Development toward integrated reporting, and its impact on corporate governance: a two-dimensional approach to accounting with reference to the German two-tier system

<Para ID="Par1">Recently, the International Integrated Reporting Council has published an integrated reporting framework stimulating major further development in corporate reporting. In combination with a commonly recognized high-level status quo in matters of management commentary, the German two-tier system appears to be an outstanding basis for coming to terms with the future developments brought about by integrated reporting, especially by strengthening the Continental European stakeholder approach to corporate governance. Studies have revealed the importance of financial reporting in reducing information asymmetry between managers and key stakeholders, thereby facilitating corporate governance. Against this backdrop, the objective of this paper is to evaluate the ability of an integrated report to improve corporate governance compared to the well-established German management commentary. This paper provides a descriptive analysis comparing features of the German management commentary and an integrated report with respect to corporate governance. Proper implementation of integrated reporting will affect several traditional structures and business processes. Management accounting as a meaningful business partner to help fulfill the requirements of corporate governance poses new challenges to addressing the key principles of integrated reporting, such as strategic focus, connectivity of information, and making transparent the complex outcomes on various capitals. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014