The determinants of Integrated Report quality: Evidences from an empirical analysis, in Sustainability Accounting, Management Control and Reporting

The Integrated Report (IR) has recently emerged as a tool for firms to communicate to investors how they create value over time in a sustainable manner for the benefit of relevant stakeholders. However, due to its recent appearance, IR quality is still unsatisfactory, and its determinants have not been thoroughly investigated. Drawing from different theories, the paper identifies and then tests some possible determinants of IR quality on a sample of 220 integrated reports issued by 55 companies in four years (2013- 2016). The empirical analysis shows that IR quality is positively associated with the entity being established in Europe and with the assurance score. On the other hand, contrary to expectations, IR quality is negatively associated with leverage, and profitability, measured both with ROE and ROA. Firm size, industry type and to be located in a country where IR is mandatory are not significant determinants of IR quality.