Improving business model disclosure in the annual report: Insights from an interventionist research project

Titolo Rivista FINANCIAL REPORTING
Autori/Curatori Carlo Bagnoli, Antonio Costantini, Maurizio Massaro
Anno di pubblicazione 2021 Fascicolo 2021/2
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 37 P. 81-117 Dimensione file 376 KB
DOI 10.3280/FR2021-002003
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Responding to the calls for empirical research on the extent and nature of business model reporting, this paper has the purpose to assess the quality of busi-ness model disclosure. To accomplish this purpose, the study takes advantage of an interventionist research project that was conducted in an Italian listed compa-ny operating in the information technology industry to investigate how the busi-ness model was disclosed in the annual report and provide feedback to support possible changes. The study uses a framework of analysis that helped to assess the quality of business model disclosure in terms of three attributes: amount, spread and connectivity. The annual report of two consecutive fiscal years was analyzed. The study mainly shows that the measurement and assessment of BM disclo-sure quality can facilitate its improvement. The analysis enabled meaningful in-sights on BM’s quality to emerge, delivering evidence on the relative importance, coverage and interconnections of BM’s disclosed components. Further, the inter-ventionist approach helped to shape managers’ view on how to tackle disclosure issues and offer more effective communication of the BM according to the com-pany purposes.

Keywords:voluntary disclosure; business model; interventionist research; content analysis.

Jel codes:M41, G14

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Carlo Bagnoli, Antonio Costantini, Maurizio Massaro, Improving business model disclosure in the annual report: Insights from an interventionist research project in "FINANCIAL REPORTING" 2/2021, pp 81-117, DOI: 10.3280/FR2021-002003