Modelling transparency: A research note on accepting a new paradigm in business reporting

This research note is written as an invited comment on the report "Information for better markets: New reporting models for business" (ICAEW 2004). The remarks in this research note are the viewpoints of the author himself and therefore his responsibility alone. They are not the viewpoints of the ICAEW. Key points - Measuring intangible assets constitutes an accounting perspective on voluntary disclosure - However, business reporting constitutes a strategy perspective on voluntary disclosure - ICAEW should move from an accounting to a strategy perspective and leave the intangible assets debate, which was to a large extent abandoned by the academic community at the turn of the millennium - A business reporting model must incorporate the four generic components: 1. An external communication purpose, 2. A description of content, 3. A structure for disclosing content, 4. A defined method of construction - Business reporting does not affect stock prices in the same manner as earnings announcements and similar financial information because business reporting is a field concerned with understanding the company and not the stock price - Transparency must be understood from a perspective alternative to that of the normative accounting paradigm because there exists an information dilemma in relation to new types of information