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Recent regulatory initiatives, such as the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive and the UK Companies Act, require companies to mobilise the business model concept as a framework to disclose non-financial information in the annual report. These regulatory initiatives are based on a reflexive legal approach that avoids specifying what should be disclosed or articulating minimum disclosure requirements. In this context, this study investigates whether and to what extent preparers and users of non-financial information have a shared understanding of the business model concept and its role in reporting. An exploratory survey was conducted involving 35 users and 13 preparers, followed by 13 in-depth interviews, with both stages of research conducted from Searle's perspective of institutional reality. The findings present a somewhat divergent picture, indicating a lack of widespread consensus around a specific definition of a business model, its constitutive elements, and its reporting function. Thus, we conclude that the business model remains a concept under social construction in this domain and highlights areas of intervention. This study contributes to the existing literature by discussing how the absence of a common definition might hinder the otherwise positive effects of business model disclosure regulation from enhancing corporate transparency. Archival studies on business model reporting generally show low levels of disclosure, indicating poor informativeness. Our evidence adds to the accounting literature by considering the role of a shared view of the business model among market participants as a determinant of business model reporting quality and informativeness.

Udviklingen af et retentionskort var oprindeligt et forskningsprojekt for at tilbyde landmænd et prioriteringsværktøj i kvælstofindsatsen. Fra starten var det ikke synligt hvilken økonomisk gevinst dette ville give, men over tid er landmænd blevet vant til målrettet regulering, og vil gerne bruge nye retentionskort. Større politisk fokus på målrettet regulering har øget interessen hos myndighederne.

This paper investigates the consequences of business model (BM) disclosures. Content analysis is used to assess the mandatory disclosure of BM in in 75 publicly listed companies' annual reports across a three-year period (2014–2016). The research applies a novel content analysis methodology that considers the way in which the relevance of BM disclosures is dependent on which particular BM a given company adopts. The empirical results show notably low levels of BM disclosure and no significant association between BM disclosures and market value. However, we find that BM disclosure provides insights into earnings quality by means of enhanced earnings persistence. These findings reveal that information about the BM itself does not make a difference to investors when it is not linked to financial outcomes. Instead, BM acts as a framework for organizing other disclosures, and provides complementary information about value generation, helping users understand how earnings are generated. These results are important for informing the policy-making process around extra-financial disclosures (e.g., EU Directive 2014/95/EU) and answer calls for research to inform future improvements to corporate and integrated reporting.

This paper explores the phenomenon of intra-industry Business Model (BM) imitation through the concept of BM configurations and sheds light on how it relates to BM innovation. The analysis focuses on similarities and deviations of BM configurations among 80 companies operating in the industry sector related to Phantom Limb Pain (PLP). Leveraging a questionnaire-based mapping tool, the results show that companies operating within the area of PLP treatment apply relatively similar BM configurations. This indicates that companies mostly imitate the successful BMs of their main competitors in the industry as a whole and in their specific sub-groups, thus potentially ignoring the opportunity to also compete on a BM level. The contribution brought by the paper is twofold. First, it adds to the research stream on BM configurations by showing that this concept can be used not only to analyze and foster cross-industry BM imitation, but also to explore and examine intra-industry BM imitation (or differentiation). Second, the article contributes to the research stream on intra-industry BM imitation by going beyond prior anecdotal evidence and empirically testing the existence of the phenomenon of intra-industry BM imitation and hence, the potential innovation space on a BM level.

Nitrogen (N) provides the agriculture industry with a wicked problem: it is an essential nutrient for efficient crop production, but N losses from agricultural production can harm both the stability of the environment and the health of humans. To limit this, targeted N regulation at the ID15 (1500 ha) level is slowly becoming a reality for farmers and authorities in Denmark. This paper explores the formulation of value propositions connected to developed technologies and concepts for retention mapping at the field level for more detailed targeted regulation. We explore all this through a comprehensive longitudinal ethnographic case study over a period of three years. We use the value proposition canvas to make sense of the viewpoints of the involved stakeholder groups. Our empirical setting is a large-scale research project in Denmark, a country that has high environmental goals regarding nitrogen loading. The publicly funded project involved a multitude of stakeholders, ranging from industry consultants, regulators, farmers and researchers from several disciplines. Important for our study is the fact that much of Denmark's regulation is based on a consensus-driven approach. Thus, it provides a compelling setting for exploring the creation of value propositions through multisector stakeholder engagement. Our findings indicate that, while there is a general movement towards targeted N regulation due to an advancement of knowledge, the practical side of its implementation is less straightforward. Here, stakeholder-formulated value propositions can facilitate this process, not only being connected to the measurement technology, but also relying on a link to a regulatory transformation.

PurposeThis article lays out some conceptual considerations of how dynamic accountability and risk reporting practices could be tailored during and after a global pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper seeks to foster the debate on the crucial role of risk reporting considering the impact and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and stakeholder information needs in this context. The authors draw upon neo-Durkheimian institutional and legitimacy theories and elements of the accounting and risk management literature to discuss the challenges that the pandemic poses to risk recognition and assessment and the subsequent disclosure decision of risk information.FindingsRisk reporting has its roots in risk recognition and assessment. To live up to their accountability in these times of uncertainty, organisations need to address their stakeholders' new and changing information needs. Ad hoc disclosures and linking risk management and reporting to their business models (BM) would improve the risk recognition and assessment practices and the meaningfulness of the disclosed information. Hence, we provide some examples and discuss potential avenues to address these challenges and adapt risk reporting accordingly.Originality/valueThis conceptual paper contributes to the risk reporting and accountability research fields. Previous studies on communication during a crisis have focused on sustainability reporting. Thus, this study contributes to that literature by considering the role of risk reporting in times of an unexpected large-scale global crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and by highlighting possibilities for moving risk reporting towards becoming more accountability based.

PurposeSocial and environmental reports have become an increasingly regulated area of corporate reporting and communication. Nevertheless, the substance and level of detail present in such disclosures is largely at the discretion of companies, which has implications for the value of such disclosures to stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to shed light on social visibility as a determinant of the variation in substance found in social disclosures in order to understand underlying reasons for why some firms offer more substance than others in their social disclosures.Design/methodology/approachBased on a number of hypotheses, which are combined into social visibility, the paper investigates whether a firm's social visibility is a determinant of substance in social disclosures. To this end, the case of modern slavery statements is used as a recently introduced and legally mandated form of social sustainability disclosures.FindingsThe findings suggest that social visibility can explain part of the variation in the substance of social disclosures. However, for the remaining part, it is argued that substance in social disclosures can also be driven by institutional logics, which shape organizational outcomes in specific contexts, but are largely unobservable.Originality/valueThis article contributes new insights to the literature on the relationship between corporate social visibility and the substance of social disclosures.

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Better nitrogen management, technologies, and regulation are required to reduce nitrogen losses in the aquatic environment. New innovative technologies can support farmers in a more targeted planning of fertilizer application and crop management at the field level to increase the effect of measures when reducing nitrogen losses. However, if farmers do not perceive the need for such a concept, the demand (market pull) will be minimal, making the implementation of such a technology difficult. The lack of this market pull could, however, be counterbalanced by a market push from research or requirements from public sector stakeholders (regulators). Within this domain, the main objective of this paper was to study technological change over time and identify and understand the crucial stakeholder involvement using the Functions of Innovation Systems Approach. This article shows how stakeholders’ perceptions and participation evolved over a 10-year period. It examines the interplay between technology readiness and the perceived readiness and acceptance by affected stakeholders. We demonstrate how stakeholder engagement was crucial to ensure the development of the technologies by creating marketable options for their future implementation. A key dynamic that emerged in this process was the transition from a research push to a regulator pull. We demonstrate the fact that without the regulatory requirement linked to changes towards more targeting of measures, the technology would not, on its own, be a business case, although it would provide new knowledge, thus representing a gain for society. The specific findings can be used in countries where new technologies need to be developed, and where a link to the regulation can ensure the active use of the new technology and, therefore, make their implementation worthwhile.

TRIZ is currently not frequently used for the creation of Digital Business Models. The author has created an approach inspired by the 40 Inventive Principles, which summarizes the 40 most successful digital business models. This approach has already been used successfully in workshops. It also uses a matrix called the contradiction solver to overcome business contradictions. The different principles are not 1 to 1 translations of the inventive principles as they have a different basis.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Danish Guideline Project (DGP) and its subsequent fate within participating companies since its conclusion in late 2002. Particular focus is placed on the traction that the intellectual capital statement (ICS) approach to reporting, as the principal outcome of the project, was able to acquire in practice. Design/methodology/approach Following the reconstruction of the original sample of 102 companies that originally participated in the project, a survey using semi-structured interviews was pursued among 64 individuals who were identified as having some involvement with the guideline project and/or producing ICSs in these companies. In addition to the interviews, a range of secondary information has been used to supplement the primary data and research protocol. Findings The project was found to have enjoyed only modest success and thereby failed to achieve any substantial traction among the participating companies and related public stakeholders. On balance, however, respondents believed that the exercise had been a positive experience, with benefits for the internal management of the companies, as well as for human capital (employees). The obstacles that radical initiatives such as the ICS continue to face should not be underestimated. Research limitations/implications A single study of a specific initiative necessarily entails many limitations. It is conceivable that the views of some of the participants in the guideline project who are absent from the present sample may provide details of a different experience, although it is unlikely that these would seriously challenge the findings reported here. Originality/value This study is the first to explore the fate of the critically acclaimed ICS approach among companies participating in the DGP.

Recent regulations have introduced the requirement for large companies to disclose information about their business model (BM) in the annual reports. The objective of these disclosures is to allow external users to understand better how companies create, deliver and capture value.This study aims at evaluating the value relevance of BM disclosures under the mandatory disclosure regime imposed on large companies in the UK. By doing so, it draws on data over a three-year period of 75 publicly listed companies from different industries. Content analysis is used to assess BM disclosure in companies' annual reports. Ad-hoc created disclosure indexes are based on the taxonomy of business model (BM) configurations developed by Taran et al. (2016) as well as complemented by a frame of reference based on the nice BM canvas elements from Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010). After the classification of companies according to these BM configurations, it is possible to investigate whether and to what extent companies disclose the value drivers that characterize their specific configurations. The value relevance, i.e., the impact that the release of this BM information has on the market is then assessed by using the model developed by Ohlson (1995).Our results show no significant association between BM disclosure and share prices. The main reason behind this finding can be associated with the low level of disclosure (i.e. the low number of value drivers disclosed on average) by companies as part of their BM. These findings are further enforced by the non-value relevance of the slightly higher levels of disclosure on a BM canvas level. Hence, BM regulation is broad and loose, and key elements of BM are not well defined. In this context, companies have high discretion in deciding what to disclose and how, a general problem of narrative disclosures. Further, based on the specific findings, it is reasonable to assume that companies may also be unaware of the concept of BM itself. As a result, the unawareness of what BM actually is, together with, e.g., high proprietary costs can determine a scarcely useful BM disclosure and thereby the failure of the regulations initial intention of providing a sensemaking context of sustainable value creation-delivery and capture to the other information of the annual report. In light of this, this study is highly relevant for further informing the policy-making process of BM and extra-financial disclosure as well as about its adoption from the companies.

This article provides a research program for the field of business models. It focusses specifically on 4th stage research, which is concerned with the performative notions of business models to which six conceptual avenues for further research are depicted., Journal of Business Models, Årg. 6 Nr. 2 (2018): Special Issue - Business Model Conference 2018

Purpose Informed by the findings of a follow-up research study of companies originally involved in the Danish Guideline Project (DGP) for intellectual capital statements (ICS), the purpose of this paper is to provide valuable insights for a potential shift from intellectual capital (IC) reporting, largely informed by an accounting perspective, towards IC-related disclosures. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on data obtained from 21 semi-structured interviews with respondents in 16 companies. The respondents were contacted following a genealogical exercise carried out on the 102 companies involved in the DGP between 1999 and 2003. Findings The interviews suggested a rather critical perspective towards IC reporting using the ICS framework. Despite the attempt of the DGP to establish a reporting standard, a range of experiments resulted in changes to the framework’s original structure. Overall, a trend towards more integrated forms of reporting was discernible, in some part being motivated by the need to reduce the levels of reporting overload. Examples of integration designed to legitimise IC or corporate social responsibility reports, involving issuing them in tandem with a recognised reporting vehicle such as the annual report, were also encountered. Research limitations/implications The implications of this study are that timely, value-relevant IC disclosures and compliant reporting, primarily for accountability purposes, have the potential to coexist. In addition to the usual limitations of a semi-structured interview research design, respondents’ difficulties in clearly recalling events during the project after some 10-12 years is a further potential limitation. Additionally, the use of internet-based communication channels for disclosure purposes was in its infancy at the time of the DGP. Originality/value The paper provides important insights into the mechanisms of IC disclosure and IC reporting as seen from a practitioner perspective. Implications relevant to the continued development of integrated reporting are also identified.

The Danish Guideline Project and its principal output, the intellectual capital statement, have attracted only a very limited extent of empirical attention since the conclusion of the initiative in December 2002. The paper reports the findings of a series of semi-structured interviews with individuals employed in the small subset of companies that were found to have persevered with intellectual capital reporting during most of the following decade. Interviews explored three themes: motivations for initiating intellectual capital reporting; reasons for continuing to do so; and details of the implementation and evolution of these practices. The paper utilises a number of elements of institutional theory to organise the findings and to discuss the continuities in intellectual capital reporting practice documented therein.

Aedes aegypti is the main insect vector of Dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome and represents the only vulnerable element in the control of this disease. Therefore, the identification and quantification of this mosquito is an important task; however, the majority of taxonomic keys are based on the 4th larval instar. For that reason, this study describes the four larval instars of A. aegypti using scanning electron microscopy. Morphological changes during larval development were observed at the pecten, comb scales and the ventral brush of the abdominal segment X; however, the 3rd and 4th instars showed similar structures with only a slight variation. The structures described in this study will be helpful in the identification of the four instars of A. aegypti, a fundamental task for comprehending the natural history of dengue mainly in new territories affected. Rev. Biol. Trop. 54 (3): 847-852. Epub 2006 Sept. 29.Aedes aegypti es el principal insecto vector de la fiebre del dengue y del dengue hemorrágico/síndrome del choque por dengue y es el único elemento atacable para el control de esta virosis. La identificación y cuantificación de éste es una tarea importante; no obstante, la mayoría de las llaves taxonómicas se basan en el cuarto estadio larval. Por esta razón, en este trabajo se describen los cuatro estadios larvales de A. aegypti los cuales fueron examinados mediante microscopia electrónica de rastreo. Los cambios morfológicos ocurridos durante el desarrollo larval fueron observados en el pecten, las escamas del peine, el cepillo ventral del décimo segmento. El 3ero y 4to estadios larvales mostraron estructuras similares con sólo ligeras variaciones. Las estructuras descritas en este artículo permiten identificar cualquiera de los cuatro estadios larvales de A. aegypti, lo cual representa una tarea importante en la comprensión de la historia natural del dengue en los nuevos territorios afectados.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study which Business Model (BM) configurations companies focusing on Phantom Limb Pain (PLP) apply and thereby to deduce the degree of experimentation present in the BM innovation process.Design/methodology/approach – We apply a mapping tool to identify distinct BM configurations according to Taran et al.’s (2016) 5-V ontology in 80 companies in the medical-technology industry. The mapping tool is used in a content analysis format. Four researchers took part in the mapping exercise to ensure reliability of the results.Findings – Companies operating within the area of PLP treatment, apply relatively similar key value drivers and configurations, linked mostly to Value Proposition and/or Value Segment categories, and hence experimentation is low. Especially when seen for each of the four industry segments separately, there are some natural BM configurations that companies choose the adopt regardless of contingent factors.Research limitations/implications – The choice of a niche industry segment (PLP treatment) limits derived considerations’ applicability into general market settings. The latter consideration is further affected by the size of the research sample, which contains 80 companies from several industry segments and of certain value chain positions. In some of these segments the number of companies is particularly limited (e.g. virtual reality, sensory, etc.).Practical implications – The paper presents a process useful for companies to map their “as is” BM configurations (and the related value drivers) and to assess their competitive position within their industry.Originality/value – The process is also useful for companies in identifying “to be” BM configurations. Defining possible BM innovation routes entails the identification of the future value drivers, and this allows companies to assess the resources and competences needed to “jump” from the “as is” to the “to be” BM configurations. Moreover, this paper offers a taxonomy of BM configurations that provides a valuable empirical basis for further scrutiny and testing of such mechanisms.

Purpose – This study suggests applying the lenses of Activity Systems Theory and Representation Theory in relation to the study of business models. It examines the link between the 71 business model configurations identified by Taran et al. (2016) and performance measures through the mechanisms of value drivers.Design/methodology/approach – An explorative case study of 80 case companies is conducted as a basis for this paper. From these cases, 19 distinct business model configurations are identified and the present study focuses on the 10 configurations that have more than a single datapoint. Findings – Our findings illustrate the process of translating business models to KPIs. This is achieved by translating the identified business model configuration to a set of value drivers that are then translated to KPIs. Our data illustrates difficulties in narrowing down the amount of KPIs to a reasonable amount and how applying the main storyline and focusing on key value drivers are mechanisms that support this process. Research limitations/implications – This study explores the notions of linking KPIs to distinct ways of creating value. Some difficulties are found in generalizing the results due to lack of cross-industry datapoints. Practical implications – Managers need a decision support tool that can provide inspiration for which KPIs that in total best support the value creation mechanisms of their firm. Instead of choosing KPIs from random lists, the KPIs suggested through the 5V ontology ensure a link to value creation. Originality/value – Based on the understanding of value creation from the concept of business models, benchmarking of corporate performance is proposed as an agent for validating business models configurations and related KPIs.