Early Adopters of Integrated Reporting: The Practical Evidence from Warsaw Stock Exchange Companies

Integrated reporting (IR) belongs to one of the most dynamically developing themes in the literature on CSR and sustainability management. It is perceived as an essential move forward from the traditional short-term reporting focused on financial performance towards a long-term, future-oriented holistic disclosure framework. Integrated reporting offers also a material and relevant information on company strategy and operation providing data on how their balance financial and sustainability goals. Delivering a complete picture of company financial results as well as its impact on society and environment integrated reporting gives the opportunity to make business decision and evaluate firm performance on the case of a number of various criteria. In this chapter we address the practice of integrated reporting. We offer the case study analysis of five Polish listed companies who are the only firms quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange to currently adopt integrated reporting approach in their disclosure policy. We identify their organizational and sectorial characteristics, disclosure dynamics and evolution as well as the practice of integrated reporting. More specifically, using the IIRC framework we analyze the size, the scope, standards and the quality of non-financial information provided by our sample companies. Our goal is to identify challenges and success factors of integrated reporting process.