Business Models and Corporate Reporting: Defining the Platform to Illustrate Value Creation

This book discusses the role of business models in corporate reporting. It illustrates the evolution of non-financial reporting, the importance of business model reporting, and the main conceptualisations of business models. It also offers a methodological contribution to the assessment of business model reporting. Finally, it discusses the main implication of business model reporting for different categories of subjects and some challenges related to this kind of disclosure.

Readers will understand the role of business models in the non-financial reporting landscape. They will also gain an understanding of how business models can help users of the annual report contextualise other non-financial items disclosed. However, effective business model reporting implies paying attention to certain features that define its quality. This theme is discussed in the empirical part of the book and in the section devoted to implications for preparers, users, and regulators.

As large companies in the EU and the UK have to disclose the business model in the annual report, this book will be of interest to preparers and users of financial statements, regulators involved in the ongoing non-financial regulatory process, and professional bodies. It will also be of interest to academics interested in the investigation of non-financial reporting.

Lorenzo Simoni is a Research Fellow in Accounting at the Department of Economics and Business Studies at the University of Genoa, Italy. His main research interests are related to non-financial reporting, with a focus on business model reporting, non-financial key performance indicators, intellectual capital, risk reporting, and sustainability reporting and assurance. He has obtained a PhD in Business Administration and Management from the University of Pisa, Italy. Lorenzo has been awarded two research grants from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the latter of which has been co-funded by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), to investigate the relationships between business model and non-financial indicators and between business model and risk reporting, respectively. More recently, he has expanded his interests to earnings quality and distress prediction.