Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Integrated Reporting: Precursor of a Paradigm Shift in Corporate Reporting?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Integrated Reporting

Abstract

This chapter examines the paradigm underlying the emergence of Integrated Reporting (IR), and its relation to the two divergent paradigms underlying current corporate reporting practice, consisting of financial reporting and sustainability reporting. The chapter utilises the Kuhnian definition of paradigm, consisting of shared axioms, shared commitments, shared values, and shared exemplars. The data analysed include recent IR literature, thus this chapter simultaneously presents a contemporary literature review of IR. The analysis unpacks the underpinnings concerning the language, beliefs, identity, and exemplars perpetrated in the IR literature. It also shows that IR shares the same paradigm with financial reporting, but not with sustainability reporting. Yet, the analysis does not demonstrate paradigm shift in the corporate reporting field, but rather shows the existence of two competing paradigms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    If natural capital is equal to cost of maintenance, then it’s inversely related to financial value of a firm because the cost of maintaining the natural capital will come from financial capital of a firm. This general assumption, however, would not hold in a situation where there is a ‘business case’ for maintaining natural capital. But, a ‘business case’ would be very hard to find in a non-financially material ESG situation.

References

  • Adams C. A. 2015. The International Integrated Reporting Council: A call to action. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 27, 23–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adams, S., and R. Simnett. 2011. Integrated reporting: An opportunity for Australia’s not-for-profit sector. Australian Accounting Review 21(3): 292–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ballou, B., R.J. Casey, J.H. Grenier, and D.L. Heitger. 2012. Exploring the strategic integration of sustainability initiatives: Opportunities for accounting research. Accounting Horizons 26(2): 265–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barker, R. 1998. The market for information – Evidence from finance directors, analysts and fund managers. Accounting and Business Research 29(1): 3–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barker, R., and S. Imam. 2010. Analysts’ perceptions of ‘earnings quality’. Accounting and Business Research 38(4): 313–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barker, R., E. Barone, J. Birt, A. Gaeremynck, A. McGeachin, J. Marton, and R. Moldovan. 2013. Response of the EAA FRSC to the EFRAG/ANC/FRC Discussion Paper: Towards a Disclosure Framework for the Notes. Accounting in Europe 10(1): 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barth, M.E., W.H. Beaver, and W.R. Landsman. 2001. The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting: Another view. Journal of Accounting & Economics 31(1–3): 77–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beattie, V., and S.J. Smith. 2013. Value creation and business models: Refocusing the intellectual capital debate. The British Accounting Review 45(4): 243–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bebbington, J., and I. Thomson. 2013. Sustainable development, management and accounting: Boundary crossing. Management Accounting Research 24(4): 277–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J., and J. Dillard. 2014. Integrated reporting: On the need for broadening out and opening up. Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal 27(7): 1120–1156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown-Liburd, H., and V.L. Zamora. 2015. The role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) assurance in investors’ judgments when managerial pay is explicitly tied to CSR performance. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory 34(1): 75–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burchell, S., C. Clubb, A. Hopwood, J. Hughes, and J. Nahapiet. 1980. The roles of accounting in organizations and society. Accounting, Organizations and Society 5(1): 5–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burritt, R.L. 2012. Environmental performance accountability: Planet, people, profits. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 25(2): 370–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Busco, C., M.L. Frigo, P. Quattrone, and A. Riccaboni. 2013. Redefining corporate accountability through integrated reporting. Strategic Finance 95(8): 33–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. Leading practices in integrated reporting. Strategic Finance 96(9): 23–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Churet, C., and R.G. Eccles. 2014. Integrated reporting, quality of management, and financial performance. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 26(1): 56–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Villiers, C., L. Rinaldi, and J. Unerman. 2014. Integrated reporting: Insights, gaps and an agenda for future research. Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal 27(7): 1042–1067.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eccles, R.G., and M.P. Krzus. 2010. Integrated reporting for a sustainable strategy. Financial Executive 26(2): 28–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eccles, R.G., and G. Serafeim. 2013a. The performance frontier: Innovating for a sustainable strategy. Harvard Business Review 91(5): 50–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013b. A tale of two stories: Sustainability and the quarterly earnings call. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 25(3): 8–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eccles, R.G., M.P. Krzus, and S. Ribot. 2015a. Meaning and momentum in the integrated reporting movement. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 27(2): 8–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015b. Models of best practice in integrated reporting 2015. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 27(2): 103–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • English, D.M., and D.K. Schooley. 2014. The evolution of sustainability reporting. CPA Journal 26-35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flower, J. (2015). The International Integrated Reporting Council: A story of failure. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 27, 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frías-Aceituno, J.V., L. Rodríguez-Ariza, and I.M. García-Sánchez. 2013. Is integrated reporting determined by a country’s legal system? An exploratory study. Journal of Cleaner Production 44: 45–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frias-Aceituno, J.V., L. Rodríguez-Ariza, and I.M. Garcia-Sánchez. 2014. Explanatory factors of integrated sustainability and financial reporting. Business Strategy & the Environment 23(1): 56–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fried, A., M.P. Holtzman, and D. Mest. 2014. Integrted reporting. Financial Executive 30(4): 24–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, R. 2010. Is accounting for sustainability actually accounting for sustainability... and how would we know? An exploration of narratives of organisations and the planet. Accounting Organizations and Society 35(1): 47–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haller, A., and C. van Staden. 2014. The value added statement – An appropriate instrument for integrated reporting. Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal 27(7): 1190–1216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Healy, P.M., and K.G. Palepu. 2001. Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical disclosure literature. Journal of Accounting & Economics 31(1–3): 405–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, C., W. Stubbs, and T. Love. 2014. Walking the talk(s): Organisational narratives of integrated reporting. Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal 27(7): 1090–1119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hines, R.D. 1988. Financial accounting – In communicating reality, we construct reality. Accounting Organizations and Society 13(3): 251–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IIRC. 2013. The International <IR> Famework: Integrated reporting <IR >. London: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, J.C., and N. Berg. 2012. Determinants of traditional sustainability reporting versus integrated reporting: An institutionalist approach. Business Strategy & the Environment 21(5): 299–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knauer, A., and G. Serafeim. 2014. Attracting long-term investors through integrated thinking and reporting: A clinical study of a biopharmaceutical company. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 26(2): 57–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T.S. 1962. The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T.S. 2012. The structure of scientific revolution, 4th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lehman, G. 2001. Reclaiming the public sphere: Problems and prospects for corporate social and environmental accounting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 12(6): 713–733.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Littleton, A.C. 1949. Classified objectives. Accounting Review 24(3): 281–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovell, H., and D. MacKenzie. 2011. Accounting for carbon: The role of accounting professional organisations in governing climate change. Antipode 43(3): 704–730.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowson, L.M. 2012. SEC ESG noncompliance: Where the rubber meets the road. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 24(2): 57–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsumura, E.M., R. Prakash, and S.C. Vera-Munoz. 2014. Firm-value effects of carbon emissions and carbon disclosures. Accounting Review 89(2): 695–724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milne, M.J., and R. Gray. 2013. W(h)ither ecology? The triple bottom line, the global reporting initiative, and corporate sustainability reporting. Journal of Business Ethics 118(1): 13–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Owen, G. 2013. Integrated reporting: A review of developments and their implications for the accounting curriculum. Accounting Education 22(4): 340–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parrot, K.W., and B.X. Tierney. 2012. Integrated reporting, stakeholder engagement, and balanced investing at American Electric Power. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 24(2): 27–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rambaud, A., & Richard, J. (2015). The “triple depreciation line” instead of the “triple bottom line”: Towards a genuine integrated reporting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 33: 92–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reuter, M., and M. Messner. 2015. Lobbying on the integrated reporting framework. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 28(3): 365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, J., P. Sanderson, R. Barker, and J. Hendry. 2006. In the mirror of the market: The disciplinary effects of company/fund manager meetings. Accounting Organizations and Society 31(3): 277–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roth, H. P. (2014). Is integrated reporting in the future? CPA Journal, 84(3), 62–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowbottom, N., and J. Locke. 2016. The emergence of <IR> Accounting and Business Research 46(1): 83–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schooley, D.K., and D.M. English. 2015. SASB: A pathway to sustainability reporting in the United States. CPA Journal 85(4): 22–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serafeim, G. 2015. Integrated reporting and investor clientele. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 27(2): 34–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stubbs, W., and C. Higgins. 2014. Integrated reporting and internal mechanisms of change. Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal 27(7): 1068–1089.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki, T. 2003. The epistemology of macroeconomic reality: The Keynesian Revolution from an accounting point of view. Accounting Organizations and Society 28(5): 471–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomson, I. (2015). ‘But does sustainability need capitalism or an integrated report’ a commentary on ‘The International Integrated Reporting Council: A story of failure’ by Flower, J. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 27, 18–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Bommel, K. 2014. Towards a legitimate compromise? An exploration of integrated reporting in the Netherlands. Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal 27(7): 1157–1189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Richard Barker & Timotius Kasim

Authors
  1. Richard Barker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Timotius Kasim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy

    Chiara Mio

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Barker, R., Kasim, T. (2016). Integrated Reporting: Precursor of a Paradigm Shift in Corporate Reporting?. In: Mio, C. (eds) Integrated Reporting. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55149-8_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55149-8_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55148-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55149-8

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation