Investigating risk disclosures in Italian integrated reports

Purpose – The paper identifies the types of risks disclosed by Italian organisations using integrated reporting (IR). This paper aims to understand the level and features of risk disclosure with the adoption of IR. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use risk classifications already provided in the literature to develop a content analysis of Italian organisations’ integrated reports published. Findings – The content analysis reveals that most of the Italian organisations incorporate many types of risk disclosure into their integrated reports. Organisations use this alternative form of reporting to communicate risk differently from how they disclose risks in traditional annual financial reporting. That is, the study finds that the organisations use their integrated reports to disclose a broader group of risks, related to the environment and society, and do so using narrative and visual representation. Originality/value – The paper contributes to a narrow stream of research investigating risk disclosure provided through IR, contributing to the understanding of the role of IR in representing an organisational risk. Keywords Risk disclosure, Risk representation, Accounting for risk, Integrated reporting, EU directive 95/2014, Content analysis