The Transparency of Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosures, Integrated Reporting, and the Accuracy of Analyst Forecasts

Abstract

The International Integrated Reporting Council advocates that integrated reporting (IR) should become the worldwide norm for corporate reporting aimed at serving the needs of investors. Nonetheless, only in South Africa has IR been mandated. We study the impact of the reporting regime change in South Africa on analyst forecast accuracy over the period 2008 to 2012 as a way of evaluating users’ perceptions of the usefulness of IR. We theorise that any effects of IR will be greater the greater is the level of disclosures of environmental, social and governance performance. We find results consistent with those who support IR and our theory that the level of environmental, social and governance disclosures is a mediating variable in determining the effectiveness of IR. The results are driven by the levels of environmental disclosure and, to a lesser extent, governance disclosure.