Beyond Financial Reporting: A Journey from Sustainability towards Integrated Reporting

The present study provides an overview of the evolution of non-financial disclosure over time, from sustainability towards integrated reports. The article tackles three different themes. First, it introduces the concept of NFI, and it discusses why such information is relevant in the current business environment. It revises previous literature in order to answer to the question “why do companies invest in Corporate Social Disclosure (CSD)”? Second, it defines and discusses the topic of Integrated Report-ing (IR). Third, it provides an analysis of the state of the art of CSD and IR nowadays. The study shows that policy makers are increasingly push-ing companies towards NFI disclosure and that, at the same time, com-panies have incentives in engaging in NFI disclosure, as shown by previ-ous academic literature. While sustainability reporting is a well-established reality, IR still needs to be further developed, and this study proposes some avenues for future research.