Benefits and Adoption of Integrated Reporting: Perceptions of the Malaysian Corporate Accountants

Integrated reporting (IR) combines financial and other value relevant information of an organization into one report, innovative development in corporate reporting. This study reports the perceptions of accountants regarding benefits and possible adoption of IR in the Malaysian context. The authors used a survey method and received responses from 50 companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia. The statistical analyses provide the following results. IR is not adopted widely but 56% of companies are currently thinking of adopting IR. The top three perceived potential benefits include increased communication, transparency, and the breaking of functional silos. Statistical tests further indicate that large companies show more willingness to adopt IR and are also more aware of the potential benefits. The accountants from large organizations also believe that the quality of financial reporting and compliance practices will improve due to IR adoption. Furthermore, the results suggest that accountants expect Malaysian Institute of Accountants to be a lead agency for the enforcement of IR in Malaysia and also IR to be eventually made a mandatory requirement for corporate reporting. These results should be of interest to the policymakers in countries similar to Malaysia.