“Integrating Intellectual Capital and sustainability reporting: a review of the current academic debate”

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to critically examine the literature on Integrated Reporting. An interest derives from the fact that it is an emerging topic at a crosshead from different streams of research, namely Intellectual Capital Accounting, Social and Environmental Accounting and extrafinancial reporting. The contributions of the present contribution are threefold. First, it highlights the differences existing among the above-mentioned research perspectives. Second, it provides a comprehensive picture of seminal papers published on Integrated Reporting. Third, it provides areas for future research and policy suggestions on this emerging issue. Methodology: In order to evaluate and address future research agenda, we performed a descriptive meta-analysis of seminal contributions on Integrated Reporting retrieved from ISI WEB of Knowledge and Scopus publication databases. Additionally, in order to catch the contemporary emerging issues on the topic, papers presented in the most noteworthy conferences held by the Intellectual Capital research community were examined. Findings: Our findings show that recently the community of Intellectual Capital (IC) researchers has been attempting to evaluate the potential of an integrated approach which combines IC on the one hand and sustainability accounting, reporting and management on the other. However, the way intangible resources might trigger the growth of firms within a sustainability framework is still a subject of controversy. Yet since 2010 practitioners and researchers involved in the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) have been seeking the development and worldwide adoption of an Integrated Reporting system. Thus we suggest that the Intellectual Capital Accounting research agenda should continue devoting attention to this challenge in order to translate IC scholarship into practice.