TY - JOUR
T1 - The emergence of integrated private reporting
AU - Atkins, Jill Frances
AU - Solomon, Aris
AU - Norton, Simon
AU - Joseph, Nathan Lael
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to the Nuffield Foundation for funding this research. The authors thank Simon Zhiyuan Tan (King’s College London) for his constructive comments on this paper. The authors are grateful to delegates attending the British Accounting & Finance Association Annual (BAFA) Conference 2012 in Brighton who commented on this paper and provided suggestions for its development, especially Frank Birkin, Stuart Cooper, Andrea Dunhill, Markus Grottke, Prem Sikka, Phil Talbot. Thanks also to delegates at the Annual Accounting and Finance Colloquium at Gregynog, May 2012 for their comments on the paper including Roy Chandler, Doris Merkyl-Davis, Dylan Thomas and Julian Williams. The authors are also grateful to delegates, especially Ewan Ferlie, for comments on the paper at the Annual Social Science and Public Policy interdisciplinary conference at King’s College London, June 2012. The authors are grateful to delegates, especially Glen Lehman and Markus Milne, attending our presentation at the Financial Reporting & Business Communication FRBC) Conference in Bristol, July 2012, for their suggestions. Lastly, thanks to delegates at the BAFA SWAG annual conference, September 2012, especially David Gwilliam, Richard Macve, Oliver Marnet, Amama Shaukat, Huw Rhys, for their comments. The paper was also presented at the Meditari Accountancy Research Conference in Limpopo, South Africa, in June 2014.
Publisher Copyright:
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2049-372X.
PY - 2015/12/1
Y1 - 2015/12/1
N2 - Purpose - This paper aims to provide evidence to suggest that private social and environmental reporting (i.e. one-on-one meetings between institutional investors and investees on social and environmental issues) is beginning to merge with private financial reporting and that, as a result, integrated private reporting is emerging. Design/methodology/approach - In this paper, 19 FTSE100 companies and 20 UK institutional investors were interviewed to discover trends in private integrated reporting and to gauge whether private reporting is genuinely becoming integrated. The emergence of integrated private reporting through the lens of institutional logics was interpreted. The emergence of integrated private reporting as a merging of two hitherto separate and possibly rival institutional logics was framed. Findings - It was found that specialist socially responsible investment managers are starting to attend private financial reporting meetings, while mainstream fund managers are starting to attend private meetings on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Further, senior company directors are becoming increasingly conversant with ESG issues. Research limitations/implications - The findings were interpreted as two possible scenarios: there is a genuine hybridisation occurring in the UK institutional investment such that integrated private reporting is emerging or the financial logic is absorbing and effectively neutralising the responsible investment logic. Practical implications - These findings provide evidence of emergent integrated private reporting which are useful to both the corporate and institutional investment communities as they plan their engagement meetings. Originality/value - No study has hitherto examined private social and environmental reporting through interview research from the perspective of emergent integrated private reporting. This is the first paper to discuss integrated reporting in the private reporting context.
AB - Purpose - This paper aims to provide evidence to suggest that private social and environmental reporting (i.e. one-on-one meetings between institutional investors and investees on social and environmental issues) is beginning to merge with private financial reporting and that, as a result, integrated private reporting is emerging. Design/methodology/approach - In this paper, 19 FTSE100 companies and 20 UK institutional investors were interviewed to discover trends in private integrated reporting and to gauge whether private reporting is genuinely becoming integrated. The emergence of integrated private reporting through the lens of institutional logics was interpreted. The emergence of integrated private reporting as a merging of two hitherto separate and possibly rival institutional logics was framed. Findings - It was found that specialist socially responsible investment managers are starting to attend private financial reporting meetings, while mainstream fund managers are starting to attend private meetings on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Further, senior company directors are becoming increasingly conversant with ESG issues. Research limitations/implications - The findings were interpreted as two possible scenarios: there is a genuine hybridisation occurring in the UK institutional investment such that integrated private reporting is emerging or the financial logic is absorbing and effectively neutralising the responsible investment logic. Practical implications - These findings provide evidence of emergent integrated private reporting which are useful to both the corporate and institutional investment communities as they plan their engagement meetings. Originality/value - No study has hitherto examined private social and environmental reporting through interview research from the perspective of emergent integrated private reporting. This is the first paper to discuss integrated reporting in the private reporting context.
KW - Accounting theory
KW - Corporate governance
KW - Corporate social responsibility
KW - Qualitative research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930486238&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1108/MEDAR-01-2014-0002
DO - 10.1108/MEDAR-01-2014-0002
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:84930486238
SN - 2049-372X
VL - 23
SP - 28
EP - 61
JO - Meditari Accountancy Research
JF - Meditari Accountancy Research
IS - 1
ER -