Differences in Disclosure of Integrated Reports at Energy and Non-Energy Companies

Integrated reports combine financial and non-financial data into a comprehensive report outlining the company’s value creation process. Our objective is to find the completeness of disclosures, which is a crucial aspect of an integrated report’s quality. This study contributes to the integrated reporting examination by identifying quantitative and qualitative gaps when applying Integrated Reporting standards, focusing on the energy sector. We conducted the study on 57 published integrated reports of listed companies in Poland. The content of each report was examined for 49 features divided into eight areas. We identify the strengths and weaknesses of current reporting performance and the impact of the company’s sector on reports’ quality. We noted that there are significant differences among the areas. The major problems concern implementing IIRC’s framework on the connections between the business model and the organization’s strategy, risks, opportunities, and performance. Our research also noted that the level of specific disclosures might be related to a company’s ownership structure. We investigated the significance of differences among companies from the energy and non-energy sectors using statistical methods. As a result of the study, we obtained that disclosures’ completeness depends on the operation sector. The companies in the energy sector publish higher-quality integrated reports than companies in the other sectors.