each other and [...] not mutually exclu- sive” (IIRC, 2013, p. 24) and refer to: 1. Organizational overview and external environment, i.e. what the organization does and what are the circumstances under which it operates; 2. Governance, i.e. how the organization’s governance structure supports its ability to create value in the short, medium and long term; 3. Business model, i.e. description of the organization’s business model; 4. Risks and opportunities, i.e. the specific risks and opportunities that affect the organization’s ability to create value over the short, medium and long term, and how the organization deals with them; 5. Strategy and resource allocation, i.e. where the organization wants to go and how it intends to get there; 6. Per- formance, i.e. to what extent the organization has achieved its strategic objectives for the period and what are its outcomes in terms of effects on the capitals; 7. Outlook, i.e. the challenges and uncertainties the organization is likely to encounter in pursuing its strategy, and the potential implications for its business model and future performance; 8. Basis of presentation, i.e. how the organization determines what matters to include in the integrated report. Prior literature has already investigated the role of institutional factors – here intended in the forms of legal, political, and economic systems – on financial disclosure (for all La Porta et al., 1997; 1998). Most recent studies investigated institutional factors’ role dealing about non-financial infor- mation (e.g. Jensen and Berg, 2012; De Villier and Marquez, 2016; Coluccia et al., 2018). However little research investigated the integration of both fi- nancial and non-financial information within IR (Frias-Acetuino et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2017). Further these few studies analyzed integrated report be- fore the IR framework development. Thus the current study aims at extend- ing such stream of literature by investigating the influence of institutional factors on IR completeness, here defined as the level of information about the Content Elements provided by a company in its IR. The paper is structured as follow: the second paragraph describes the institutional theory and prior literature at the base of the hypotheses development, the third paragraph deals with the research design, the fourth and fifth describe the findings of the analyses and the sixth discusses them and pro- vides conclusions.

IR completeness and the role of the institutional factors: worldwide evidence

Panfilo Silvia
;
Mio Chiara
2020-01-01

Abstract

Around the world, some leading companies have started developing inte- grated reporting (IR), which expresses the interconnections between a firm’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects, as well as the contexts within which it operates (Frias-Acetuino et al., 2013). The International In- tegrated Reporting Council (IIRC) released in 2013 a framework about the integration of financial and non-financial information within a unique corpo- rate report. The adoption of such an IR is mandatory just in South Africa for listed companies since 2011, while it is voluntary adopted in all the other countries around the world. According to the IR framework (2013) an IR includes eight Content Ele- ments even if companies, adopting an IR in compliance to the framework, are let free to disclose which and how much about each of them. The Content El- ements are “fundamentally linked to each other and [...] not mutually exclu- sive” (IIRC, 2013, p. 24) and refer to: 1. Organizational overview and external environment, i.e. what the organization does and what are the circumstances under which it operates; 2. Governance, i.e. how the organization’s governance structure supports its ability to create value in the short, medium and long term; 3. Business model, i.e. description of the organization’s business model; 4. Risks and opportunities, i.e. the specific risks and opportunities that affect the organization’s ability to create value over the short, medium and long term, and how the organization deals with them; 5. Strategy and resource allocation, i.e. where the organization wants to go and how it intends to get there; 6. Per- formance, i.e. to what extent the organization has achieved its strategic objectives for the period and what are its outcomes in terms of effects on the capitals; 7. Outlook, i.e. the challenges and uncertainties the organization is likely to encounter in pursuing its strategy, and the potential implications for its business model and future performance; 8. Basis of presentation, i.e. how the organization determines what matters to include in the integrated report. Prior literature has already investigated the role of institutional factors – here intended in the forms of legal, political, and economic systems – on financial disclosure (for all La Porta et al., 1997; 1998). Most recent studies investigated institutional factors’ role dealing about non-financial infor- mation (e.g. Jensen and Berg, 2012; De Villier and Marquez, 2016; Coluccia et al., 2018). However little research investigated the integration of both fi- nancial and non-financial information within IR (Frias-Acetuino et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2017). Further these few studies analyzed integrated report be- fore the IR framework development. Thus the current study aims at extend- ing such stream of literature by investigating the influence of institutional factors on IR completeness, here defined as the level of information about the Content Elements provided by a company in its IR. The paper is structured as follow: the second paragraph describes the institutional theory and prior literature at the base of the hypotheses development, the third paragraph deals with the research design, the fourth and fifth describe the findings of the analyses and the sixth discusses them and pro- vides conclusions.
2020
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Theoretical analysis and Practical implications
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/3729689
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