２０１８年度
大学院奨励研究員研究報告書
2019年

関西学院大学学長

3月25日

殿奨励研究員氏

名

アクタータスリマ

印

指導教員
所属・職名

Professor, Business
School, Kwansei Gakuin
University

氏

名

ISHIHARA Toshihiko～2019 年

以下のとおり、報告いたします。

研究課題

採用期間

Financial Accounting

２０１８年

４月

１日

3 月

研究科委員長・研究科長印

提 出 先：

所属研究科事務室

131 日

事務局印

印

研究発表状況（奨励研究員採用期間内に発表したものおよび、近く発表予定のもの）（１）学会誌等への発表（著者、発表論文名、学会誌名、巻号、発表年月、掲載頁等）
論 Corporate-Level Determinants of著
文者 AKHTER,T.,SEKISHITA,H.
Integrated Reporting: Evidence from
題
雑 名
目 Japa n誌
論巻号
発行年月
掲載頁
文 雑誌 産研論集（関西学院大学）
46
2019.3
109-128
名著
者雑 名誌
論
文 雑誌
名著
SAKAI, D.,AKHTER, T.,
者& ISHIHARA, T.
名図書論
文
題
目巻号

発行年月

掲載頁

“ Fusion of Integrated Reporting andPerformance
Measurement
inLocalGovernment: Current Status and Issues ofJapanese Local Governments”

論
文
題
目

発行年月

頁

書 New Trends in Public Sector Reporting:総頁：編集中
名 Integrated Reporting and Beyond
Forthcoming 担当箇所： Palgrave
Macmillan※論文題目：共著の場合の担当部分のタイトル（２）学会発表（口頭・ポスター：学会名、開催地、発表論文名、発表年月日等）
学会
名Japan Accounting Research Society
77th Annual Meeting

題
目Corporate-Level Determinants ofReporting: Evidence from Japan

学会
名

Kent Business
International Joint Conference on Integrated
開 催 地 School, University
Reportingof Kent

題目

Corporate Governance, Ownership Structure, and 発 表July 13, 2018
Integrated Reporting: Evidence from Japan
年月日

開催地

Kanagawa University,
Yokohama Campus

Integrated 発 表
September 3-6, 2018
年月日

学会
名

開催地

題
目発 表
年月日

2

研究経過状況（３０００字程度）
Since April 2018, I have been working predominantly on my PhD thesis and I am
planning to submit the thesis on June, 2019.
Title of the Thesis: Contents and Determinants of Integrated Reporting: Evidence
from Japan and the United Kingdom
This thesis has three interrelated objectives: firstly, to investigate thecontents of integrated reports (IR) of leading listed companies in Japan.
Secondly, to investigate the contents of integrated reports of leading listedcompanies in the UK. Thirdly, to understand the corporate level determinants
for integrated reporting adoption in Japan.
Research in progress regarding first objective:
The sampling process for this part of thesis started by identifying the first
100 companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, by market capitalization forthe year ended on March 31, 2016. Out of first 100 companies, 15 companies’
annual reports were selected on a random basis to examine their contents. Inaddition, 5 award winning integrated reports (the 4th WICI Japan Award forExcellence in Integrated Reporting for FY 2016) have been chosen to get a
comparative picture of their contents. In total, a sample of 20 Japanesecompanies has been chosen to investigate their contents.
Methodology of the study: The content analysis method was used for studying thisobjective. A disclosure checklist was prepared earlier based on the eight Content
Elements of the framework by the International Integrated Reporting Council(IIRC) published in 2013.As the IIRC framework has taken a principle-based
approach and does not prescribe disclosure of specific Key Performance
Indicators, individual disclosure items were constructed after carefully
reading the narratives of “ Content elements” and the interpretations therein
were used to analyze the contents of the selected reports. In addition,
consultations from extant literature were taken to make the Disclosure Checklist
comprehensive. The checklist has 43 items to investigate under eight ContentElements. The information of the reports was coded against these 43 items. To
measure the extent and quality of disclosure, we adopt multiple coding rules
depending on the nature of each item.
Findings of the study: Out of 20 sampled annual reports, 19 have referenced to
the IIRC framework in preparing the reports. So, it is interesting to investigate
what these reports are actually presenting in the name of integrated reports.
The results in the content checklist show that the disclosure scores of the 20
sampled companies of Japan range from 75.68% to 29.73% approximately. It also
reveals that Governance is the highest disclosed category with 76.67% average
disclosure for 20 companies followed by Organizational Overview and External
Environment with 75% average disclosure. The lowest disclosed element isBusiness Model with 40.91% average disclosure only.
Research in Progress regarding second objective:
This section started with investigating FTSE 100 companies’ annual reports forthe year 2016. Out of 100 companies` reports, only 5 repots were found to referto the IIRC framework in preparation. In addition, annual reports of 15 othercompanies have been chosen randomly. In total, contents of 20 reports have beencoded against the checklist prepared.
Methodology of the study: This study also used content analysis method. The same3

disclosure checklist (described in the methodology section of objective one)was used to codify the information in the reports.
Findings of the study: In case of 20 sampled companies of the UK, the average
disclosure rates ranges from 87.84% to 54.05% approximately. Governance is thehighest disclosed content element with 97.78% average disclosure and Basis ofPreparation and Presentation or materiality related disclosure is the lowest
disclosed category with 37.5% average disclosure by the sampled companies ofthe UK.
Contribution of the studies regarding first and second objectives: The two above
studies offer a number of contributions to the academia and the professionals.
To the best of my knowledge, these are two early studies to examine integrated
reporting practice in Japan and in the UK, mainly investigating into the contentsand quality of the reports under study against the IIRC Framework. Showing early
evidences of integrated reporting in these two countries, these studies caninform different stakeholders and policymakers about the initial phase of thisnew reporting norm and how it is shaping the future corporate reporting practice.
Another important contribution is that unlike most of the studies in this area,
these studies did not investigate into the integrated reporting quality orpractice in South Africa where preparation of IR is a mandatory requirement for
the listed companies in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Instead, current
studies focused on two different regulatory environments where IR preparation
is not mandatory but supportive.
Research Progress regarding third objective:
This segment of the thesis examined the determinants associated with the adoptionof the integrated report as a corporate reporting model. To fulfill thisobjective, the effects of certain company features, ownership structures andboard characteristics related variables have been investigated on the use ofintegrated reporting.
Methodology of the study: This study used logit regression model and firm-level
data on a sample of Nikkei 225 companies listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).
The Nikkei 225 index is Japan’ s most widely watched index of stock market
activity at the TSE. Its constituents are the most actively traded companies
in the stock exchange with balanced representation of a wide range of Japaneseindustries.
Given that IR is in an early stage of development, this cross-sectional study
focused on integrated reporting practice in the latest available year, 2017.
Out of Nikkei 225, the final sample consisted of 169 companies after excludingbanks and other financial institutions from the sample. Companies that do notcontain required data for the analysis were also excluded.
In this study, the dependent variable IR is a binary variable, taking the value
1 if the company publishes an IR and 0 if it does not. The independent variables
are: board size, ratio of independent directors in the board, debt to equity
ratio, ratio of domestic institutional owners, cross shareholding ratio, foreign
shareholding ratio, company size, profitability, and industry affiliation of
the companies.

4

A broadly agreed upon definition of IR does not exist. This study therefore,
examined whether the sample companies have published integrated reports or not.
At first, we investigated whether the report in each case has integrated
financial and non-financial information into a single document or not. This idea
is consistent with the definition of the IIRC framework. Each report wasevaluated based on the following contents: a) management commentary, b) overview
of business operations c) corporate strategies and risks d) the value creation
process e) governance and remuneration policies, and f) sustainability related
disclosure. After examining the incorporation of all this information into thereport, the editorial policy section was read carefully to understand theawarenessorviewpoint

non-financialofinformation.

themanagement

Basedontheon

integrating

above

financial

scrutinizing

process,andwe

considered 96 of our sample companies as integrated reports in 2017.
Findings of the study: This study revealed some interesting findings. In oursample, the average adoption rate of integrated reporting was 56.8%. The findings
also revealed the high dependence on debt of these firms and the significant
stakes of foreign owners in these companies. The average of the foreign
shareholding ratios of the sample firms was 29.35%. The average board size was
11 with minimum and maximum sizes of 5 and 25. The average of the ratio ofindependent outside directors to total directors on the board was 29.16%. The
sample contains 48.5% of environmentally sensitive firms.
The findings of this study include that firm size has a significant positive
influence on IR adoption whereas profitability has a negatively influence on
it. Industry classification has no significant influence upon the integrationof financial and non-financial information. It means that firms operating inenvironmentally non sensitive industries are also making improvements inintegrated

reportingpractice.

This

investment,

crossshareholding,

and

paper

also

foreignfoundthatshareholdinginstitutional
have

negativeassociations with the adoption of IR. Japanese corporate boards are usually large
and dominated by insiders. This study failed to prove any significant relation
betweenboard

sizeandintegrated

reportingadoption.

Finally,greater

independence of the board favorably influences the integration of corporateinformation.
Contribution of the study: As the newest form of reporting, the practice ofintegrated reporting and motives for its adoption are largely unexplored. Extant
literature essentially explored the context of South Africa where publicationof IR is mandatory. Importantly, research regarding this reporting practice inJapan is rare. To the best of my knowledge, this study is one of the earliest
studies to focus on the determinants of integrated reporting adoption in Japan.
以上5