Agency and institutional-related factors and the heterogeneity of sustainability and integrated report information disclosures in Kenya

Geoffrey Injeni, Musa Mangena, David Mathuva and Robert Mudida

Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, 2021, vol. 20, issue 5, 809-840

Abstract: Purpose - This paper aims to examine the factors influencing the level of disclosures of sustainability (SR) and integrated report (IR) information in a developing country context, with particular reference to Kenya. Design/methodology/approach - The study uses a panel data set of 419 firm-year observations of listed companies in Kenya covering the period 2010 through 2018. Data are collected from the annual reports and analysed using a generalized estimations equation model. Findings - The results reveal that there is momentum towards newer reporting frameworks in Kenya with substantial IR and SR disclosures in their annual reports. The results also show that level of SR and IR disclosures is influenced by both agency-related factors (board gender diversity, audit committee independence, block ownership and the presence of foreign ownership). Additionally, institutional-related factors (regulatory pressure and promotional efforts of regulatory and professional bodies [reporting excellence awards]) influence the disclosures. Practical implications - The results highlight that initiatives such as those led by the regulatory and professional bodies in Kenya are effective in motivating companies to enhance disclosures. Thus, regulators and professional bodies might need to continue and even intensify their efforts. These results have implications for further research as they show that SR and IR disclosures are influenced by similar factors. Social implications - The study has the potential to contribute to the ongoing initiatives and discussions on the adoption of IR by firms in Africa as spearheaded by the African Integrated Reporting Council. Originality/value - To the best of the knowledge, the study is, perhaps, the first to examine both SR and IR disclosures at the same study allowing comparison of the extent and drivers of the two disclosures. Moreover, examining the institutional-related factors in a single country has not been done in prior literature, and so this is an innovation.

Keywords: Sustainability reporting; Integrated reporting; Corporate reporting; Institutional theory; Agency theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jfrapp:jfra-10-2020-0305

DOI: 10.1108/JFRA-10-2020-0305

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting is currently edited by Prof. Aziz Jaafar and Prof Khaled Hussainey

More articles in Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().