Empirical Research on Identifying Main Drivers Leading to Integrated Reporting Framework Implementation. The case of European Region

Deterioration of information disclosed through financial statements among the last decade, especially in the light of the recent global financial crisis has determined shareholders and stakeholders as well to find out a complementary solution that would provide more reliable information, relevant for resources allocation. Also, as the need of appropriation between accounting result and corporate finance result has been frequently claimed for years, the value creation potential has won an increasing role on identifying suitable financial and non-financial metrics that measure the efficiency and efficacy of management strategic policies. Integrated reporting framework is an alternative solution to the existing corporate reporting model. The focus on the strategic view of the result, on the process and function-based analysis of the results, or the idea of an institutional continuous process of communication of managers with the shareholders and stakeholders as well, have determined an increasing number of entities to implement IIRC reporting framework voluntary. This article is aimed to find some answers concerning the main drivers that determine entities to adopt voluntary integrated reporting framework proposed by IIRC on December 2013. The study is aimed to analyze firm-level factors and country-level factors considered on IIRC framework adoption decision as well, starting from stewardship theory, stakeholder theory and institutional perspective.