Is Integrated Reporting the silver bullet of financial communication? A stakeholder perspective from South Africa

• While many laud the potential benefits of integrated reporting, few have measured its effectiveness from stakeholders’ perspective.
• This study uses a national online survey, to target a broader stakeholder group, and to measure their understanding of integrated reports.
• This study found that very few stakeholders use the integrated reports as their main source of investment information, and that these reports are seen as additional information. Not all respondents were convinced that financial reports are 1) adequate and 2) relevant for investment decision-making.
• Annual and interim reports are still the mainstay for corporate financial information.

Companies are being forced to critically re-evaluate how they communicate their financial information to stakeholders. Integrated Reporting, as mandated by the King III Report seeks to combine the reporting of financial and nonfinancial performance measures in a way that promotes corporate strategy. South Africa is leading the way in corporate governance and financial reporting with the first large-scale adoption of Integrated Reporting by listed companies. While there is a marked increase in financial communication from companies, it is not clear how all stakeholders use and value this information. The primary aim of this paper was to investigate how financial information is consumed within the ambit of the new financial reporting standards. Through a national online survey, this study found that very few stakeholders use the Integrated Reports as their main source of financial and investment information, and that these reports are seen as additional information. Annual and interim financial reports by companies are still the mainstay for corporate financial information. While stakeholders currently seldom use the Internet for financial information, they have indicated that they would increasingly prefer to do so. The paper concludes with a discussion of opportunities and challenges that future Integrated Reporting faces based on these findings.