Moving from Social and Sustainability Reporting to Integrated Reporting: Exploring the Potential of Italian Public-Funded Universities’ Reports

Sara Giovanna Mauro, Lino Cinquini, Elena Simonini and Andrea Tenucci
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Sara Giovanna Mauro: Institute of Management, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 24, 56127 Pisa (PI), Italy
Lino Cinquini: Institute of Management, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 24, 56127 Pisa (PI), Italy
Elena Simonini: Institute of Management, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and University of Trento, 56127 Pisa (PI), Italy
Andrea Tenucci: Institute of Management, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 24, 56127 Pisa (PI), Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: Over recent years, the meaning of accountability has evolved and has reshaped what public sector institutions are expected to account for and how. Consequently, a large number of initiatives have emerged promoting non-financial reporting. In this context, public universities have started to experiment with sustainability reporting initiatives, but these efforts are still limited and challenged by the parallel development of multiple forms of reporting, which include integrated reporting (IR). IR has been interpreted as a further step in the reporting journey, suitable for representing the creation of public value and addressing accountability pressures. The current research aims at understanding if and how IR constitutes a feasible next step for improving the reporting practices of public universities. For this purpose, the research carries out a content analysis of social or sustainability reports written by a number of Italian public universities to find out which of the key elements of IR have already been included in such reports. Results show that some of those elements are already included, but often in a fragmented and non-homogeneous way. The findings pave the way for further considerations on how the potential adoption of IR may strengthen the value of social and sustainability reporting by integrating the information reported in different documents, fostering toward a bureaucracy that is more sustainable and providing more opportunities of innovation in reports on public sector organizations’ accountability.

Keywords: integrated reporting; sustainability reporting; social report; public universities; content analysis; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3172-:d:345592

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