Business Model and Integrated Reporting: a first analysis

In this period we are assisting to some news having a strong impact on management of the companies, on reporting and on the standard setters activity. On one side the International Integrated Reporting is attracting more and more attention, not only from many companies, but also from many audit organizations and accounting standard setters. On the other one the management of large the Companies cannot avoid to consider, manage and report about social, environmental and governance issues, and this aspect is affecting the corporate reporting requiring to consider not only the traditional financial dimension, but also these further aspects. One of the main recent innovations about management and reporting is focused on the definition of models for sustainable growth and value creation dynamics according to a sustainable growth perspective. In this way we can find the work of the IIRC that has introduced the Integrated reporting and the Integrated report (IR). IR is strongly based on the concept of Business Model defined as “the chosen system of inputs, business activities, outputs and outcomes that aims to create value over the short, medium and long term”. On this issue, the Technical Task Force of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) established a Technical Collaboration Group (TCG) prepared the “Background Paper for ”. Meantime a pilot program of the IIRC, which involves many companies with the purpose to verify and help the development of the Framework for the Integrated Reporting has been carried on. The aim of this paper is to realize a first explanatory analysis of Business model considering three different aspects: the definition stated by IIRC and within its documents, the existing International literature where there is not an univocal definition and the empirical side represented by the Pilot Program of IIRC. The research question is to identify which aspects of the BM should be considered in the light of these different contributions to better represent and report the sustainable growth and value creation dynamics according to a sustainable growth perspective. The paper also has the purpose to put in evidence eventually critical aspects in the BM rules and applications trying to shed more light on how this aspect could be really useful in the successful development of the Integrated Reporting. This aspect is also relevant since IR represents a recent innovation it is not so much analysed by academics and it would require to be analysed basing on a theoretical perspective. Three different methodologies are adopted: after an explanatory analysis of the International literature review about Business Model we would realize a Document analysis approach (Bowen, 2009) about the documents issued by the IIRC and a Case study approach for the empirical side of the research (Stake, 1993; Yin, 1995). The empirical side will cover 18 Companies included in the Database of the IIRC. The originality of this paper is related both to the fact that it addresses a new issue that is not particularly analysed since it is young and since it is still developing, and to the complete approach of the analysis combining the theoretical aspects with the empirical applications of the companies. Practical implications of this paper are connected to the fact that the findings could help companies in finding a better way of analysing, implementing and representing their Business Model generating a good outcome both for the entity and for its stakeholders. The results could also be useful for the IIRC that is still developing its standards.