Premium
Board characteristics and integrated reporting quality: an agency theory perspective
Author(s) -
Vitolla Filippo,
Raimo Nicola,
Rubino Michele
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
corporate social responsibility and environmental management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.519
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1535-3966
pISSN - 1535-3958
DOI - 10.1002/csr.1879
Subject(s) - integrated reporting , business , scope (computer science) , quality (philosophy) , agency (philosophy) , novelty , accounting , perspective (graphical) , sample (material) , principal–agent problem , diversity (politics) , marketing , corporate governance , political science , computer science , psychology , finance , sustainability , sociology , social science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , law , ecology , chemistry , biology , social psychology , epistemology , chromatography , programming language
Integrated reporting is the latest novelty in the corporate reporting field. It is a tool capable of better representing the capacity of companies to create value over time. In recent years, attention to this new reporting tool has grown in both professional and academic fields. However, despite past research that has analysed many aspects of integrated reporting, the integrated reporting quality and its determinants are still little explored. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing the effect of board characteristics on integrated reporting quality according to an agency theory approach. The findings, based on a sample of 134 international firms, show a positive relationship between the size, independence, diversity, and activity of a board with integrated reporting quality. This study contributes to enriching literature in this area in various ways. First, it broadens the scope of application of agency theory; second, it identifies further internal determinants of integrated reporting quality. This is the first study that analyses the impact of the characteristics of a board as a determining factor of integrated reporting quality.