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This study aims to propose a longitudinal analysis of motivations for Integrated Reporting (IR) adoption, internal changes, the benefits of IR implementation and compliance challenges.

The authors analyse a longitudinal case study of an Italian-listed company (Eni) participating in the IR-Pilot Programme (PP) and covering 10 years of IR adoption. The analysis was based on a mixed-method approach that included semi-structured interviews, content analysis of annual reports and triangulation with other data sources. Results are discussed regarding institutional theory, legitimacy theory and diffusion of innovation theory.

The study suggests that motivations for adopting IR change over time and participation in the IR-PP helps Eni acquire a comprehensive and substantial integrated view of value creation over time, makes integrated culture a key factor for strategic business sustainability and confirms the readiness of early adopters to comply with the non-financial Directive (NFD).

This study, among the few longitudinal case studies, provides organisations, regulators and academics with insights into the motivations driving the successful adoption and implementation of IR and the NFD. The results may help companies consider one of the tools currently deemed to bring sustainability into action and participation in pilot groups.

This paper aims to contribute to the development of the European Union (EU) regulatory environment for sustainability reporting by analyzing how materiality is defined in the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and by examining the added value and challenges of legalizing reporting and materiality requirements from both regulatory and practical company perspectives. It provides insights on whether this is reflected by EU pharmaceutical companies and to what extent companies report information on their materiality analysis process.

Doctrinal analysis was used to examine regulatory instruments. Qualitative document analysis was used to analyze companies’ reports. The added value and challenges were examined using a governance approach. It focused on legalizing reporting and materiality requirements, with a brief extension to corporate management and organization studies.

Materiality has evolved from a vague concept in the NFRD toward double materiality in the CSRD. This was reflected by the industry, but reports revealed inconsistencies in materiality definitions and reported information. Challenges include lack of self-reflection and company-centric perceptions of materiality. Companies should explain how they identify relevant stakeholders and how input is considered in decision-making.

Managers must consider how they conduct materiality assessments to meet society’s expectations. The underlying processes should be explained to increase the credibility of reports. Sustainability reporting should be seen as a corporate governance tool.

This work contributes to the literature on materiality in sustainability reporting and to the debate on the need for a holistic, society-centric approach to enhance the sustainability of companies.

This study aims to evaluate the quality of the energy efficiency disclosures made by Australian cities. As cities are significant energy users, and energy use is a crucial source of greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency initiatives can play an essential role in addressing climate change. Yet, little is understood about the energy efficiency disclosures being made.

The authors developed an original energy efficiency disclosure index to assess the reporting quality of the eight largest Australian cities. The websites of these cities were analysed for information on energy efficiency measures from December 2018 to June 2019. Annual reports, environmental reports, climate action plans and any other material related to energy plans were downloaded and then coded using the index.

While all cities provided energy efficiency information, little financial information was provided, limited forward-looking information was disclosed, key challenges were not disclosed, and each city provided energy efficiency disclosures differently. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that public accountability is limited.

An important implication is the need to standardise and improve cities’ energy efficiency reporting, especially concerning financial information. Cities, governments and the Carbon Disclosure Project (formerly the CDP) could achieve this, perhaps as part of the broader update of the CDP city-focused guidelines for greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting.

Although some studies on GHG reporting by cities have already been undertaken, including energy efficiency as part of their disclosure index, no study has focused on energy efficiency disclosures. The authors provide original insights concerning these practices. The study also provides an energy efficiency disclosure index that can be used in further research.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of sustainable enterprise resource planning (S-ERPs) systems implementation on sustainability performance.

A 1 × 2 experiment was conducted, involving a sample of 72 professional accountants enrolled in MPA, MBA and DBA programs at two prominent Egyptian universities. Simple linear regression was used to analyze the data.

The results reveal positive relationships between the implementation of S-ERPs and economic, environmental and social sustainability performance.

Considering the research methodology used, which relies on a laboratory experiment design; nevertheless, empirical data derived from a quasi-experiment conducted in a real-world context would offer valuable insights into the existing literature.

For manufacturing sector managers, the results offer value as organizations can benefit from S-ERP adoption in the internal and external integration of sustainability functions. The findings also provide decision-makers in the manufacturing context, particularly in emerging countries, with tangible reasons to consider S-ERP adoption for holistic sustainability benefits including waste management, resource consumption reduction and management of sustainable supply chain complexities. Further, the findings provide valuable insights for ERP vendors on how they can develop their ERP packages to align with software sustainability criteria.

This study is among the few that experimentally investigates the influence of S-ERPs implementation on sustainability performance within the manufacturing sector, especially in an emerging context such as Egypt. This unique contribution provides valuable insights into the complex connection between technology adoption and sustainability outcomes.

The study aims to analyse the role of digitisation in accounting in enhancing the overall effectiveness of accounting functions. To achieve this, the study provides empirical evidence from the stakeholder’s perspective of digitisation of accounting, auditing, reporting and regulatory compliance procedures.

The study has applied a quantitative approach to identify the thoughts of auditors, accountants and academicians on the impact of digitalised accounting applications on accounting functions. The data was collected by administering an empirical study and a sample of 482 professionals from the accounting, auditing and academic sectors. To analyse and interpret data descriptive statistics, structured equation modelling and mediation analysis has been used.

The finding of the study signifies the relevance of digitalised accounting applications in accounting functions and reveals that there is a significant impact of digitalisation on accounting, auditing, reporting and regulatory compliance aspects of accounting functions. The outcome of the study explores that a digitalised accounting system reduces possible errors and improves the accuracy and transparency of the system.

The study highlighted the importance of developing new methods and techniques that can be used in practice. This indirectly advocates the inclusion of such concepts in accounting curricula to emphasise the need to understand the challenges and opportunities created by digitisation. Furthermore, the study will become a motivation to scholars who intend to explore different areas through which new technologies can be adopted to transform traditional accounting systems.

The contributions of the current study have implications that the adoption of digitised accounting enhances economic efficiency through a reduction in accounting costs, and enhanced accuracy that leads to the elimination of penalties and litigations for non-compliance with regulatory authorities. This indirectly impacts positively on the financial health of the business organisations and economies at large. This implication becomes greater evidential support to the organisations which are yet to plan the adoption and implementation of digital tools in their organisation for accounting functions.

Digitalisation is a relevant part of the accounting function to improve efficiency and accuracy. Since accounting and auditing practitioners struggle to control the accuracy and efficiency of transactions. Furthermore, the outcome of the study assists organisations in gaining real-time access to financial data, transforms workflows and empowers management to make timely informed sound decisions, optimise resource allocation, efficient regulatory compliance and so on.

This study aims to explore some perceptions related to the suggestion that external auditors will be replaced by audit technologies that use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to make audit judgements when performing the financial statement audits. Digital transformation is revitalising the technologies used by external auditors and their firms; thus, the authors seek to understand what challenges this creates for the auditing profession in Vietnam.

Through the theoretical lens of new institutionalism theory, this study uses a qualitative approach involving 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with external auditors in Vietnam during 2022. This sample includes the global Big Four, global mid-tier and smaller local Vietnamese audit firms.

The findings indicate that there is resistance or disagreement with the suggestion that in the future audit technologies using AI tools can replace humans (external auditors). The role of external auditors in the professional services sector will gradually be changed by audit technologies; however, external auditors are unlikely to be replaced by audit technologies that use AI tools based on the responses of the participants. Strict institutional rules that exist in Vietnam would prevent the replacement of (human) external auditors. In the future, external auditors may take on new roles as consultants, with unique skills in classifying and processing data for decision-making processes; however, they will not be completely replaced by technology in the audit space.

This study has limitations that it is based on the data collection from a single developing country, Vietnam; therefore, the generalisability of the findings is limited to Vietnam. Also, the authors sought insights into the future of external audits in Vietnam.

This study highlights the changing role of auditors and institutions. Thus, policymakers, external auditors and auditees in other developing countries would find the findings helpful.

This study provides new perspectives, particularly from local Vietnamese firms, about audit practices that emerge due to high-level technological advancements and then embed themselves into existing audit practices in an emerging economy. Prior studies tended to focus on the global Big Four firms, thus this study contributes by sharing the perceptions of the smaller practitioners also.

Corporate disclosures are essential because they provide transparent and accurate information about a company's financial health, performance, risks and governance practices. They enable investors to make informed decisions, promote market efficiency and maintain trust in the financial system. This paper uses bibliometrics to identify the intellectual composition of the literature on corporate disclosure.

Based on the bibliometric information of 4,551 articles on corporate disclosure research, the authors conducted citation, keyword co-occurrence, bibliographic coupling and publication analyses to elucidate the leading articles, authors, sources, institutions, countries, themes and topics in the field of corporate disclosure from the 1960s to 2021.

The findings of this review demonstrate that corporate disclosure research is based on four broad themes – the role of disclosure in capital markets, non-financial disclosure, determinants of corporate disclosure and firm risk and intellectual capital disclosure. This review suggests that management should pay attention to the financial and non-financial corporate information that investors, regulators and the government emphasise.

This paper is the first comprehensive bibliometric review on corporate disclosure. It summarises the regulatory shifts, technological changes and industry trends that have influenced corporate disclosure research. Besides identifying broad research themes, the authors performed bibliographic coupling for research on disclosure sources, including annual reports, management forecasts, earnings calls, press releases, the Internet and social media, to reveal the thematic clusters related to these sources.

The present research aims to understand the performance disclosure levels provided by Italian healthcare organisations (HCOs). The authors conducted this study to assess the transparency of HCOs' performance reporting processes by examining the amount and the type of information disclosed in Annual Performance Reports (APRs).

The present study uses a qualitative research methodology based on manual content analysis. The APRs of a sample of 171 Italian public HCOs were analysed.

Results evidence that the APRs provide a sufficient level of disclosure of performance information, putting high attention on the epidemiological conditions; however, the APRs do not present a strong information function for stakeholders' decision-making purposes. The Italian HCOs APRs are not easily understandable because the APRs are not very concise and present information mainly in discursive terms with limited graphic support.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first research investigating both the extent and type of performance information reported by Italian HCOs in the APRs, considering the particular contextual conditions caused by the most significant challenge the healthcare (HC) sector has faced in recent years: the epidemiological crisis of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The study also explores whether APRs are currently used by HCOs as a merely regulatory requirement or as an information tool for accountability and decision-making purposes.

This paper aims to examine the extent to which performance indicators (PIs) reported by New Zealand (NZ) higher education institutions (HEIs) correspond with accounting standards and guidance and the effects issuance of principles-based authoritative guidance and early adoption of Public Benefit Entity Financial Reporting Standard 48 (PBE FRS 48) have on the PIs disclosed.

Using a content analysis index derived from accounting standards and guidance, we conduct a longitudinal assessment of the 2016 and 2019 statements of service performance published by 22 NZ HEIs.

The PIs reported extend beyond the service performance elements proposed by standard-setters. Despite few indicators on intermediate and broader outcomes, the measures disclosed by HEIs are reflective of their role in the NZ economy and the national Tertiary Education Strategy. The results show that principles-based authoritative guidance and early adoption of PBE FRS 48 influence the focus and type of measures disclosed, while there is no evidence of improvements in the reporting of impacts, outcomes and information useful for performance evaluation.

This paper provides timely insights for standard-setters and regulators on the influence principles-based accounting standards and guidance have on non-financial reporting practices.

This study contributes to the scant literature on HEIs’ service performance reporting. It presents a model for conceptualising HEIs’ PIs that can be used as a basis for future research on non-financial reporting. It also reflects on the tension between accountability and “accountingisation”, suggesting that, although the PIs reported support formal accountability, they do not communicate whether HEIs’ activities and outputs meet their social purpose.

In recent times, stakeholders have called on corporate organizations especially those charged with governance to embrace full disclosure on non-financial issues, especially sustainability reporting. Based on this premise, this study aims to examine the influence of corporate board and assurance on sustainability reporting practices (SRP) of selected 80 firms from 8 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

To measure the corporate board, the authors use both board variables and audit committee variables. Also, the authors adapted the sustainability score model as used by previous authors in the field of sustainability disclosure to measure SRPs. The analysis was done using both ordered logistic regression and probit regression models.

The results show that the combination of board corporate and assurance has a positive and significant impact on the sustainability reporting practice of selected firms in sub-Saharan Africa.

The study places emphasis on the need for strong collaboration between the corporate board and external assurance in evaluating and enhancing the quality of sustainability disclosure.

The study bridged the gap in the literature in the area of corporate board, assurance and SRP of corporate firms which has received little attention within sub-Saharan Africa.