How might the assurance services evolve in the future to meet stakeholders' needs for integrated reporting? - The case of the Big Four (Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG).

Details

Supervisors

De Ronge, Yves

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

In recent years, because of the various environmental and social crises we are facing in society, stakeholders' expectations of companies have evolved. As a result, businesses have started to communicate more transparently how they manage ESG (environmental, social, and governance) elements, and in particular, over the last 10 years, companies have been expected to explain the impact of these non-financial data on their financial performance. This led to the creation of integrated reporting, which was popularized with the development of the IIRC, which proposed guidelines that can be used by companies to prepare their integrated report. This framework has still many limitations, which means that integrated reporting is not widely used in practice by companies today. However, with the new regulations on non-financial reporting, the integration of financial and non-financial data into a single report may become more important in the future, and the assurance of these integrated reports by auditors may also become a crucial point. Current assurance standards, though, do not seem to be adapted to the content of integrated reports, and many adaptations may be necessary if integrated reporting becomes popular in the coming years. Therefore, this thesis addresses the following research question "how might the assurance services evolve in the future to meet stakeholders' needs for integrated reporting?".