Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD) Development Oriented Research (DOR) Department of Accounting 

Project Title: Adoption of Sustainability Reporting (SR) and Integrated Reporting (IR) and Organizational Transformation: Perspectives from Sri Lanka

In January 2019, a project team led by Senior Prof. Samanthi Senaratne and Dr Nuwan Gunarathne of the Department of Accounting of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce received a competitive grant of Rs. 10 million from the AHEAD project of the World Bank under the category of Development Oriented Research (DOR), HEMS (Humanities, Education, Management, Social Sciences). The other project team members are Prof. Dileepa Samudrage, Mr Roshan Herath and Ms Thilini Cooray from the Department of Accounting, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a foreign collaborator, Prof. Ki-Hoon Lee from Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Australia. The Research Assistant is Mr. Kumara Kanchana.

Project objectives:

The duration of this project is three-and-a-half years, and it is specifically focused on the achievement of the following objectives:

  • To identify the level of adoption of SR/IR in corporate managerial decision making (Objective 1)
  • To examine how the adoption of SR/IR results in organizational changes (Objective 2)
  • To examine how the internal and external assurance mechanisms are used in SR/IR (Objective 3)
  • To identify the implications of these changes for the country’s accounting education (Objective 4)

 

 

 

More Information

EMAIL: accounting.aheadproject@sjp.ac.lk

AHEAD Project: https://ahead.lk/about/

Scholarly work achieved through the project

Research publications in peer-reviewed international journals:

  • Senaratne, S., Gunarathne, A. D. N., Herath R., Samudrage, D. N. and Cooray, T., (2022), “Institutional Pressures and Responses to the Introduction of Integrated Reporting into Accounting Curricula: The Case of Sri Lankan Universities”, Accounting Education, Vol. 31 NO. 5, pp. 536–566, https://doi.org/10.1080/09639284.2022.2032775 (Indexed by Emerging Sources Citation Index and Scopus).
  • Cooray, T, Senaratne, S, Gunarathne, N, Herath, R and Samudrage, D N, (2022), “Adoption of integrated reporting in Sri Lanka: Coverage and trend”, Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, Vol 20, No. 3/4, pp. 389-415. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFRA-04-2020-0116 (Indexed by Scopus).
  • Gunarathne, N, Wijayasundara, M, Senaratne, S, Kanchana, K, and Cooray, T, (2021), “Uncovering corporate disclosure for a circular economy: An analysis of sustainability and integrated reporting by Sri Lankan companies”, Sustainable Consumption and Production, Vol. 27 pp. 787-801 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.02.003 (Indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and Scopus)
  • Herath, R, Senaratne, S, and Gunarathne, N, (2021), “Exploring the rationale for assuring integrated reports and its impacts on assurance practices: a proposed conceptual model”, International Journal of Accountancy, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 1-17. https://online.fliphtml5.com/hvvr/ytus/#p=8

[This paper won the Best Research Paper Gold Medal – Auditing category at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) International Research Awards 2022]

  • Cooray, T, Senaratne, S, Gunarathne, A D N, Herath, R, and Samudrage, D N, (2020), “Does integrated reporting enhance the value relevance of information? Evidence from Sri Lanka,” Sustainability, Vol. 12 No. 19, pp. 8183. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12198183 (Indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and Scopus).

 

Book chapters:

  • Cooray, T., Senaratne, S. and Gunarathne, N. (2022) “Engagement with sustainable development goals in accounting education: the case of a public university in Sri Lanka” In: Öztürk, M. (eds) Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. pp. 19-37. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_2.

 

Working papers published and presented:

  • Cooray, T, Senaratne S, Gunarathne, A D N, Herath, R, and Samudrage, D N, (2020), “The value relevance of integrated reporting: Evidence from Sri Lanka”, JCAE Annual Symposium 2020, January 4-5, 2020, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 

Abstracts accepted and presented:

  • Herath, R, Cooray, T, Gunarathne, A D N, Samudrage, D N, Senaratne, S, and Lee, K H, (2019), “The adoption of integrated reporting practice in Sri Lanka in accordance with the International Integrated Reporting Framework”, 11th Environmental and Sustainability Management Accounting Network-Asia Pacific (EMAN-AP) Conference 2019, Danang University of Economics, Vietnam.

 

Papers presented at national conferences/symposia:

  • Herath, R, Senaratne, S, and Gunarathne, A D N, (2020), “Exploring the rationale for integrated report assurance in Sri Lanka: A proposed conceptual model”, 6th International Conference for Accounting Researchers & Educators, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
  • Herath, R, Cooray, T, Gunarathne, A D N, Samudrage, D N, Senaratne, S, and Lee, K H, (2019), “Conceptualization of the adoption of integrated reporting in Sri Lanka: Use of an extended theory of planned behaviour” (December 3, 2019), International Conference on Multi-disciplinary Approaches Conference, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Ongoing work

Journal papers:

  • “Adopting of a single set of global sustainability standards” [Journal paper for an indexed journal]
  • “Managerial psychological factors impacting on integrated reporting adoption” [Journal paper for an indexed journal]

Books and chapters:

  • “Integrated reporting: Business cases for sustainability in South Asia” [Edited book published with an international publisher. See more details here].
  • “Adoption of integrated reporting in Sri Lanka: Status, progress and prospects” [Practitioner-oriented guide book developed in collaboration with professional accounting bodies and regulators in Sri Lanka]
  • “Country readiness in adopting a single set of sustainability reporting standards” [Invited book chapter published by an international publisher]