The communication of business model in corporate reporting. Empirical evidence of Integrated Reporting

Purpose – The communication of Business Model (BM) as well as the disclosure of the firm’s process of value creation in corporate reporting are gaining a momentum within academics and practitioners, as in the international arena there is a strong need to improve non-financial information disclosure through the adoption of more comprehensive and transparent communication processes. The aim of this paper is to investigate the correct positioning of BM within the systems of non-financial information in corporate reporting. The analysis is focused on <IR> model to verify the correspondence between the best business practices of BM disclosure and this benchmark. Research design/ Methodology –. The analysis was performed on the Integrated reports drawn up by a sample of 17 companies belonging to different industries over the period 2011-2013. Most of these companies have joined the Pilot Programme Business Network members and investors promoted by IIRC (www.integratedreporting.org). Findings – This research aimed to analyze BM disclosures on three different areas, according to the guidelines on BM communication issued by Business Model Background Paper for <IR>: 1) key concepts (content elements) of BM; 2) communication of BM; 3) descriptive analysis of <IR> of the sample analyzed. This research highlighted a relevant propensity to disclose the BM key elements within <IR> and the crucial relationships and links of these elements with BM. Specifically, there is a low association between the BM elements and a strong need of an adequate and clear interpretation and interaction with other corporate issues (eg. mission, vision, governance model, strategic plan, etc.), which significantly support the users in understanding the crucial pivot of value creation process of company. Originality/ Value – This paper may contribute to the prior studies on the communication of BM as the BM role within corporate reporting has yet to be fully explored, since more attention has been devoted to the topics of business strategy, innovation and change management. It is a still underdeveloped research topic on a theoretical level, and it is highly significant, empirically. The growing interest about the position of BM within Financial Reporting is confirmed by documents issued by several international organizations, but this research area is less investigated not only within the traditional financial reporting but also within <IR> (Busco et al., 2013; Lai et al., 2015).