Integrated reporting, textual risk disclosure and market value
ISSN: 1472-0701
Article publication date: 2 September 2021
Issue publication date: 21 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Exploiting the mandatory provision of integrated reporting in South Africa, this paper aims to investigate whether this regulatory switch from the conventional annual report is associated with differences in the level of textual risk disclosure (TRD). This paper also examines the economic usefulness of this regulatory change by observing the impact of TRD on the complying firms’ market values.
Design/methodology/approach
Archival data are collected and examined using time-series difference design and difference-in-differences design.
Findings
The authors find that the level of TRD within the mandatory integrated reporting is significantly lower than that of annual reports. The authors find that the impact of TRD in integrated reporting on market value compared to that of annual reports is statistically not different from zero. The authors’ further analyses suggest that corporate governance effectiveness is not a moderating factor to the study results. The results are robust to comparisons with the voluntary adoption of integrated reporting in the UK.
Originality/value
Collectively, the study results suggest that managers’ adherence to the mandatory provision of integrated reporting has significantly decreased the level of (voluntary) TRD they tended to convey within the conventional annual reports, resulting in a trivial impact on market value. These unintended consequences should be of interest to the International Integrated Reporting Council and other bodies interested in integrated reporting.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Gabriel Eweje (the editor) and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments and helpful suggestions. This paper has benefited from comments and suggestions from participants at Greenwich Business School (London, 2018), and the 21st and 23rd Annual Conferences of the Financial Reporting and Business Communication Research Unit (University of Durham, 2017 and the University of Reading, 2019, respectively). The authors thank Penny Chaidali and Lorenzo Neri for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Citation
Elshandidy, T., Elmassri, M. and Elsayed, M. (2022), "Integrated reporting, textual risk disclosure and market value", Corporate Governance, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 173-193. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-01-2021-0002
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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