Exploring company and stakeholder perceptions of what is of value in an integrated report

Abstract

The success of integrated reporting depends on whether or not corporate South Africa communicates with its stakeholders to gauge their perceptions, allowing for their interests and expectations to drive the content of the reports. This study explores the consistencies between the emphasis placed on certain integrated reporting themes by companies within the financial services sector of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the perceived importance of these themes by stakeholders. By analysing the differences in emphasis between companies and respondents, this paper will prove that a perception gap has developed because of a lack of understanding by companies about what information users value. In addition, by experimenting with the sophistication characteristic of respondents, this study will demonstrate that sophistication has an effect on the type of disclosures which users value and the method by which they wish it to be conveyed