Determining characteristics of boards adopting Integrated Reporting

Abstract

Nowadays, companies and markets are increasingly international and growing numbers of stakeholders are affected by the economic, social and environmental aspects of business, resulting in significant changes in how corporate information is both perceived and published. Over the last few years, this new scenario has led to many company boards voluntarily adopting an accounting and company performance communication tool, known as Integrated Reporting, (IR) which is a single disclosure document that satisfies stakeholders' increasing need for communication. This study's objective is to contribute to existing literature on the relationship between financial reporting and corporate governance, investigating into whether certain characteristics of the board - including numbers, gender, nationality, average age - influence decisions to adopt IR or not. The analysis was carried out on a sample of 120 Italian companies in different sectors for the year 2014. These results showed a positive relationship between the decision to use IR and the size of the board and the presence of female boardmembers, whereas the presence of foreign and older boardmembers had a negative effect on adopting IR.