The history of corporate reporting: A periodic approach

Corporate reporting has evolved from the earliest times of history to the present in line with technological and commercial developments, opportunities and needs arised in the world. Traditional reporting approach has been transformed into integrated reporting over time after many stages. The developments in integrated reporting are followed by the business world and large audiences. The Integrated Report, also called "One Report", is the report in which both the financial report and the sustainability report prepared for the operations of the enterprises are combined and presented as a single report. The purpose of this thesis is to reveal the importance and necessity of sustainability, integrated reporting concepts, which have been on the agenda in recent years, together with the cause and effect relationship by taking the historical development framework of corporate reporting into consideration. The concept of accounting and its historical development are examined in the first chapter. In the second chapter, the harmonization process and the phases of corporate reporting are discussed. The concept of sustainability and the purpose, scope and advantages of sustainability reporting are mentioned in the third chapter. In the fourth chapter, the emergence of integrated thinking and integrated reporting with its purpose, scope and principles are explained. In the last chapter, periodic analysis of the history of corporate reporting is performed.