The Factors of Integrated Reporting Quality: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The research on integrated reporting (IR) grew exponentially during the last decade. The present meta-analysis was motivated by the need to systematize the results of previously published studies employing quantitative methodologies. Therefore, we fill a research gap by discovering significant meta-analytic relations between IR and various economic, organizational, institutional, and country-level variables. Three major areas of research were identified: IR adoption, IR quality, and integrated thinking. The final sample consisted of 91 articles published in top journals between 2013 and 2021. The meta-analytic procedures were applied on bivariate and partial correlations between the three major areas of IR and other constructs such as company attributes, financial performance, corporate governance, social and environmental responsibility, market performance, industry- and country-level characteristics. The results confirmed that corporate governance variables (i.e., director independence, board gender diversity, the existence of a social responsibility committee, and quality of the audit committee) were the most important predictors of IR quality, especially in a voluntary reporting setting. On the other hand, financial reporting quality, financial performance, and firm leverage are not significantly associated with integrated reporting quality. Several implications and recommendations were derived from these meta-analytic results.