Integrated reporting and narrative accountability: the role of preparers
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 29 May 2018
Issue publication date: 19 June 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The International Integrated Reporting Council claims that integrated reporting (IR) can enhance corporate accountability, yet critical and interpretative studies have contested this outcome. Insufficient empirical research details how preparers experience accountability while constructing IR; to fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to analyse how the preparers’ mode of cognition influences the patterns of accountability associated with IR.
Design/methodology/approach
A functionalist approach to narratives helps elucidate the role that the IR preparers’ narrative mode of cognition plays on accountability towards stakeholders. The empirical analysis particularly benefits from in-depth interviews with the IR preparers of a global insurer that has used IR since 2013.
Findings
The preparers’ narrative mode of cognition facilitates dialogue with IR users. It addresses accountability tensions by revealing the company’s value creation process. Preparers’ efforts to establish a meaningful dialogue with a growing variety of stakeholders through broader and plainer messages reveals the potential of IR as a narrative source of a socializing form of accountability. However, financial stakeholders remain the primary addressees of the reports.
Research limitations/implications
This paper focusses on preparers’ views; further research should integrate users’ accountability expectations.
Originality/value
This paper offers new insights for dealing with corporate reporting and accountability in a novel IR setting.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Case study insights from the implementation of integrated reporting”.
The research benefited from funds obtained within the “Ricerca di Base 2015” project of the University of Verona (Italy).The authors also gratefully acknowledge the availability of the interviewees at Generali Assicurazioni. The authors thank the Guest Editors Charl de Villiers, Leonardo Rinaldi and Jeffrey Unerman for the support during the review process, and the reviewers for their insightful comments. While the paper is the result of a joint effort of the authors, the individual contributions are as follows: Alessandro Lai wrote Sections 4.2, 6.1 and 6.2; Gaia Melloni wrote Sections 3.1, 3.2, 4.3 and 5; Riccardo Stacchezzini wrote Sections 1, 2, 4.1, 7 and 8.
Citation
Lai, A., Melloni, G. and Stacchezzini, R. (2018), "Integrated reporting and narrative accountability: the role of preparers", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 31 No. 5, pp. 1381-1405. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-08-2016-2674
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited