Integrated Reporting and Intellectual Capital: A Structured Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

This research aims to provide a Structured Literature Review (SLR) concerning the role of Intellectual Capital (IC) in Integrated Reporting (IR). It analyses papers published in journals from business, management, and accounting area, from 2013 to 2021 with the purpose of pointing out relevant insights about the relationship between IC and IR. Despite that existing literature offers valuable contributions about IC, and the International Integrated Reporting Council included IC related issues among the aims and the fundamentals concepts of IR, this is a topic of growing interest that offers many avenues for further discussion. Analysing past and present literature, this study found that most of the papers use content analysis or a conceptual and critical approach. Moreover, three main paths emerged: about IC disclosure, about IC and IR as a field of research, about a practical concern of IR and IC. Moreover, it tries to frame a future research agenda; particularly, this paper emphasizes the need for further research about the importance of new technologies as they are considered to be the IC of modern organization.