Does integrated reporting assurance impact investment decision-making? Insight from 100 listed firms in South Africa

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between IR assurance and investment decision-making. The study used a sample of 100 companies that have a public listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) over a three-year period (2018, 2019 and 2020) to collect the secondary data used to measure the variables. Using a multiple regression approach to analyse the data, the findings of this study displayed an increase in companies assuring their IRs and confirm a positive influence between IR assurance and investment decision-making. The results obtained in this study provided empirical evidence that companies are increasingly adopting the practice of assuring both financial and non-financial information in their IRs. This research is limited to a sample of listed companies in a single country. Thus, future studies could consider a cross-country study both in developed and developing countries. The study place emphasis on the need for IR assurance to boost investment decision-making, thereby increasing transparency and credibility among the company’s stakeholders. The study is one of the few studies that bridged the gap in the literature in the area of IR assurance and investment decision-making of corporate firms which has received little attention in Sub-Saharan Africa especially within the South African context.

Keywords

• Assurance type
• assurance level
• integrated reporting assurance
• investment decision-making
• stakeholder theory
• Collins Ntim, University of Southampton, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland