What Integrated Reporting Changed: The Case Study of Early Adopters

During last decades, there are increasing pressures on corporate reporting that lead to increasing number of reports. All those pressures caused that it is harder for the users to orient in disclosures and find relevant information. One of the way to overcome those obstacles is integrated reporting (IR). In 2010 International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) was founded and one year later it launched the pilot programme in order to find the basis for development of integrated reporting principles. Over 100 businesses all around the world participate in this programme and adopt integrated reporting principles. In our study we focus on the early adopters and investigate how the reporting changed since the adoption of IR. We investigate the reports before and after entry to this programme, i.e. years 2010 – 2014. We examine the number of disclosures, their form and use of information technology in connection with business sector, public or private sector and listed or non-listed entities. The aim of this paper is to assess how integrated reporting changes the ways of reporting and which benefits arise from the adoption.