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    The International Integrated Reporting Council A Story of Failure But Does Sustainability Need Capitalism or An Integrated Report A Commentary On The

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    This document contains summaries of three articles: 1) The first article analyzes and criticizes the development of integrated reporting since the foundation of the IIRC in 2010, arguing that the IIRC failed to achieve its goal of transforming sustainability accounting. 2) The second article responds to the first, agreeing with its arguments and further developing limitations of integrated reporting. 3) The third article acknowledges some limitations but contests the thesis of failure, arguing integrated reporting's purpose is to shift reporting to long-term holistic thinking rather than address sustainability directly.

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    The International Integrated Reporting Council A Story of Failure But Does Sustainability Need Capitalism or An Integrated Report A Commentary On The

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    Evan Ai
    30 views3 pages
    This document contains summaries of three articles: 1) The first article analyzes and criticizes the development of integrated reporting since the foundation of the IIRC in 2010, arguing that the IIRC failed to achieve its goal of transforming sustainability accounting. 2) The second article responds to the first, agreeing with its arguments and further developing limitations of integrated reporting. 3) The third article acknowledges some limitations but contests the thesis of failure, arguing integrated reporting's purpose is to shift reporting to long-term holistic thinking rather than address sustainability directly.

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    The International Integrated Reporting Council A Story of Failure But Does Sustainability need Capitalism or an Integrated Report a Commentary on The

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    This document contains summaries of three articles: 1) The first article analyzes and criticizes the development of integrated reporting since the foundation of the IIRC in 2010, arguing that the IIRC failed to achieve its goal of transforming sustainability accounting. 2) The second article responds to the first, agreeing with its arguments and further developing limitations of integrated reporting. 3) The third article acknowledges some limitations but contests the thesis of failure, arguing integrated reporting's purpose is to shift reporting to long-term holistic thinking rather than address sustainability directly.

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    30 views3 pages

    The International Integrated Reporting Council A Story of Failure But Does Sustainability Need Capitalism or An Integrated Report A Commentary On The

    Uploaded by

    Evan Ai
    This document contains summaries of three articles: 1) The first article analyzes and criticizes the development of integrated reporting since the foundation of the IIRC in 2010, arguing that the IIRC failed to achieve its goal of transforming sustainability accounting. 2) The second article responds to the first, agreeing with its arguments and further developing limitations of integrated reporting. 3) The third article acknowledges some limitations but contests the thesis of failure, arguing integrated reporting's purpose is to shift reporting to long-term holistic thinking rather than address sustainability directly.

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    of 3

    Social and Environmental Accountability Journal

    ISSN: 0969-160X (Print) 2156-2245 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/reaj20

    The International Integrated Reporting Council:


    A Story of Failure; ‘But Does Sustainability need
    Capitalism or an Integrated Report’ a Commentary
    on ‘The International Integrated Reporting Council:
    A Story of Failure’ by Flower, J.; The International
    Integrated Reporting Council: A Call to Action

    Michelle Rodrigue

    To cite this article: Michelle Rodrigue (2015) The International Integrated Reporting Council:
    A Story of Failure; ‘But Does Sustainability need Capitalism or an Integrated Report’ a
    Commentary on ‘The International Integrated Reporting Council: A Story of Failure’ by Flower,
    J.; The International Integrated Reporting Council: A Call to Action, Social and Environmental
    Accountability Journal, 35:2, 128-129, DOI: 10.1080/0969160X.2015.1068568

    To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969160X.2015.1068568

    Published online: 28 Jul 2015. Submit your article to this journal

    Article views: 782 View related articles

    View Crossmark data Citing articles: 1 View citing articles

    Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at


    https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=reaj20
    128 Article Reviews

    The major contribution of the study is the focus on the link between accountability, human
    rights and the political characteristics of public disclosures. As a result, the study highlights
    the issues of accountability and social and environmental injustices. This is an example of
    how a shadow account would bring to the public sphere the contradictions of society and cor-
    poration needs. It would create visibility for accounting as emancipatory dialogue. The
    authors emphasise the need for social accounting in an emancipatory conversation, which
    should publically expose the misleading actions and the illusions within corporations and
    societies.
    I personally recommend a closer view in this article concerning corporate conduct, human
    rights and public policies. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the paper presents examples
    of companies deceiving public opinion on human rights rather than a company embracing
    and bettering the challenges in developing countries. In this light, I argue that accounting is a
    social construct that can be used as a device for political ambition in which we as researchers
    need to shed light on ideologies of societal structures.

    Barbara de Lima Voss


    University of São Paulo, Brazil
    University of Canberra, Australia
    # 2015, Barbara de Lima Voss
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969160X.2015.1068566

    The International Integrated Reporting Council: A Story of Failure


    J. Flower
    Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2015, 27, pp. 1 – 17

    ‘But Does Sustainability need Capitalism or an Integrated Report’ a Commentary on


    ‘The International Integrated Reporting Council: A Story of Failure’ by Flower, J.
    I. Thomson
    Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2015, 27, pp. 18– 22

    The International Integrated Reporting Council: A Call to Action


    C. Adams
    Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2015, 27, pp. 23– 28

    This three-paper exchange analyses and criticises the development of integrated reporting (IR)
    since the foundation of the IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council) in 2010. In an
    unconventional paper, Flower compares the initial intent of the IIRC for IR with the 2011
    Discussion paper and (mostly) the 2013 official Framework, drawing on various theoretical per-
    spectives that could shock, puzzle or even amuse some readers. He argues that the IIRC failed to
    achieve its original objective to transform the landscape of sustainability accounting towards
    greater sustainable development with its 2013 IR framework. This failure is exposed around
    four elements: (1) IR is not about sustainability since it defines value as financial value for inves-
    tors; it places no obligation to report on externalities unless it affects financial value; and it
    accepts (promotes?) disputable trade-offs between capitals; (2) IR does not foster meaningful
    stakeholder engagement and does not meet stakeholders’ information needs; (3) IR has not
    evolved to become the promised single unifying report decreasing the corporate reporting
    Article Reviews 129

    burden; and, (4) the framework is too flexible in its reporting requirements, allowing managers to
    pick and choose on what they report which, Flower argues, will lead to little change in corporate
    reporting practices. He ends the paper by attributing this failure to the capture of the IIRC by
    accountants and business aiming to maintain the reporting status quo. While Flower’s key
    message is similar to concerns previously raised by other scholars about IR and the IIRC, the
    path taken by the author to expose his arguments is certainly interesting. In the end, each
    reader will decide on the validity of the arguments he sets forward based on their own
    schemes of reference.
    Thomson is the first to respond to Flower. In agreement with the author, Thomson goes on to
    further develop the lists of IR limitations, drawing on management accounting practices, the
    mythical great shareholder and drivers of transformative potential (among others). He concludes
    that IR’s potential ‘is limited as it is too deeply rooted in the business case for sustainability
    rather than the sustainability case for business’ (p. 21). Adams then brings another perspective
    to the debate. While she acknowledges some disappointment and limitations in the 2013 frame-
    work, she contests Flower’s thesis of failure. She sets her arguments against a background of
    change in corporate and managerial behaviours within the constraints of profit maximisation
    (along the lines of cognitive dissonance of Adams and Whelan 2009). She argues that IR’s
    purpose is not to address sustainability, but rather to shift the focus of reporting to long-term
    holistic thinking about strategy, ways to create value, and the business model, elements of the
    IR framework in which she sees the most potential. She refrains to attribute all the blame in
    IR’s evolution to accountants and business, advancing that ‘we should consider our failure as
    accounting academics, critical of current accountings, to engage with organisations to help
    develop new accountings’ (p. 26). She ends by calling on researchers to engage with IR to orien-
    tate the way it will evolve, listing different avenues of research (that could have been elaborated
    more, I have to say). Whatever stance one takes in the IR debate, this three-paper exchange has
    the merits to stimulate thinking on the fast-paced evolution of IR . . . and its future.

    Reference
    Adams, C., and G. Whelan. 2009. “Conceptualising Future Change in Corporate Sustainability Reporting.” Accounting,
    Auditing & Accountability Journal 22 (1): 118– 143.

    Michelle Rodrigue
    Université Laval, Canada
    # 2015, Michelle Rodrigue
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969160X.2015.1068568

    Disclosure on Climate Change: Analysing the UK ETS Effects


    T.R. Sales de Aguiar and J. Bebbington
    Accounting Forum, 2014, 38 (4), pp. 227 –240

    The main purpose of this article is to identify the key differences and characteristics of disclosure
    on climate change produced by participants in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS
    hereafter). The UK ETS is part of the UK Climate Change Programme that has been developed
    to respond to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases. The UK ETS has encouraged
    the development of the European Emission Trading Scheme in 2005.

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