Integrated reporting proxies in archival studies
| Article | Integrated reporting proxy |
|---|---|
| Baboukardos and Rimmel (2016) | The authors conduct a pre- vs. post-analysis of the mandatory implementation of integrated reporting in South Africa. The authors do not examine the quality of integrated reports |
| Barth et al. (2017) | Integrated report quality (IRQ) is constructed from proprietary data on the scores underlying the annual EY Excellence in Integrated Reporting Awards. Expert readers of corporate reports rated the integrated reports, and this measure is not simply a disclosure index that captures the presence or absence of particular items. The proxy incorporates 12 components measuring various aspects of the Framework, namely (1) strategic focus and future orientation, (2) connectivity of information, (3) stakeholder relationships, (4) materiality, (5) conciseness, (6) organizational overview and external environment, (7) governance, (8) business model, (9) risks and opportunities, (10) performance, (11) basis of preparation and presentation and (12) other |
| Barth et al. (2025) | IRQ is measured as the average percentile ranks across seven textual attributes of integrated reports, namely disclosure length, readability, boilerplate language, redundant language, specific language, language that is sticky over time and hard information |
| Bernardi and Stark (2018) | The authors conduct a pre- vs. post-analysis of the mandatory implementation of integrated reporting in South Africa. The authors do not examine the quality of integrated reports |
| Caglio et al. (2020) | Three key textual characteristics underpinning integrated report disclosure quality, namely the reading difficulty, length and tone (i.e. whether the language of the disclosure is biased towards optimism and certainty). These characteristics denote the amount (length) and style (readability and tone) of an integrated report |
| Hsiao et al. (2022) | The authors examine the adoption of integrated reporting, rather than its quality |
| Lee and Yeo (2016) | A self-constructed integrated report disclosure score measuring the eight content elements in the Integrated Reporting Framework (“the Framework”), namely (1) Organizational overview and external environment; (2) Governance; (3) Business model; (4) Risks and opportunities; (5) Strategy and resource allocation; (6) Performance; (7) Outlook; and (8) Basis of preparation and presentation. Each content element contains five questions, resulting in a maximum score of 200 |
| Obeng et al. (2021) | Same as Serafeim (2015). |
| Pavlopoulos et al. (2019) | A self-constructed integrated report disclosure score that captures a firm’s degree of compliance with integrated reporting disclosures on nine categories in terms of the King III Code on Corporate governance, namely (1) ethical leadership and corporate citizenship, (2) boards and directors, (3) audit committees, (4) governance of risk, (5) governance of information technology, (6) compliance with laws, codes, rules and standards, (7) internal audit, (8) governing shareholder relationship and (9) integrated reporting and disclosure. The disclosure index consists of 28 items |
| Serafeim (2015) | The “Corporate Governance: Vision and Strategy” (CGVS) data item from the Asset4 database, which measures “a company’s management commitment and effectiveness towards the creation of an overarching vision and strategy integrating financial and extra-financial aspects. It reflects a company’s capacity to convincingly show and communicate that it integrates the economic (financial), social and environmental dimensions into its day-to-day decision-making processes”. De Villiers, Venter, and Hsiao (2017b, p. 948) argue that this proxy “seems to measure the level of ‘integrated thinking’ in a firm (performance), rather than the quality of its integrated reports (disclosure) |
| Wang et al. (2024) | Strategic report disclosure quality is constructed from proprietary data from PwC (UK), which has been identifying trends, variations and excellence in the reporting quality of FTSE 350 entities since 2003. The proxy incorporates seven components measuring various aspects of the Strategic Reporting Guidance, namely (1) strategy and objectives, (2) business model, (3) principle risks and uncertainties, (4) performance and position, (5) environmental, employee, social, community and human rights matters, (6) information connectivity and (7) forward-looking orientation |
| Zhou et al. (2017) | A self-constructed integrated report disclosure score measuring compliance with the Framework across eight dimensions, namely (1) organisational overview and operating context, (2) governance, (3) opportunities and risks, (4) strategy and resource allocation plans, (5) business model, (6) performance and outcomes, (7) future outlook and (8) other. The maximum score is 31 |
| Article | Integrated reporting proxy |
|---|---|
| The authors conduct a pre- vs. post-analysis of the mandatory implementation of integrated reporting in South Africa. The authors do not examine the quality of integrated reports | |
| Integrated report quality ( | |
| The authors conduct a pre- vs. post-analysis of the mandatory implementation of integrated reporting in South Africa. The authors do not examine the quality of integrated reports | |
| Three key textual characteristics underpinning integrated report disclosure quality, namely the reading difficulty, length and tone (i.e. whether the language of the disclosure is biased towards optimism and certainty). These characteristics denote the amount (length) and style (readability and tone) of an integrated report | |
| The authors examine the adoption of integrated reporting, rather than its quality | |
| A self-constructed integrated report disclosure score measuring the eight content elements in the Integrated Reporting Framework (“the Framework”), namely (1) Organizational overview and external environment; (2) Governance; (3) Business model; (4) Risks and opportunities; (5) Strategy and resource allocation; (6) Performance; (7) Outlook; and (8) Basis of preparation and presentation. Each content element contains five questions, resulting in a maximum score of 200 | |
| Same as | |
| A self-constructed integrated report disclosure score that captures a firm’s degree of compliance with integrated reporting disclosures on nine categories in terms of the King | |
| The “Corporate Governance: Vision and Strategy” ( | |
| Strategic report disclosure quality is constructed from proprietary data from PwC ( | |
| A self-constructed integrated report disclosure score measuring compliance with the Framework across eight dimensions, namely (1) organisational overview and operating context, (2) governance, (3) opportunities and risks, (4) strategy and resource allocation plans, (5) business model, (6) performance and outcomes, (7) future outlook and (8) other. The maximum score is 31 |
Sharing content requires targeting cookies to be enabled. Please update your cookie preferences to use this feature.