Do industrial companies respond to the guiding principles of the Integrated Reporting framework? A preliminary study on the first companies joined to the initiative

Abstract

The current crisis puts pressure on companies to be more transparent about their business model, their value proposal, their risks and future impacts with a short, medium and long term focus. To address this need for transparency and with the aim of providing a common framework to meet all these needs, The International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) has developed a framework called Integrated Reporting (IR). The objective of this research is to understand the state of affairs in the level of attention of the principles of Integrated Reporting in the industrial companies which have adopted this initiative in their communications concerning the achievement of a sustainable environment. The results show that, despite the efforts of the analyzed companies to address the guiding principles, they still have a long way to go, especially in relation to the principle of “conciseness”. It has also been proven that the companies analyzed were not influenced by the environment relating to the level of attention given to the incorporation of this type of reporting.