| As the global business environment continues to evolve in unpredictable ways organizations and entire industries have responded. New business models, processes, and ways of doing business as well as entire new industries have arisen to respond to increasingly complex and interconnected demands of stakeholders. Corporate governance, sustainability, stakeholder theory and reporting, and a more proactive management accounting function are a few of the most powerful trends influencing business decision making. In response to shifting marketplace realities as well as ever-evolving reporting and disclosure requirements, managerial decision makers are in need of a comprehensive financial reporting framework. Such a framework must integrate the needs of financial and nonfinancial shareholders as well as provide information about the strategy, risk management techniques, and long-term thinking of senior management. Integrated reporting appears to fill this marketplace need by linking together the critical themes of sustainability, corporate governance, strategic planning, and corporate social responsibility with metrics and other quantitative data. Leveraging advances in technology allows organizations to prepare and distribute this information on a more consistent and rapid basis. This study analyzed whether such a methodology led to statistically significant improvements in financial performance for publicly traded corporations. The specific research questions included in this study did not yield statistically significant information but there are several pieces of quantitative data that create opportunities for future research and analysis. |
