Integrated reporting: On the need for broadening out and opening up
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 27 August 2014
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically assess integrated reporting so as to “broaden out” and “open up” dialogue and debate about how accounting and reporting standards might assist or obstruct efforts to foster sustainable business practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors link current debates about integrated reporting to prior research on the contested politics of social and environmental reporting, and critiques of the dominance of business case framings. The authors introduce research from science and technology studies that seeks to broaden out and open up appraisal methods and engagement processes in ways that highlight divergent framings and politically contentious issues, in an effort to develop empowering designs for sustainability. The authors demonstrate the strong resonance between this work and calls for the development of dialogic/polylogic accountings that take pluralism seriously by addressing constituencies and perspectives currently marginalized in mainstream accounting. The authors draw and build on both literatures to critically reflect on the International Integrated Reporting Council's (IIRC, 2011, 2012a, b, 2013a, b) advocacy of a business case approach to integrated reporting as an innovation that can contribute to sustainability transitions.
Findings
The authors argue that integrated reporting, as conceived by the IIRC, provides a very limited and one-sided approach to assessing and reporting on sustainability issues. While the business case framing on which it rests might assist in extending the range of phenomena accounted for in organizational reports, it remains an ideologically closed approach that is more likely to reinforce rather than encourage critical reflection on “business as usual” practices. Recognizing that the meaning and design of integrated reporting are still far from stabilized, the authors also illustrate more enabling possibilities aimed at identifying and engaging diverse socio-political perspectives.
Practical implications
Science and technology studies research on the need to broaden out and open up appraisal methods, together with proposals for dialogic/polylogic accountings, facilitates a critical, nuanced discussion of the value of integrated reporting as a change initiative that might foster transitions to more sustainable business practices.
Originality/value
The authors link ideas and findings from science and technology studies with literature on dialogic/polylogic accountings to engage current debates around the merits of integrated reporting as a change initiative that can contribute to sustainability. This paper advances understanding of the role of accounting in sustainability transitions in three main ways: first, it takes discussion of accounting change beyond the organizational level, where much professional and academic literature is currently focussed, and extends existing critiques of business case approaches to social and environmental reporting; second, it emphasizes the political and power-laden nature of appraisal processes, dimensions that are under-scrutinized in existing accounting literature; and third, it introduces a novel framework that enables evaluation of individual disclosure initiatives such as integrated reporting without losing sight of the big picture of sustainability challenges.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund for supporting this research as part of a funded project on “Dialogic Accounting: The Challenge of Taking Multiple Perspectives Seriously,” Contract No. VUW1011. The authors would like to acknowledge the work of Andy Stirling and his colleagues in providing stimulation for this paper (in particular Stirling, 2008 on “opening up” and “closing down” in relation to the social appraisal of technology, and Leach et al., 2010 on “empowering designs” for sustainability). Many thanks also to the anonymous referees for their very helpful comments and suggestions.
Citation
Brown, J. and Dillard, J. (2014), "Integrated reporting: On the need for broadening out and opening up", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 27 No. 7, pp. 1120-1156. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-04-2013-1313
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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