A Comparative Analysis of Integrated Reporting in Ten Countries

43 Pages Posted: 27 Mar 2019 Last revised: 8 Oct 2020

See all articles by Robert G. Eccles

Robert G. Eccles

University of Oxford - Said Business School

Michael P. Krzus

Independent

Carlos Solano

Materiality Consulting

Date Written: March 2, 2019

Abstract

The first integrated reports were published in the early 2000’s by corporate pioneers determined to provide information that would improve their shareholders’ and stakeholders’ understanding of the company. The International Integrated Reporting Framework was released in December 2013 to provide organizations with guidance on the content of an integrated report. This paper explores that extent to which companies around the world are using the framework to prepare their reports and whether country-to-country differences exist in the content and quality of integrated reports. The authors selected five companies from each of the following countries: Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, United Kingdom, and the United States for the study. A 0-3 scale was used to evaluate five areas of disclosure — Materiality, Risks and opportunities, Strategy and resource allocation, Performance, and Outlook. We found that countries could be fairly clearly grouped into three categories of qualities of disclosure: High (Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa), Medium (France, Italy, South Korea, and the United Kingdom), and Low (Brazil, Japan, and the United States). We provide some preliminary views on the reasons for these differences.

Keywords: integrated reporting, materiality, outlook, performance, risks and opportunities, strategy and resource allocation

Suggested Citation

Eccles, Robert G. and Krzus, Michael P. and Solano, Carlos, A Comparative Analysis of Integrated Reporting in Ten Countries (March 2, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3345590 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3345590

Robert G. Eccles (Contact Author)

University of Oxford - Said Business School ( email )

Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HP
Great Britain

Michael P. Krzus

Independent ( email )

Carlos Solano

Materiality Consulting ( email )

CA
United States

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