Accounting Change and Integrated Reporting in Practice: The Case of Hera

The chapter intends to verify, through a case study on the progressive implementation of the IR, the way in which the intra organizational dynamics play a key role in the evolution of management accounting change and impacts on the overall result and success of the change process. The Hera Group case study intends to grasp a useful “lesson to learn” for other entities located in the public sector realm, that are willing to introduce the integrated thinking towards the IR, in order to be more efficiently managed by key organizational actors and managers. The analysis considers both the external change, the integrated thinking and IR disclosure prepared by a public sector entity and its changes over time, as well as the internal change, viewed as the progressive internalization of the integrated thinking and the path towards it. To this aim, the approach and the experience of Hera is presented, outlining features, evolution, similarities and differences of the Hera Sustainability Report with the Integrated Reporting framework, as well as the management accounting change towards the institutionalization of the integrated thinking. This case study is an important and informative example of how integrated reporting is a useful tool for governing an organization such as Hera, operating in the public services sector and owned by both public administrations and private investors.