The role of communication in providing accountability through Sustainable Development Goals Disclosures and Integrated Reporting: A public sector case study

The aim of the research is to move beyond what is publicly available or what can fit into a tick box survey, to explore in depth the operation of IR in a large organisation which has been using this form of corporate reporting for a number of years. IR is a complex process and qualitative research is needed to understand the dynamics of its implementation in practice (Stake, 2010; Yin, 2017), which is achieved through qualitative research. As Hartley (2004, p208) argues “case studies are meaningful and rich and can shed light on the fine grain detail of social processes in their appropriate context.†The case study is not a unit of analysis in itself and data collection will involve conducting interviews with key board members, members of the accounting and reporting teams as well as focus groups with staff within the organisation to explore the topic of IR from different perspectives. This will be triangulated to the report itself as well as other published materials and the key literature in the area. The bursary would predominantly be used for the collection and analysis of this data.