A critical reflection on the future of financial, intellectual capital, sustainability and integrated reporting

Abstract

This paper examines the future of IC reporting by offering critical reflection on different forms of reporting, with a particular focus on Integrated Reporting (<IR>). While, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework for corporate social responsibility disclosures, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), and the various financial reporting regulators appear to be in a contest for supremacy, what does this mean for IC? We examine how IC is reported under each of these frameworks and conclude that <IR> is unlikely to subsume traditional financial statement reporting, nor will it be able to provide all the information currently reported in GRI-type reports. The interplay of these reporting frameworks and their future development bodes well for IC, because different kinds of IC information will be reported under each of <IR>, GRI-type reports and in financial statements; that is IC does not compete with these forms of reporting forms, but forms an essential part of each.