Assessing the Gap between Integrated Reporting and Current Integrated Corporate Reporting Practice: A Proposed Checklist

Abstract

The purpose of this ongoing study, at this stage, is to present a checklist to assess the gap between present corporate reporting practices and the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC) Guidelines on preparing an integrated report. Since integrated reporting is “principle driven” than “rule based” there is a need to assess the emerging integrated reporting practice against what IIRC has laid down in their guidelines. The check list we develop here attempts to overcome the inherent several weaknesses in the existing few check lists. Hence, this check list was developed by perusing the extant literature on integrated reporting. This check list, in addition to providing a tool for evaluating the corporate integrated reports against IIRC Guidelines, can also be used by corporate managers to assess the level of their integrated reporting. This assessment could also be a catalyst in creating the requisite changes to the corporate practice, in particular to the integrated thinking process.