Value creation and business models: Refocusing the intellectual capital debate

Abstract

There is currently significant debate worldwide regarding business reporting. The concept of the 'business model' has entered into the discourse, as has the concept of 'integrated reporting', adding to the established debate regarding accounting for intangible assets and, more generally, intellectual capital (IC). Despite the tradition of extensive interdisciplinary borrowing in accounting, relevant literatures on business models and on modern managerial perspectives on competitive advantage have, to date, largely been ignored within the accounting literature. The main contribution of this conceptual paper is to identify and discuss the key features of these literature strands and their linkage to contemporary debates on narrative reporting. These conceptual linkages between IC, value creation and business models are illustrated by means of interview evidence from eleven company cases. It is concluded that the business model concept offers a powerful overarching concept within which to refocus the IC debate. The concept is holistic, multi-level, boundary-spanning and dynamic. The analysis supports the current calls for integrated disclosure around the central business model story. Suggestions for future research are offered.

New Service Delivery Alternatives from the Automation of Knowledge with Virtual Assistants

“… Collaboration between firms and other stakeholders: Collaboration between firms and other key stakeholders is becoming more important (Lowitt [45]). Value is no longer created by firms acting alone; instead firms are acting together with external parties through informal arrangements or formal alliances (Beattie and Smith [31], Bocken, et al [46]). …”

“…Business models have received important attention in literature and business and it is increasingly suggested that business model innovation increases business performance (Chesbrough [27], Zott et al [28]). The literature offers different views on the business model: Margretta's [29], Zott and Amit [30] and Beattie and Smith [31] describe business models as a holistic description on 'how a firm does business'. Teece [32] proposed that a business model articulates how the company will convert resources and capabilities into economic value.…”

Business Model Innovation for Local Energy Management: A Perspective from Swiss Utilities

“…Business model innovation is defined as a discipline supporting the change of value proposition to customers (Bocken et al, 2014), involving the change of the way a business is run (Zott and Amit, 2013), and considering a large number of stakeholders and a broad value-network going well beyond the existing firm perspective (Beattie and Smith, 2013;Zott and Amit, 2013).…”

Lessons for progressing narrative reporting: Learning from the experience of disseminating the Danish Intellectual Capital Statement approach

“…It is interesting to note that while the opening sentence of Beattie and Smith (2013) The practice statement is not an IFRS. Consequently, entities are not required to comply with the practice statement, unless specifically required by their jurisdiction.…”

“…Its re-emergence is closely related to the growing interest in integrated reporting (IR) (BIS, 2010;IIRC, 2011IIRC, , 2012IIRC, , 2013, within which narrative reporting has a major role to play, including in connection with the business model that is identified as being central to this approach to business reporting (EFRAG, 2010;ICAEW, 2010;Haslam et al, 2012;Leisenring et al, 2012;Beattie and Smith, 2013). Narrative reporting also played a significant role within the intellectual capital statement (ICS) reporting framework that emerged from the Danish Guideline Project (DGP) (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) (DATI, 2000;Mouritsen et al, 2001Mouritsen et al, , 2003.…”