Integrated Reporting and Corporate Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Integrated reporting represents the most prominent innovation in the field of corporate reporting. Fostered by the work of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), a number of organizations around the world have started to engage with integrated reporting, merging financial and non-financial information with the aim to promote a more cohesive approach to corporate disclosure (Rinaldi et al., 2018; Caglio et al., 2020). However, the IIRC’s proposal has also encountered criticism, mostly related to the inability of integrated reporting to adequately engage with sustainability issues (Milne and Gray, 2013; Flower, 2015). Indeed, an authentic incorporation of sustainability issues within integrated reports demands that a sustainability mindset permeates corporate governance and business strategy (Lai and Stacchezzini, 2019). In other words, the possibilities to integrate financial and non-financial information as well as to fully explain how the organization’s business model incorporates sustainability, particularly in a highly uncertain context such as the one we are currently experiencing, require a genuine integration of sustainability within governance, management and reporting processes.

Given this background, we are pleased to announce a Special Issue of Sustainability with the theme of integrated reporting and corporate sustainability. The Special Issue is open to both conceptual studies and empirical analysis based on qualitative as well as quantitative methodological approaches. Possible topics for contributions include, but are not limited to:

• Implementation of the connectivity principle and integration between financial and non-financial information;
• Integration between internal and external integrated reporting;
• Relationships between sustainable integrated disclosure and sustainability practices;
• The impact of COVID-19 on corporate integrated reporting;
• The incorporation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within integrated reports;
• The influence of corporate governance on sustainable integrated reporting;
• The regulation and institutionalization of sustainability disclosure beyond sustainability reports;
• Determinants and consequences of the integration of financial and non-financial information;
• The assurance of non-financial information within integrated reports.

1. Caglio, A., Melloni, G., & Perego, P. (2020), Informational content and assurance of textual disclosures: Evidence on integrated reporting, European Accounting Review, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 55-83.
2. Flower, J. (2015), “The international integrated reporting council: a story of failure”, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 27, pp. 1-17.
3. Lai, A. & Stacchezzini, R. (2019), Special Issue: New challenges in sustainability reporting, available at: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/medar/special-issue-new-challenges-sustainability-reporting-deadline-closed (accessed 3 August 2020).
4. Milne, M.J. & Gray, R. (2013), “W(h)ither ecology? The triple bottom line, the global reporting initiative, and corporate sustainability reporting”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 118, No. 1, pp. 13-29.
5. Rinaldi, L., Unerman, J., & De Villiers, C. (2018). Evaluating the integrated reporting journey: insights, gaps and agendas for future research. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 31, No. 5, pp. 1294-1318.

Assoc. Prof. Riccardo Stacchezzini
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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• integrated reporting
• sustainability reporting
• corporate reporting
• non-financial information
• integrated thinking
• connectivity of information
• corporate disclosure
• sustainability
• United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• COVID-19