Abstract
The general public, and in particular, the millennial generation a new generation of
stakeholders is becoming more aware of environmental and social issues and are
demanding greater social responsibility from companies. Millennials are interested in
sustainability, environmental and social responsibility and corporate governance
issues and they expect companies ‘to improve society’. Although there has been a
recent shift to better sustainability and integrated reporting, it appears that the
current reporting practices of companies may not meet the expectations of the
millennial generation, seeing that millennials still have negative perceptions about
companies. While sustainability and integrated reporting have been studied widely,
very little assessment has been made of whether companies are providing sufficient
disclosure that is relevant to millennials. The objective of this research is to analyse
disclosures of sustainability, environmental and social responsibility practices and
goals and corporate governance practices and the manner in which these
disclosures were presented in order to assess whether adequate disclosure, relevant
to millennials’ expectations of companies, has been provided. A qualitative research
strategy was followed. A systematic, empirical review was conducted by means of a
content analysis using a basic checklist. The most recent financial years’ integrated
reports of the companies in the sample were examined, as well as their websites and
social media accounts. The results indicate that there are areas for improvement in
all the disclosure categories examined and that companies’ use of their websites and
social media is inadequate to cater for millennials’ information requirements. Only
approximately one third of the companies studied are expected to attract millennials
as investors, consumers, or potential employees (i.e. both shareholders and
stakeholders) and therefore integrated reporting disclosure needs to be improved in
order to make companies more appealing to them. This study offers a new
perspective on current integrated reporting practices and provides guidance on
integrated reporting and the preparation of integrated reports going forward.
M.Com. (International Accounting)