Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability accounting and integrated reporting have gained considerable prominence over the years due to pressures on organisations to demonstrate accountability and transparency, and the need for managers to explain their business models and their organisation’s social and environmental impacts, as explained in the book, Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting (de Villiers and Maroun, 2018). Disclosure of sustainability information has been trending in both public policy and organisational practices, with simultaneous movements towards providing the information in an integrated manner (de Villiers and Maroun, 2018; de Villiers, Rinaldi and Unerman, 2014). There is no single definition of sustainability accounting nor a single method to implement the concept in the context of management and reporting. The same applies to integrated reporting. Integrated reporting could relate to the comprehensive disclosure of financial and nonfinancial information in a single report, or managers could embrace the concepts encouraged by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), as formulated in the International Integrated Reporting Framework. The IIRC Framework encourages integrated thinking and ideas such as connectivity of information and a holistic view of value creation (IIRC, 2013).

Research on sustainability reporting and integrated reporting has grown significantly over recent years (see: de Villiers, Hsiao and Maroun, 2017; de Villiers and Maroun, 2018; de Villiers, Venter and Hsiao, 2017; Hahn and Kühnen, 2013; Rinaldi, Unerman and de Villiers, 2018). A diverse range of contexts, e.g., the public sector (Montecalvo et al., 2018), and aspects has been studied, including implementation processes, accounting management systems, reporting and assurance. However, many avenues for future research remain, e.g., the influence of integrated reporting on specific types of reporting (Farneti et al., 2019; Sukhari and De Villiers, 2019; Terblanche and De Villiers, 2019), and there are opportunities for studies on different institutional settings and in-depth investigations into sustainability accounting or integrated reporting in practice. The importance of further research in sustainability accounting and integrated reporting is heightened by a lack of accounting developments that can support integrated reporting and guide progress towards sustainable development (Adams, 2015; Bebbington and Larrinaga, 2014).

This Special Issue is dedicated to providing new insights and critical reflections on recent sustainability accounting and integrated reporting developments. We encourage submissions from different institutional contexts and disciplines and are welcoming of various theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches.

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Advancements in measuring and managing different forms of capitals
• How connectivity of information and connectivity of the capitals are achieved
• How integrated thinking is conceived of and practiced
• Relationships between management practices and disclosure
• Assurance approaches and the skills required from the assurance team
• Comparisons among different forms of management and disclosure (e.g., sustainability accounting, integrated disclosure and integrated reporting according to the IIRC Framework)
• Factors that influence managers to embrace different forms of management and disclosure
• Differences between the management and disclosure practices of organisations that implement sustainability accounting or integrated reporting and those that do not
• Actual impacts implementing sustainability accounting or integrated reporting have on management practices, capital markets and stakeholder behaviour
• Stakeholder perspectives on the relevance and usefulness of sustainability reports and integrated reports
• Why there are different attitudes and approaches towards sustainability accounting and integrated reporting on firm, industry and national levels
• Sustainability accounting or integrated reporting in the public sector, the not-for-profit sector or private enterprises

References

Adams, C. A. (2015). The International Integrated Reporting Council: A call to action. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 27, 23-28.

Bebbington, J., & Larrinaga, C. (2014). Accounting and sustainable development: An exploration. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 39(6), 395-413.

de Villiers, C., Hsiao, P.-C. K., & Maroun, W. (2017). Developing a conceptual model of influences around integrated reporting, new insights and directions for future research. Meditari Accountancy Research, 25(4), 450-460.

de Villiers, C., & Maroun, W. (2018). Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting. London: Routledge.

de Villiers, C., Rinaldi, L., & Unerman, J. (2014). Integrated Reporting: Insights, gaps and an agenda for future research. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(7), 1042-1067.

de Villiers, C., Venter, E. R., & Hsiao, P.-C. K. (2017). Integrated reporting: background, measurement issues, approaches and an agenda for future research. Accounting & Finance, 57(4), 937-959.

Farneti, F., Casonato, F., Montecalvo, M., & De Villiers, C. (2019). The influence of Integrated Reporting and stakeholder information needs on the disclosure of social information in a state-owned enterprise. Meditari Accountancy Research, forthcoming.

Hahn, R., & Kühnen, M. (2013). Determinants of sustainability reporting: a review of results, trends, theory, and opportunities in an expanding field of research. Journal of Cleaner Production, 59, 5-21.

IIRC. (2013). The International <IR> Framework. IIRC. Retrieved from http://integratedreporting.org/resource/international-ir-framework/

Montecalvo, M., Farneti, F., & De Villiers, C. (2018). The potential of integrated reporting to enhance sustainability reporting in the public sector. Public Money & Management, 38(5), 365-374.

Rinaldi, L., Unerman, J., & de Villiers, C. (2018). Evaluating the integrated reporting journey: insights, gaps and agendas for future research. Accounting, Auditing &amp; Accountability Journal, 31(5), 1294-1318.

Sukhari, A., & De Villiers, C. (2019). The Influence of Integrated Reporting on Business Model and Strategy Disclosures. Australian Accounting Review, forthcoming.

Terblanche, W., & De Villiers, C. (2019). The Influence of Integrated Reporting and Internationalisation on Intellectual Capital Disclosures. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 20(1), 40-59.

Prof. Charl de Villiers
Dr. Pei-Chi Kelly Hsiao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Sustainability accounting
• Sustainability reporting
• Integrated reporting
• Integrated thinking