The impact of ownership structure on integrated reporting in European firms

Abstract

Purpose

Within the theoretical framework of corporate governance, the article aims to examine the impact of ownership structure on the level of disclosure of financial and non-financial information in integrated reporting (IR), and the effect is sensitive to national legal systems.

Design/methodology/approach

Regressions on panel data are used to study the impact of ownership structure on IR. The present empirical study was based on a sample of 431 European firms belonging to common or civil law for the period spanning 2012 and 2019.

Findings

The results of the linear regressions corroborate the existence of relationships between the ownership concentration, institutional ownership as well as managerial ownership and IR.

Research limitations/implications

The study have limitations as follows: the role of the ownership structure studied here, the model should incorporate other internal and external control mechanisms to represent reality more fully. The mechanisms include board characteristics, financial market, labor market, the goods and services market, etc. that affect managerial latitude and, therefore, the adoption of IR. Finally, the authors will consider future theoretical and empirical improvement. For example, it would be interesting to extend the theoretical framework to the contributions of cognitive governance and to empirically examine the modeling with a larger sample of firms, including an international comparison.

Originality/value

The study provides evidence as to the disclosure of IR and ownership structure. The originality/value chapter highlights the global need for a generally accepted set of standards for sustainability and IR practices.

Citation

Zouari, G. and Dhifi, K. (2022), "The impact of ownership structure on integrated reporting in European firms", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 527-542. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-05-2021-0057