۱: Introduction

The latest development in sustainability reporting is integrated reporting (Stubbs and Higgins, 2014). The integrated report is intended to be more than just an aggregation of financial and non-financial information. It should explain clearly how an organisation generates value in the context of material social, economic and environmental factors and, as part of this, the link between risk, strategy and the entity’s business model (International Integrated Reporting Council [IIRC], 2013; King, 2016). While the prior research points to some limitations of integrated reporting (de Villiers et al., 2014; Stubbs and Higgins, 2014) integrated reports are becoming more widespread. In some jurisdictions they are increasingly accepted as the primary means for organisations to communicate with stakeholders, (IIRC, 2013; Hughen et al., 2014; IIRC, 2014c; King, 2016). This is especially true in South Africa where the local stock exchange and codes on corporate governance champion integrated reporting as a means of improving the quality of corporate reporting and promoting sustainable business practice (de Villiers et al., 2014; Atkins and Maroun, 2015; Sierra-García et al., 2015; King, 2016). As a result, the last few years have witnessed growing calls for the assurance of the integrated report and raised questions about exactly how an integrated report could be the subject matter of a formal assurance engagement (see, for example, Cohen and Simnett, 2015; IIRC, 2015; Maroun and Atkins, 2015; Simnett and Huggins, 2015). By their nature, integrated reports should be forward-looking, strategically focused and address the interconnection of different types of resources or capital (financial and nonfinancial) which are relevant for the value creation process (IIRC, 2013; King, 2016). This means that they are inherently subjective and vary considerably among organisations (de Villiers et al., 2014; Simnett and Huggins, 2015). Some of the report content (such as reviews of the business model, approach to risk management and commentary on business strategy) is complex, heavily dependent on professional judgement and context-specific (Simnett and Huggins, 2015).