Enhancing financial reporting: the contribution of business models

The term business model has recently entered discussions on how it might be possible to improve the information content of financial statements. It has done so as part of the rejuvenation of an earlier debate about moving from a corporate reporting to a business reporting model of external reporting. Despite a flurry of interest and exploration about how financial reporting might be enhanced following the publication of the Jenkins Report, the accountancy profession found itself confronted with other, more pressing problems. Current interest in business models marks a return to these earlier concerns. The paper provides further background to the business model concept, as well identifying a number of examples of frameworks capable of illustrating the dynamics of a business model, emphasising their links with the visualisation of value creation and delivery within organisations, viewed as the basis for enhancing financial reporting.