5. Integrated Reporting: Precursor of a Paradigm Shift in Corporate Reporting?

This chapter examines the paradigm underlying the emergence of Integrated Reporting (IR), and its relation to the two divergent paradigms underlying current corporate reporting practice, consisting of financial reporting and sustainability reporting. The chapter utilises the Kuhnian definition of paradigm, consisting of shared axioms, shared commitments, shared values, and shared exemplars. The data analysed include recent IR literature, thus this chapter simultaneously presents a contemporary literature review of IR. The analysis unpacks the underpinnings concerning the language, beliefs, identity, and exemplars perpetrated in the IR literature. It also shows that IR shares the same paradigm with financial reporting, but not with sustainability reporting. Yet, the analysis does not demonstrate paradigm shift in the corporate reporting field, but rather shows the existence of two competing paradigms.