Integrated reporting and change: what are the impacts after more than a decade of integrated reporting?

Integrated reporting resulted from the continuous change in the corporate reporting environment to fulfil different stakeholder needs (Tlili et al., 2019). Although stakeholder pressure influences social action, including integrated reporting, it does not necessarily lead to a substantial change in business models and corporate culture (Vitolla et al., 2019). However, integrated reporting aims to change how a company communicates its value creation over the short, medium and long term, with the primary audience being the “providers of financial capital” (IIRC, 2013, p. 4), otherwise known as investors. The IIRC intended for corporate reporting and corporate thinking to change, so it introduced integrated thinking. By recognising the interrelationships between financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capital, the IIRC hoped to promote internal change. However, the internal changes made largely use management control systems, specifically cultural controls, to change employee behaviour (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007), which either complement or clash with existing organisational culture. Changes are also often made to information systems and reporting practices (Dumay et al., 2017). The special issue’s main aim was to explore all manners of change associated with integrated reporting. In our call for papers, we sought knowledge on how accountancy tools are infused and affected by the changes integrated reporting makes in and around organisations and how this influences people’s perceptions of corporate narrations.