IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v12y2022i4p186-d995316.html

Rise and Fall of the Materiality Matrix: Lessons from a Missed Takeoff

Author

Listed:
  • Tiziana De Cristofaro

    (Department of Economic Studies, “G. d’Annunzio” University, 65127 Pescara, Italy)

  • Domenico Raucci

    (Department of Economic Studies, “G. d’Annunzio” University, 65127 Pescara, Italy)

Abstract

After a long period of the inclusion of materiality matrices within standard setters documents and non-financial reports, the Global Reporting Initiative officially abandoned the materiality matrix in 2021 after the GRI 3 standard release. To bridge the detected gaps in the literature, this article aims to investigate approaches to and arguments for the matrix until the issuance of GRI 3. The two-step research strategy adopted gives the same level of attention to the opposite positions found. Phase 1 (approach-oriented) reviews the materiality matrix presentation in the 2014–2020 non-financial reports of a sample of worldwide sustainability-oriented companies. Phase 2 (argument-oriented) performs qualitative content analysis on feedback for the GRI 3 preparatory works. The findings show that, besides the staunch adopters, a core of non-adopters persisted and prevented the takeoff of the matrix. Moreover, further insights into possible drivers both in favour of and against these approaches are provided. The final discussion both considers the lessons learnt, overlapping with policy implications, and suggests future research avenues.

Suggested Citation

  • Tiziana De Cristofaro & Domenico Raucci, 2022. "Rise and Fall of the Materiality Matrix: Lessons from a Missed Takeoff," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-25, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:12:y:2022:i:4:p:186-:d:995316
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/12/4/186/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/12/4/186/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jones, Michael John, 2011. "The nature, use and impression management of graphs in social and environmental accounting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 75-89.
    2. Tiziana De Cristofaro & Carmela Gulluscio, 2019. "Integrated Reporting and Materiality Process Disclosure in European Sustainability Oriented Companies," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Samuel O. Idowu & Mara Del Baldo (ed.), Integrated Reporting, chapter 0, pages 267-290, Springer.
    3. Chiara Mio, 2013. "Materiality from financial towards non-financial reporting," Working Papers 19, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    4. Chiara Mio & Marco Fasan, 2014. "The determinants of materiality disclosure in integrated corporate reporting," Working Papers 09, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    5. Doris M. Merkl-Davies & Niamh Brennan, 2007. "Discretionary disclosure strategies in corporate narratives : incremental information or impression management?," Open Access publications 10197/2907, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    6. Maura Campra & Paolo Esposito & Rosa Lombardi, 2020. "The engagement of stakeholders in nonfinancial reporting: New information‐pressure, stimuli, inertia, under short‐termism in the banking industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 1436-1444, May.
    7. Jouko Kuisma, 2017. "Managing Corporate Responsibility in the Real World," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-54078-8, January.
    8. Nicola Bellantuono & Pierpaolo Pontrandolfo & Barbara Scozzi, 2016. "Capturing the Stakeholders’ View in Sustainability Reporting: A Novel Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-12, April.
    9. Selena Aureli & Mara Del Baldo & Rosa Lombardi & Fabio Nappo, 2020. "Nonfinancial reporting regulation and challenges in sustainability disclosure and corporate governance practices," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2392-2403, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vera Amicarelli & Christian Bux & Andrea Del Chicca & Pasquale Giungato & Angela Tarabella & Caterina Tricase, 2026. "Toward a Business‐Oriented Concept of Natural Capital and Its Measurement in Organizations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 2482-2501, February.
    2. Yining Zhou & Geoff Lamberton & Michael B. Charles, 2023. "An Explanatory Model of Materiality in Sustainability Accounting: Integrating Accountability and Stakeholder Heterogeneity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-22, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boone, Jeff & Hao, Jie & Linthicum, Cheryl & Pham, Viet, 2024. "Impression management strategy — The relationship between accounting narrative thematic bias and financial graph distortion," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4).
    2. Albrecht, Disen Huang & Anantharaman, Divya & Zhao, Keyi, 2025. "Is a picture worth a thousand words? Image usage in ESG reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    3. Renato Camodeca & Alex Almici & Umberto Sagliaschi, 2018. "Sustainability Disclosure in Integrated Reporting: Does It Matter to Investors? A Cheap Talk Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-34, November.
    4. Justyna Dyduch & Joanna Krasodomska, 2017. "Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: An Empirical Study of Polish Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-24, October.
    5. Liu, Siwen & Heijden, Hans van der, 2025. "Self-regulation and self-presentation in sustainability reporting: Evidence from firms’ voluntary water disclosure," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    6. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Cristina‐Andrea Araújo‐Bernardo, 2020. "What colour is the corporate social responsibility report? Structural visual rhetoric, impression management strategies, and stakeholder engagement," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 1117-1142, March.
    7. Chaidali, Panagioula (Penny) & Jones, Michael John, 2017. "It’s a matter of trust: Exploring the perceptions of Integrated Reporting preparers," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-20.
    8. Perkiss, Stephanie & Bernardi, Cristiana & Dumay, John & Haslam, Jim, 2021. "A sticky chocolate problem: Impression management and counter accounts in the shaping of corporate image," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    9. Hellmann, Andreas & Scagnelli, Simone D. & Ang, Lawrence & Sood, Suresh, 2024. "Exploring impression management through eye-tracking: A study on the influence of photographs in financial reporting," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    10. García-Sánchez, Isabel-María & Suárez-Fernández, Oscar & Martínez-Ferrero, Jennifer, 2019. "Female directors and impression management in sustainability reporting," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 359-374.
    11. Cardoso, Ricardo Lopes & de Oliveira Leite, Rodrigo & Balloni, Armando & Fonseca, Thiago Richter, 2024. "When enough is enough: The impact of combined graphical impression management on financial judgement," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    12. Hazianti Abdul Halim, 2016. "Visual Representations Strategies in Chairperson’s Statement in Malaysia: An Analysis of Impression Management," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 6(12), pages 245-255, December.
    13. Kanbaty, Majid & Hellmann, Andreas & He, Liyu, 2020. "Infographics in corporate sustainability reports: Providing useful information or used for impression management?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    14. Claudia Arena & Saverio Bozzolan & Giovanna Michelon, 2015. "Environmental Reporting: Transparency to Stakeholders or Stakeholder Manipulation? An Analysis of Disclosure Tone and the Role of the Board of Directors," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(6), pages 346-361, November.
    15. Roberto Aprile & David Alexander & Federica Doni, 2023. "Enhancing the materiality principle in integrated reporting by adopting the General Systems Theory," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2219-2233, September.
    16. Arzu Ozsozgun Caliskan & Emel Esen & Ralf Barkemeyer, 2021. "Impression management tactics in the CEO statements of Turkish sustainability reports," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 485-506, October.
    17. Nuria Padilla‐Garrido & Francisco Aguado‐Correa & Inmaculada Rabadán‐Martín & José María López‐Jiménez & Juan José de la Vega‐Jiménez & Ignacio Peletier‐Ribera, 2024. "Materiality analysis in sustainability reporting: Insights from large Spanish companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 5391-5412, November.
    18. Oehler, Andreas & Neuss, Charlotte, 2025. "ESG disclosure vs. ESG ratings: Consistent information value?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    19. Bianca Alves Almeida Machado & Lívia Cristina Pinto Dias & Alberto Fonseca, 2021. "Transparency of materiality analysis in GRI‐based sustainability reports," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 570-580, March.
    20. Lebelle, Martin & Lajili Jarjir, Souad & Sassi, Syrine, 2022. "The effect of issuance documentation disclosure and readability on liquidity: Evidence from green bonds," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:12:y:2022:i:4:p:186-:d:995316. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.