INTEGRATED REPORTING: A STORY OF STAKEHOLDER ACCOUNTABILITY

摘要

The paper reflects on how different reporting frameworks developed over time as accountability adapted to changing needs of stakeholders which arguably contributed to the development of Integrated Reporting. A conceptual approach and a structured literature review are the methods employed in the paper. The paper dismisses the notion held in the literature that Integrated Reporting only began in 2010 (de Villiers, Rinaldi and Unerman, 2014) with the establishment of the Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). Furthermore, the ever changing needs of stakeholders contributed to the growth of different reporting systems (Financial Reporting, Balanced Scorecard, Triple Bottom Line, Sustainability Reporting and Integrated Reporting). The paper may provide regulators, reporting organisations and academics with an accountability context in which the evolution of Integrated Reporting occurred. The paper departs from the popular view that began in 2010 and offers insights of how the changing dynamics of accountability due to the continuous change in stakeholders' needs contributed to the birth and development of . The paper further challenges that while it may successfully overcome some of the limitations of Financial Reporting, Balanced Scorecard, Triple Bottom Line, Sustainability Reporting; it still has a long way to go in order to address its own shortcomings.