Shifting sands: the new model of social and environmental accountability in Integrated Reporting

Integrated Reporting (IR) is emerging as one of the most influential new contemporary frameworks that organizations can use to disclose their social and environmental impacts. However, despite gaining support from leading multi-national companies and professional bodies, this new reporting approach has been subject to comparatively little critical scrutiny. This paper uses pragmatic stakeholder theory to assess the intent and strategies of IR, and draws on broader social theory to assess its potential effects. The paper makes three main arguments. First, IR aims to shift non-financial reporting away from traditional sustainability goals, although in some cases the interests of management rather than – as the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) claims – providers of financial capital. Second, the IIRC requires an active group of long-term investors to meets its objectives. However, as social theorists such as Richard Sennett and Manuel Castells have highlighted, a characteristic of contemporary capitalism is the influence of mobile global capital. Hence, and third, the IIRC's strategy is in tension with contemporary capital market structures and trends.