How the information content of integrated reporting flows into the stock market

Abstract

AbstractAccording to its advocates, integrated reporting (IR) aims to enhance firms' information environment by placing financial reporting into a much broader perspective in which interrelated non‐financial information of firms' activities are taken into consideration. We examine whether this intended outcome of IR embeds into the stock pricing process using a sample of South African listed firms that mandatorily adopted IR in 2011. Unlike previous studies that explore market valuation implications of IR, we examine the channel through which the IR‐related information flows into firm value. Specifically, we quantify the effects of revisions of expectation about future cash flows (prompted by financial reporting information), revisions of expectation about discount rates (prompted by non‐financial reporting information) and their interconnectedness. We hypothesize and empirically show that the adoption of an IR approach prompted greater market revisions of expectations about future discount rates and a stronger interconnectedness between market revisions of expectations about future cash flows and discount rates. Thus, the change in the stock pricing process after the adoption of IR is determined by non‐financial reporting information and its strong interconnectedness with financial reporting information. We also show that our results are stronger for firms with greater earnings opacity, suggesting that investors find IR more useful when firms' financial reporting is opaque. Results indicate to researchers, practitioners and regulators that IR enhances the firm‐level information environment by providing informative non‐financial reporting which is also well integrated with financial reporting.