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Top1. Introduction
The notion that companies bear obligations not merely to their shareholders only but also to the community as a whole has been around for millennia (Carroll & Shabana, 2010). In this regard, one critique of financial reporting is the fact that it does not effectively meet the informative demands of the entire stakeholders who want to evaluate an organization's historical and potential performance. This is because it only gives an incomplete representation of corporate activity, omitting an entity's social and environmental influence, as such, this has led to the development of a higher level of corporate reporting (Flower, 2015).
The unpredictability and erratic nature of the global economy, which contributed to the worldwide economic imbalance that was experienced between 2007 and 2010, is a shred of strong evidence that the traditional concepts, principles, and methods used by organizations for corporate reporting have surpassed their effectiveness. Additionally, the pandemic (Covid-19) impact on business performance also possesses a reason to advocate an all-encompassing reporting structure, which integrated reporting exemplifies. Furthermore, regulators and other stakeholders have questioned the value and appropriateness of corporate reports as a result of numerous company failures and organizations' dependence on financial short-term indicators over other non-financial criteria (Ebimobowei & Onowu (2021).
Therefore, an improved reporting on corporate social responsibility is necessary, integrating other information that may affect the company's productivity. In response to this critique, Integrated Reporting (IR) is viewed as a solution and the IIRC believes that IR should become the global standard for corporate reporting. According to the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), the goal of IR is to give “...information about an organization's strategy, governance, performance, and prospects in a manner that reflects the commercial, social, and environmental context within which it works” (IIRC, 2011, p. 2).
The purpose of an integrated report is to inform investors about how businesses generate and maintain wealth through time. A study of this caliber is very valuable to all value-seeking stakeholders, particularly legislators, regulators, business partners, employees, suppliers, consumers, and host and local communities (Camilleri, 2018). In order to create and sustain company growth in a competitive global market, organizations must adopt the new idea and framework of integrated reporting, this will ensure the released information is valuable to the users. Aside from financial concerns, the world is becoming more aware of other aspects determining an entity's worth. Over the years, organizations have presented both financial reports as well as sustainability reports; however, with the integrated reporting implementation, corporate reporting will now be based on both financial and non-financial data (Navarrete-Oyarce, et al, 2022). However, some corporations may not perceive the necessity for IR at this time, while in Nigeria, several entities are yet to implement the IR framework (Umoren, Udo & George, 2015; Adeboyegun et al, 2020).