Integrated Reporting Research in Turkiye: A Systematic Literature Review (2012-2022)
Emine Serap KurtFinancial reporting is a core aspect of the traditional reporting approach but falls short of responding to stakeholders’ requests for sustainability and non-financial information. One of the most crucial communication tools companies use to communicate how they create value to their stakeholders is integrated reporting, which was born out of this requirement and has become a crucial component of the growing corporate reporting ecosystem. Integrated reporting provides agility and helps with sustainability management and the non-financial risks businesses face that operate in an uncertain environment. Integrated reporting additionally improves an organization’s accountability and transparency, which makes raising capital easier. The foreign and Turkish literature continue to develop regarding the field of integrated reporting, which has grown in popularity and importance in recent years, particularly since the 2000s. The purpose of this study is to identify research gaps that could be the subject of future studies by analyzing the theses and articles on integrated reporting that have been written in Turkiye. The study uses the systematic literature review approach to assess the theses and articles concerning integrated reporting that were published in Türkiye between 2012-2022. The scan was conducted on November 20, 2022 using research words connected to integrated reporting in the TRDizin, DergiPark, and National Thesis Center websites and included only Turkish and English papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as graduate student theses. The final sample consists of 102 articles and 63 theses. The earliest article and thesis were found to have been written in 2012 and 2016, respectively. In 2021 and 2022, the scanned studies that examine this topic were seen to have increased. The publication of the revised integrated reporting framework in 2021 along with its simultaneous translation into Turkish was concluded to have had no noticeable impact. The existing studies were determined to include general information about integrated reporting, the impact of integrated reporting on company performance, and the compatibility of integrated reporting guidelines and content items. Future research can focus on value creation, integrated thinking, integrated reporting, and sustainability, as well as the quality of integrated reporting and its causes.
Türkiye’de Entegre Raporlama Çalışmaları: Sistematik Literatür İncelemesi (2012-2022)
Emine Serap KurtGeleneksel raporlama anlayışının merkezinde finansal raporlama vardır ancak bu raporlama türü paydaşların sürdürülebilirlik ve finansal olmayan bilgi taleplerine cevap vermekte yetersiz kalmaktadır. Bu ihtiyaçtan dolayı ortaya çıkan entegre raporlama gelişmekte olan kurumsal raporlama ekosisteminin önemli bir parçasıdır ve kuruluşun değer yaratım hikayesini paydaşlarına iletmede kullandığı en önemli iletişim araçlarından biridir. Entegre raporlama belirsizlik ortamında faaliyet gösteren şirketlere maruz kaldıkları sürdürülebilirlik ve finansal olmayan riskleri yönetmelerinde yardımcı olur ve çeviklik sağlar. Ayrıca şirketin şeffaflığını ve hesap verebilirliğini artırarak finansmana erişimini kolaylaştırır. Özellikle 2000’li yıllardan beri kullanımı ve önemi artarak devam eden entegre raporlama konusunda yabancı ve Türkçe alan yazın gelişmeye devam etmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı; entegre raporlama konusunda Türkiye’de yazılan tezleri ve makaleleri analiz ederek, sonraki çalışmaların konusunu oluşturabilecek araştırma boşluklarını belirlemektir. Çalışmada 2012-2022 yılları arasında Türkiye’de entegre raporlama konusunda yazılmış tezler ve makaleler sistematik literatür incelemesi yöntemi kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. TRDizin, DergiPark ve Ulusal Tez Merkezi’nde 20.11.2022 tarihinde entegre raporlama ile ilgili anahtar kelimeler kullanılarak tez veya makale başlığında arama yapılmıştır. Ayrıca aramada hakemli dergilerdeki makaleler seçilmiş ve yayın dili olarak da Türkçe ve İngilizce yayınlar incelenmiştir. Nihai örneklem 102 makale ve 63 tezden oluşmaktadır. İlk makalenin 2012, ilk tezin ise 2016 yılında yazıldığı tespit edilmiştir. İncelenen çalışmaların 2021 ve 2022 yıllarında yoğunlaştığı gözlemlenmiştir. Entegre raporlama çerçevesinin 2021 yılında güncellenip yayınlanmasının ve aynı yıl Türkçe’ye çevrilmesinin yayın sayısına önemli bir etkisi olmadığı belirlenmiştir. Yapılan çalışmaların entegre raporlama ile ilgili genel bilgiler içerdiği, entegre raporlamanın firma performansına etkisi, entegre raporlama kılavuz ilkelerinin ve içerik öğelerinin uygunluğuna ilişkin çalışmalar olduğu saptanmıştır. Gelecekteki çalışmaların entegre raporlamanın kalitesi, entegre raporlamanın belirleyicileri, değer yaratma ve entegre düşünme konularında yapılması tavsiye edilmiştir.
Integrated reporting is a process based on integrated thinking that results in a sustainable approach wherein an organization discloses the value it creates, retains, and consumes over time. Integrated reporting is also a transparent stakeholder-oriented approach to a company’s financial, environmental, social, and governance performance; long-term plans; risks and opportunities; and strategy.
This study aims to examine postgraduate theses and articles on integrated reporting in Türkiye to identify research gaps that could be addressed in future studies. The final scan that constitutes the study’s sample was carried out on the TRDizin, DergiPark, and National Thesis Center websites on November 20, 2022 in both Turkish and English using the following search words: integrated reporting, integrated report, and integrated thinking. The search terms were limited to articles in refereed journals and postgraduate theses in Turkish and English, with only the titles being scanned. The final sample consists of 102 articles and 63 theses. The systematic literature review method was chosen because the number and content of the datasets used in this study are small and manageable enough to be examined manually.
Of the research sample’s 102 articles, 91 were written in Turkish and 11 in English. The earliest published article that was examined is titled “Sürdürülebı̇lı̇rlı̇ k ve Sosyal Sorumluluk Raporlamasındaki̇ Gelişmeler (Tümleşı̇ k Raporlama)” [Developments in Sustainability and Social Responsibility Reporting: Integrated Reporting] and was written in 2012 by Yanık and Türker. The year in which the greatest number of articles was published (n = 20) was 2019. Upon examining the articles, most of them are clearly research articles. As the literature on the subject developed, Research articles were determined to have replaced review articles in terms of most common type published. Approximately 26% of all articles are seen to have been derived from theses. Furthermore, the authors who wrote theses and served as thesis advisors in the field contributed to 23% of the literature. Another noteworthy issue is that some congress abstracts and full-text papers had been published as articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. However, the peer-review processes of the articles derived from the full-tect papers was determined to have been less controlled than regular article publishing processes. Thus, the number of sources used was significantly lower for those than the average.
The thesis authors and their thesis advisors tended to collaborate, with 58% of the total articles having been written by a single author, 27% by two authors, and 15% by three or more authors. Filiz Yüksel was the most productive writer, with eight articles published between 2017 and 2020. The article with the greatest total number and annual number of citations was the work “Why Company Should Adopt Integrated Reporting?” written by Mohammad Enamul Hoque in 2017 as a review-type article written on the subject. The number of citations for this work is thought to be high because of being written in English. Although integrated reporting as a term was translated differently in the first Turkish article on integrated reporting (i.e., tumleşik raporlama; Yanık & Türker, 2012), it is the most-cited Turkish study. Among the top ten most-cited articles, Hakan Aracı is one of the most and only prolific author. Academicians are expected to increase their visibility by effectively using Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and similar platforms that will increase the number of citations. The journal Muhasebe Bilim Dünyası (World of Accounting Science) was determined to have published 16 articles, the journal Muhasebe ve Denetime Bakış (Accounting and Auditing Review) to have published eight articles, the journal Muhasebe ve Vergi Uygulamaları Dergisi (Journal of Accounting and Taxation Studies) to have published five articles, and the journals Muhasebe ve Finansman Dergisi (Journal of Accounting and Finance) and Mali Çözüm (Financial Analysis) to have published four articles each; these comprise the most influential journals.
The first theses on the subject were written in 2016, while 2020 was seen to be the year when the most theses were written (n = 8). The majority of theses in the field were written at Marmara University, followed by Kütahya Dumlupınar (n = 4) and Dokuz Eylül University (n = 4). Although integrated reporting is an interdisciplinary subject, the disciplines with the greatest number of theses written outside of the field of business were determined to be accounting-related, such as accounting and finance, accounting, accounting and auditing, international financial reporting, and auditing. Therefore, researchers are expected to remain interested in the subject in the coming years.
The qualitative method was found to be used as a research method in 50% of all the scanned studies, and the document/ record analysis method of data collection was preferred in 72% of the articles. When comparing the frequencies of keywords from the theses and articles, integrated reporting appeared most frequently in both the theses and articles. Sustainability ranked as the second most frequently used keyword after integrated reporting in the articles, while this keyword was financial reporting for the theses. Corporate reporting ranked third in terms of frequency for both articles and theses.
Significant developments in the field of integrated reporting around the world do not correspond with the development of the literature in Türkiye. The number of publications was unaffected by the update and publishing of the integrated reporting framework in 2021 (IIRC, 2021), which was translated into Turkish in the same year. Given the level of development on this subject that has occurred in the literature, conducting more studies is recommended in Türkiye using mixed research methods on integrated reporting quality, the determinants of integrated reporting, value creation, integrated thinking, integrated reporting, and sustainability in accordance with international studies.
