Anotace:
Leading global companies have begun to focus their activities on a larger spectrum, including both financial and non-financial performance, to gain and maintain competitive advantages. Integrated reporting provides opportunities through which companies can increase transparency about their business activities, including environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. ESG has become increasingly important as a key component of business competitiveness. Using multiple regression models, we empirically investigate the influence of ownership structure on the quality of integrated reporting. Based on a sample of 1,017 integrated reports from Asian and European regions for the period of 2016-2019, we hypothesize and find that companies with dispersed ownership show higher quality integrated reporting as compared to companies with concentrated ownership. Companies with dispersed ownership face a higher level of pressure from various individuals and institutional shareholders, leading to more effective control of the companies’ operations. By contrast, companies with concentrated ownership tend to be influenced more by the majority of the shareholders, leading to less effective control of the companies’ operations. Our study contributes to the literature on gaining and maintaining competitive advantages through ESG initiatives by providing evidence that the pressures from various shareholders to invest in ESG activities are beneficial for companies marketplace competitiveness. Our study suggests that companies need to diversify their ownership to improve their financial as well as non-financial performance.