A Template for Integrated Reporting

In an era in which news spreads as it happens over the Internet and social media networks, investors, society and governments are increasingly demanding that organizations be accountable to stakeholders, not merely shareholders, and be transparent about their activities. A forthcoming research paper outlines the concept of integrated reporting and proposes a template for integrated reporting. The model is based on the concepts in the King Report on Governance for South Africa (King III), and the International Integrated Reporting Council in the United Kingdom.

According to the author, an integrated report should explain the story of reaching the organization’s vision, underpinned by its values, enacted by management, monitored by governance and using facets of resources relating to financial capital, intellectual capital, social capital and environmental capital. The paper proposes an integrated reporting framework and provides an example of a template to use. Apparently, this is the first academic paper that provides a coherent framework on integrated reporting, along with a template.

The author supports a concise report that informs significant performance implications on the organizational vision during the reporting period. The paper does not define significance as it is an outcome of inquiry into reporting, rather than a rule, and instead leaves it up to preparers to use their professional judgment. Learn more by reading the online 48-page research article “A template for integrated reporting” by I. Abeysekera to be published in the Journal of Intellectual Capital, 14 (2), in May 2013.