Why no interest in preparing integrated reporting in Iraq?/ Salim Khaleel Khalid and Ali Hazim Alyamoor

Integrated reporting is a hot topic in the accounting field. It has been argued that integrated reporting is being broadly prepared by organisations in both the developed and developing countries. However, reasons for barriers to preparing integrated reporting are still empirically missing. This is very important because the desire of using integrated reporting has recently plummeted. In particular, some developing countries, including Iraq, have not started applying integrated reporting. Accordingly, the purpose of this research was to explore the source of resistances which make Iraqi organisations disinterested in adopting integrated reporting. To reach this goal, firstly, annual reports and websites for different companies listed on the Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) for the period between 2016-2018 were analysed to check the potential of developing integrated reporting in Iraq. Then semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 academics in different Iraqi universities. Results asserted that Iraqi organisations still did not have any interest to develop integrated reporting. The study defined some disinterested in developing integrated reporting such as the organisational culture, the ambiguity of integrated reporting, and cost and benefit of implementation integrated reporting. Findings in this paper were developed based on academics’ views. This means the findings may be different from practitioners’ perceptions. Practitioners and academics should find a useful reference for developing integrated reporting research. This is the first study which provides empirical evidence on the micro and macro factors that prevent developing integrated reporting in Iraq.