Early adopters of institutional creativity in integrated reporting

Abstract

Purpose

In the last two decades, risk reporting has followed a normative and calculative culture rather than the “materiality” of data. Although integrated reporting (IR) has become flooded with extra information, it does not adequately disseminate material information to stakeholders. In addition, the poor tone from the top diminishes creativity. This study aims to investigate how companies creatively address issues of the materiality of risk information in IR and how IR can be aligned with enterprise risk management.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative research was conducted via interviews with 50 chief risk officers and senior management executives in the Indian and UK insurance markets.

Findings

Overall, five institutions were observed to exhibit elements of being early adopters of institutional creativity. This confirmed the present study’s theoretical contribution of five divergent types of early adopters. The motivations for creativity are reflected in the resources available to these institutions.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides a new insight into IR from internal mechanisms to deal with issue of materiality.