The principles, concepts and elements that characterize the way organizations report their annual performances are currently being questioned, debated, and redesigned throughout the world. This is happening as key notions such as capital employed, value creation, and accountability are redefined in practice. What should companies report? What are the types of capital that an organization uses and affects? To whom are organizations accountable? And again, can we currently measure, manage and communicate social and environmental impact? Is it really possible to capture and represent how value is created and sustained over time? The answers to these questions are almost certainly bedevilling a substantial number of interested managers, executives, consultants, academics, regulators and additional stakeholders everywhere around the world.
A possible response to these critical questions is offered by Integrated Reporting (IR), a process that results in communicating – through an annual integrated report – how organizations create value over time, and their impact from an economic, social and environmental point of view. According to the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), the IR process has the potential to shed light on these critical issues as it “brings together material information about an organization’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects in a way that reflects the commercial, social and environmental context within which it operates. It provides a clear and concise representation of how an organization demonstrates stewardship and how it creates and sustains value” [1]. For these reasons, the IIRC promotes the adoption of the IR as an organization’s primary reporting vehicle.
Whereas the IIRC encourages companies towards the adoption of an ‘integrated thinking’ approach to the management and governance of value creation, the debate on reporting practices has been mainly concentrated on the definition of standard rules and principles for disclosing information, while overlooking the actual mechanisms for an integrated management approach to value creation. In this context, a key role can be played by management accounting and performance measurement systems. Also, management accountants could offer a relevant contribution to both integrated management and integrated reporting, by leading and orchestrating innovation processes, as well as mastering the design principles of (integrated) reports. In this respect, the role of both management accounting and accountants within integrated thinking and reporting requires further understanding and discussion.
The Sidrea International Workshop on “Integrated Management and Reporting: state of the art and opportunities for research” aims to address these issues by illustrating and debating the rise of, and the challenges ahead for, this new form of reporting and management. The purpose is to contribute to the current debate on Integrated Reporting (IR) by reflecting both on the key concepts, elements, and principles that underpin its adoption, as well as to discuss how a number of companies, large and small, private and public, are approaching IR in practice. In this respect, the workshop will address the implications and challenges for both researching and teaching management accounting. More specifically, the following issues will be discussed:
– Integrated reporting: key concepts, element and principles
– Integrating different ‘capitals’ in processes of value creation
– Relevance and “materiality” within integrated reporting
– Integrated thinking and integrated management: the role of management
accounting
– Re-defining the role of Management accountants within integrated thinking and
management
– Innovating reporting systems for integrated management
– Sustainability and value creation: the role of management accounting
– Integrated sustainability or integrated management?
– What is sustainability? Is integrated sustainability possible?
– Opportunities and challenges of integrated sustainability
– Sustainable business models, integrated reporting and management accounting
– Opportunities and challenges of integrated sustainability for Management
accountants
– Researching and teaching management accounting: challenges and
opportunities on the light of the new sustainability agenda
The previous issues will be discussed through guest speeches and a round table with distinguished scholars from different countries and universities:
BALDARELLI Maria Gabriella, University of Bologna, Italy
BURNS John, University of Exeter, UK
BUSCO Cristiano, NUI Galway, Ireland
CAGLIO Ariela, Bocconi University, Italy
COOLS Martine, KU Leuven – Campus Antwerpen, Belgium
EUSKE Ken, Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, USA
LAI Alessandro, University of Verona, Italy
MILLO Yuval, University of Leicester, UK
MIO Chiara, University of Venice, Italy
QUATTRONE Paolo, The University of Edinburgh Business School, UK
RICCABONI Angelo, University of Siena, Italy
SCAPENS Robert, Manchester Business School, UK
VAN DER STEEN Martijn, University of Groningen, The Netherlands