Motivations for voluntary corporate adoption of integrated reporting: A novel context for comparing voluntary disclosure and legitimacy theory

The swift development of integrated reporting as a genre within corporate reporting and the rapid spread of organizations adopting the International Integrated Reporting Council's (IIRC) vision for such shows that corporate voluntary reporting is now moving to a new stage. This provides an opportunity for companies to refine or reveal their hitherto hidden voluntary reporting philosophy by adapting their reporting practices. The motivations for adopting integrated reporting could differ from the legitimation motivations the literature has previously considered to underlie broader social and environmental sustainability reporting. For this reason, this study explores the motivations for companies to shift to integrated reporting or to continue with social and environmental sustainability reporting in terms of voluntary disclosure and legitimacy theory. The analysis employs survival analysis conducted using data from companies listed on the Tokyo and London stock exchanges to explore the relationships between social and environmental performance and the timing and duration of a shift to integrated reporting. The results reveal different motivations underlying voluntary reporting practices between the two countries and across industry sectors. Overall, the findings suggest that the financial transparency and accountability role of integrated reporting proposed by the IIRC has gained traction among Tokyo but not London listed companies. However, there is a trend towards accountability in the shift to integrated reporting consistent with voluntary disclosure theory even for London listed companies at the industry sector level. This supports the view that companies have an incentive to differentiate their voluntary reporting philosophy through different forms of reporting and that legitimacy theory and voluntary disclosure theory are compatible in this regard.