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This study aims to examine whether the adoption of the International Integrated Reporting Council’s Integrated Reporting Framework (IIRC Framework) influences the extent of forward-looking disclosures provided by reporters.

This study captures forward-looking disclosures of Australian and New Zealand-based reporters by analysing integrated and annual reports over a period of 10 years from 2010 to 2019 using a machine learning algorithm. This study uses signalling theory to frame the analysis.

This study finds that the adoption of the IIRC Framework has a significant positive impact on the extent of forward-looking disclosures provided by reporting entities. The primary evidence suggests that while listing status alone negatively influences the extent of forward-looking disclosures, the additional analysis reveals that the acceptance of the IIRC Framework by listed entities is positively associated with an increase in forward-looking information. These results remain valid when subjected to a variety of robustness (alternative variables and country fixed effect) and endogeneity (system generalised method of moments and entropy balancing estimations) tests.

The findings have practical implications as regulatory agencies (including stock exchanges and standard setters), seeking to promote greater forward-looking disclosures, may want to encourage the adoption of the IIRC Framework.

The IIRC’s Framework promotes greater forward-looking disclosures benefiting stakeholders who gain a better understanding of the reporters’ future risks and opportunities (including social, economic and environmental risks) and how these are being managed/addressed.

This study provides novel evidence by highlighting the role played by the IIRC Framework in promoting forward-looking disclosures.

This paper aims to investigate how integrated reporting quality (IRQ), as well as comprehensive disclosure score (CDS) (i.e. incorporating integrated and sustainable reporting quality), impacts value creation differently between companies operating under mandatory versus voluntary adoption of these reporting frameworks.

The sample comprises 1,195 firm-year observations (international data set) from 2018 to 2022, which are divided into groups based on mandatory vs voluntary adoption of the international integrated reporting framework (IIRF) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). Furthermore, regression analysis is used in the analyses.

The findings revealed a significant and positive relationship between IRQ and value creation on a global scale. In addition, unlike voluntary adoption of the IIRF, mandatory adoption of it showed a significant and positive relationship between IRQ and value creation. Furthermore, an increase in the CDS had a greater impact on value creation compared to IRQ. Finally, in contrast to companies with voluntary adoption of both IIRF and SASB, companies with mandatory adoption of them exhibited a significant and positive relationship between these reports and value creation.

The findings have practical implications for various stakeholders. First, by enhancing the awareness and understanding of integrated reporting and sustainability reporting among users, these results can facilitate more informed economic decision-making and enable a more accurate assessment of a company's potential for value creation. Second, these findings can contribute to the development of more effective and tailored reporting guidelines that align with the nuances of value creation dynamics in different contexts. Ultimately, this research can lead to improvements in reporting practices and regulatory frameworks, benefiting both companies and their stakeholders.

The study's social implications are significant as it offers insights into the global debate surrounding the adoption of the IIRF and the objectives of the merger involving the Value Reporting Foundation and the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation. The findings provide a concrete basis for evaluating the value of adopting the IIRF and inform discussions on the future of reporting standards and practices.

Furthermore, it stands as one of the pioneering endeavors to investigate the value creation aspects of CDS. These unique aspects make a substantive contribution by expanding the frontiers of knowledge in the realm of corporate reporting and financial implications, offering novel insights and opportunities for further research in this crucial domain.

The effects of integrated reporting quality (IRQ) have been debated in increasing empirical studies. Several IRQ measures, different theoretical approaches and multiple contexts have been adopted and investigated, leading to mixed results. By using the meta-analytic technique, this study aims to contribute to the accounting literature, reconciling the conflicting results on the effects of IRQ and providing objective conclusions to complement narrative literature reviews.

A sample of 45 empirical papers from 2013 to 2022, with 653 effect sizes, was used to assess the effects associated with IRQ. The papers were clustered into five groups (market reaction, financial performance, cost of capital, financial analysts’ properties and managerial decisions) based on the different consequences of IRQ investigated in the primary studies. A random-effects meta-regression model was used to explore all sources of heterogeneity together.

The meta-regression results confirm that IRQ positively influences firms’ market valuation and financial performance and hampers opportunistic managerial behaviour by improving corporate transparency, mitigating information asymmetry and encouraging accountability. Moreover, differences in the study characteristics affect the strength of the relationship object of interest.

Through meta-analysis, this study provides a broader overview of the effects of IRQ by enhancing the generalisability of the findings. The results also pave the way for additional evidence on the outcome variables affected by the quality of integrated disclosure.

Intellectual capital (IC) is an increasingly important strategic asset for sustainable value creation in organisations. This paper aims to provide a conceptual perspective on the university’s role as a catalyst for IC creation and development within the dynamic landscape of organisations, exploring the nexus to capture its essence.

Adopting a conceptual framework development approach, key concepts were cohesively and coherently synthesised from various theoretical underpinnings, namely, the multiple capitals approach to maximising corporate value creation, the evolved triple bottom line approach to corporate sustainability, the triple helix innovation model and its subsequent extensions, the upper echelons theory and the social licence construct linked to stakeholder, legitimacy and institutional theories.

A comprehensive conceptual framework was developed that outlines universities’ role in catalysing four corporate IC forms crucial to sustainable organisational value creation: human capital, governance capital, social/relational capital and structural/organisational capital. The framework interprets this role of universities as dynamic IC reservoirs serving regional ecosystems for sustainable development. It highlights the synergistic sustainable value creation between universities and organisations in host communities and broader society, with university governance acting as a key driver.

This paper offers a theoretically grounded interpretation of universities’ pivotal role in catalysing essential forms of IC to support contemporary organisations’ sustainable value-creation processes. The proposed framework has the potential to ignite conversations on the crucial connection between universities and corporate IC development relevant to sustainable organisations, inspiring future empirical research, reflection and discussion.

This study explores the integration of corporate reporting by Mitsubishi, a large Japanese company, using a culturally sensitive narrative that combines and reconciles Japanese and Western corporate values in one story.

We use an analytical framework drawing on insights borrowed from narratology and the notion of wrapping – the traditional art of packaging as communication.

We find that Mitsubishi is a survivor company that uses different corporate reporting frameworks during its reporting journey to construct a bespoke narrative of its value creation and cultural values. It emplots narratives to convey a story presenting the impression that Mitsubishi is a Japanese corporation but is compatible with Western neo-liberal ideology, making bad news palatable to its stakeholders and instilling confidence in the future.

Wrapping is a culturally sensitive form of impression management used in the integration of corporate reporting. Therefore, rather than assuming that companies blatantly manipulate their image in corporate reports, we suggest that future research should focus on how narratives are constructed and made sense of, situating them in the context of local culture and traditions.

The findings should interest scholars, report preparers, policymakers, and the IFRS, considering the recent release of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards designed to reduce the so-called alphabet soup of corporate reporting. By following Mitsubishi’s journey, we learn how and why the notion of integrated reporting was adopted and integrated with other reporting frameworks to create narratives that together convey a story of a global corporation compliant with Western neoliberal ideology. It highlights how Mitsubishi used integrated reporting to tell its story rather than as a rigid reporting framework, and the same fate may apply to the new IFRS Sustainability Reporting Standards that now include integrated reporting.

The study offers a new perspective on corporate reporting, showing how the local societal discourses of cultural heritage and modernity can shape the journey of the integration of corporate reporting over time.

This study aims to investigate the level of reporting compliance in terms of content elements, measure to what extent each content element of the integrated reporting (IR) framework is linked to value creation and demonstrate the relationship between the level of compliance and value creation linkages.

The sample for this study consists of 12 companies, 11 of which are public and 1 is non-public. The data is obtained from the Integrated Reporting Turkey Network founded in 2015 in Turkey. This study applies a holistic approach integrating two different content analysis methods. First, a multi-weighted scoring system is constructed by using the IR content elements and the previously developed indexes in the literature. Second, in-depth, sentence-by-sentence content analysis is used to determine the relation between the content elements and value creation.

The results of the multi-weighted scoring system indicate a high level of compliance in the banking sector. On the other hand, the scores of the content analysis demonstrate higher scores in the disclosures of “basis of preparation and presentation”, “organizational overview and external environment”, “strategy and resource allocation”, “performance” and “business model” elements, while lower scores in the elements of “risk and opportunities” and “outlook.” The lowest compliance level associated with lower content analysis scores may indicate a low level of value creation potential. Consequently, this two-stage scoring is critical, as it clarifies the relation between compliance level and the explanatory power of each content element from a value creation perspective.

This study aims to support the policymakers and regulators in highlighting the importance of measuring and reporting value. Furthermore, it intends to encourage companies to produce reports that increase the value relevance of accounting information to contribute to the development of capital markets. The current literature includes research that mainly concentrates only on the quality or extent of IR disclosure practices. This study offers a combined analysis that helps to determine at what level a company has accomplished the expectations of the International Integrated Reporting Council in terms of both the content and the value creation potential.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the link between external audit quality and integrated reporting (IR) quality in the Jordanian market, a developing market. Furthermore, the research model considers the mediating effect of earnings management practices and the moderating effect of board gender diversity. As a result, it intends to provide further empirical evidence in this area.

This research investigates its model using data from Jordanian services companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period 2013–2022. With 430 company-year observations, the current research’s sample includes all companies in the research population for which complete data were available during the period under investigation. Data relevant to the research setting were obtained from annual disclosures and the ASE's database.

The findings of this research show that audit firm size and audit firm specialty have a positive influence on IR quality, but audit firm tenure does not. External audit quality (as proxied by the size, specialty and turnover of the audit firm) had a negative impact on earnings management practices, while earnings management practices had a negative impact on IR quality. Additionally, the findings reveal that earnings management practices completely mediate the relationship between two external audit quality proxies (audit firm size and audit firm specialty) and IR quality. Furthermore, in terms of the moderating impact of board gender diversity, it is obvious that board gender diversity favorably moderates the relationships between all external audit quality proxies and IR quality.

Using agency theory and stakeholder theory, this investigation fills a gap in previous literature by adding scientific explanations and empirical evidence from the Jordanian market, a developing market, in the context of the impact of audit quality on IR quality, mediated by earnings management and moderated by board gender diversity.

Studies in corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure were initially focused more on disclosure “Quantity” than “Quality” and while they have started to explore “Disclosure Quality”, their assessment mechanisms are found to be immature. Thus, while a number of papers have sought to assess the quality of CSR disclosure, this paper aims to suggest an approach tied closely to both expectations in assessing “quality” derived from the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (revised 2018) and the global reporting initiative. The outcome is to offer a best practice approach to assessing CSR disclosure quality.

In this paper, prior literature is reviewed, qualitative characteristics from the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (revised 2018) and globally recognised guidelines such as the GRI are reviewed. The framework for a “CSR disclosure quality index” as an assessment tool to assess CSR disclosure quality is developed from qualitative characteristics and criteria identified.

The proposed CSR disclosure quality index is developed in stages from the qualitative characteristics identified in the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (revised 2018) and criteria identified from the guidelines discussed. A table was then developed linking the qualitative characteristics to criteria providing a Likert scale approach to assessing the disclosures made by companies to make an assessment of the quality of the companies’ reports. It is argued this provides a robust assessment, being a direct and comprehensive measure of disclosure quality.

As with most qualitative work, there are alternative approaches to establishing an index, but the authors believe this is an approach offering links (and, therefore, credibility) to globally recognised guidelines in the assessment of CSR disclosure quality. Future work could enhance the alignment of this index with the sustainable development goals (SDGs), building on the preliminary connections established in this study.

At a practical level this index offers an approach to reviewing the quality of CSR disclosures which could prove useful to policymakers and in the future development and expansion of this framework offering greater objectivity to assessments and justification for proposed improvement in reporting practice. Also, this index serves as a benchmarking tool for companies to meet the disclosure expectations of stakeholders.

This approach has the potential to substantially fulfil stakeholder expectations by addressing the growing demand for transparency in this area, while avoiding practices that could be perceived as superficial or misleading (greenwashing). Focusing on social issues enables stronger connections between companies and their stakeholders. Furthermore, the index helps companies link their CSR efforts with SDGs and show their commitment to long-term social value building in discussion of governance factors to show accountability expectations are being met.

This paper contributes to CSR disclosure quality literature and provides a reliable method of assessing the quality of CSR disclosures. Opportunities for further and broader developments can be envisaged while offering a credible and reliable approach.

This study aims to evaluate the relationship between integrated reporting and management’s opportunistic behavior (i.e., accrual and real earnings management) and the moderating role of firm complexity.

Data of firms at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange were collected and analyzed. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is currently the primary exchange that mandates the practice of integrated reporting. Regression estimation models and robustness tests were applied to the analysis.

This study concludes that integrated reporting quality reduces firms’ accrual and real earnings management practices. It further concludes that the significant negative effect of integrated reporting quality on firms’ earnings management practices is impeded by higher firm complexity.

This study enhances the literature on the behavioral effect of a combined financial and sustainability disclosure practice on both accrual and real earnings management, specifically targeting South Africa’s listed companies – the primary market currently mandates integrated reporting practice.

The aim of this paper is to propose a basis upon which accounting reporting can be developed to reflect real values and the real economy. It aims to address the environmental considerations discussed in the UN debate (Bebbington and Unerman, 2020) and the concern for a “better life-world”, which is the theme of this special issue.

Addressing the task involves the application of the philosophy of pragmatic constructivism (which explains how people can relate to their reality in ways that lead to successful action) and the philosophical concept of the “good life” (which establishes the values to be pursued through action and so defines action success). Also, it outlines the necessary characteristics of measurement frameworks if they are to be effective in the development and control of human practices to achieve desired values.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for guiding the measurement of how a sustainable good life has improved and/or deteriorated as a result of organisational activities. It outlines a system of concepts on basic and instrumental values for analysing the condition of maintaining a sustainable good life in real terms. This is related to the financial results and societal regulations to analyse and adjust controls according to the real economic goals. Also, it provides a system of value measurands to produce valid information about the development of a sustainable good life. The measurand makes accounting reporting reflect the conditions of the good life that constitute the real economy instead of merely the financial economy driven by shareholder capitalism. Providing tools to analyse whether the existing practices of business and social regulations promote or counteract the real economic goals of producing a sustainable good life means the measurement system proposed makes the invisible hand of the market visible.

The mechanism proposed to enable accounting reporting to reflect real values and the real economy is a new conceptual framework that will allow accounting to more fully realise its potential to contribute to a “better world”. In aiming to serve a sustainable good life, accounting reporting will inherently foster ethical social practices.