Purpose: The relationships between integrated reporting quality (IRQ) and corporate governance characteristics have been studied extensively, but the results are still inconclusive and, sometimes, contradictory. The purpose of this paper is to systematize the results of previously published studies on the relationship between corporate governance and IRQ. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses several complementary theoretical perspectives (agency, stakeholder and signaling theory). The relevant aspects of the corporate governance system are the attributes and composition of the board, the existence of a social responsibility committee, the quality of the audit committee, integrated report assurance and ownership structures. The sample consisted of 61 papers published in top journals between 2015 and 2021. Meta-analytic procedures were applied on bivariate and partial correlations between IRQ and the identified corporate governance characteristics. Findings: The results confirm that director independence, the existence of a social responsibility committee, institutional ownership and the hiring of a Big 4 auditor are significantly correlated with IRQ. On the other hand, board gender diversity, audit committee independence and dedicated assurance have a positive but nonsignificant impact on IRQ. Chairperson-chief executive officer duality does not seem to impact report quality, while ownership concentration has a negative but nonsignificant impact on IRQ. Research limitations/implications: Future research can improve the measurement of focal indicators by using a common set of variables for comparability, favoring disaggregate measures of corporate governance and updating the measurement of some indicators. Future research could also propose new indicators in the area of corporate governance and expand the theoretical domain of IRQ research. Originality/value: The findings emphasize the need to explicitly consider the role of corporate governance structures and arrangements in improving IRQ. Through meta-analysis, the paper aims to provide a comprehensive and generalizable set of findings, suggesting that corporate governance indicators cannot be overlooked as predictors of integrated reporting.

Integrated reporting (IR) is an emerging practice increasingly capturing the attention of companies. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the integrated reports issued by companies from the financial sector in Europe are following the guidance of the International Integrated Reporting Framework (IIRF). To achieve this objective, we analyzed the way in which the integrated reports of eight companies are following the guidance provided by the IIRF. As a result, we noticed that the annual report of Generali scored the highest compliance level with the guidance of the IIRF, but each one of the companies stood out with respect to at least one of the guiding principles or fundamental concepts mentioned in the IIRF. Although the companies included in the sample are in different stages of IR adoption, our results contribute to understanding the practice of IR. The conclusions support the use of a tool to measure the compliance of an integrated report to the existing requirements in the context of an industry linked to many other domains.