Abstract
Through integrated reporting (IR) and integrated thinking (IT), higher education institutions (HEIs) can engage future students, staff and other key stakeholders. This paper examines the impact of IR framework implementation on core activities disclosure within the UK HEIs. In particular, the authors explore the influence of the integrated thinking approach, intended to enhance the extent of the IR content elements, teaching and learning, internationalisation and research activities disclosure. The study is based on the annual reports of 123 UK HEIs over 3 years—2015–16, 2016–17 and 2017–18. Consistent with the predictions of legitimacy theory and the integrated thinking approach, the results show the extent that integrated reporting content elements and HEIs core activities disclosure practices have increased over the study period. The results also indicate that adoption of the IR framework, league table ranking position, key performance indicator reporting, size, research quality and graduate prospects all have significant positive influences on HEIs core activities disclosure. Based on the findings, the recommendations are that UK HEI governing and other regularity bodies, such as British Universities Finance Director Groups, Leadership Foundation in Higher Education and the Higher Education Funding Council, should consider development of voluntary integrated reporting guidelines and a core activities disclosure framework.
Highlights
Higher education institutions (HEIs) can influence a large proportion of future leaders and make a huge impact on short, medium and long-term value creation (Adams2018)
The descriptive statistics indicate the large variability of integrated reporting (IR) content elements and higher education institutions (HEIs) core activities disclosure in the HEIs, which aligns with prior research findings (Gordon et al 2002; Coy and Dixon 2004; Ntim et al 2017; Hassan et al 2019)
Despite the wide range and significant impact of the activities undertaken at universities, they have tended to lag the rest of the corporate world when it comes to identifying and communicating their activities and impacts to the diverse groups of stakeholders that are involved in their existence
Summary
Higher education institutions (HEIs) can influence a large proportion of future leaders and make a huge impact on short, medium and long-term value creation (Adams2018). Higher education institutions (HEIs) can influence a large proportion of future leaders and make a huge impact on short, medium and long-term value creation HEIs are very poor at communicating their contribution and value-added activities to society, environment and governance (BUFDG 2016; Hassan et al 2019). IR (integrated reporting) was developed as a means of improving communication between organizations, such as HEIs and their stakeholders. One stream of prior literature on IR and core activities disclosure in HEIs is very limited and carried out in single institutions. IR in HEIs (Veltri and Silvestri 2015; Brusca et al 2018; Hassan et al 2019). The other stream of literature on IR and HEIs focuses on HEI core activities disclosure, including teaching and learning, internationalisation and research (T&L, INT and RSH)
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