ORCID Profile
0000-0001-5050-5793
Current Organisations
University of Bologna
,
Aalborg University
,
Aalborg Universitet
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Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Date: 07-12-2021
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 19-10-2010
DOI: 10.1108/14691931011085669
Abstract: The purpose of this research project is to compare the nature and extent of voluntary intellectual capital disclosures (ICD) by UK and Australian biotechnology companies. The motivating research question was whether the nature and extent of voluntary ICD by preparers of financial report data in these countries reflected the relative maturity of the UK, compared to Australian industry. ICD was measured in annual reports and financial statements published on the company websites. A Danish disclosure index was used to evaluate voluntary disclosures by 156 companies about customers, employees, IT, strategy, R& D and processes (78‐items scored for each company). A significant leverage effect was demonstrated in relation to the “nature” of ICD by UK and Australian biotechnology companies. Interestingly, mean customer ICD were higher in annual reports from high‐leveraged compared to low‐leveraged Australian firms. In contrast, UK firms showed higher mean R& D ICD for low‐leveraged firms than high‐leveraged firms. With regards to the “extent” of ICD measured, the study demonstrated a significant country effect. Potential limitations or bias may exist from the use of the disclosure index: binary scoring of disclosure versus non‐disclosure reduces the richness of data otherwise obtainable by limited case study or interviews and data collection is limiting – narrative with managers actually preparing ICD is not possible. Australian company financial accountants and managers preparing and/or including ICD information could be in danger of underestimating the importance of information asymmetry existing with lenders. This finding contrasts the legitimate R& D focused ICD of low‐leveraged UK firms namely to attract stakeholder attention to their expanding intellectual property base, with the findings from Australian firms' with a relatively predictable and naïve customer focus.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-02-2022
Publisher: Inderscience Publishers
Date: 2011
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 09-01-2017
Abstract: 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. 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. 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. Ex les 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. 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. 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.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2016
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-2015
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 19-11-2021
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 22-09-2020
Publisher: Journal of Business Models
Date: 2015
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 31-12-2019
DOI: 10.1108/MEDAR-02-2019-0449
Abstract: This paper aims to investigate how firms disclose the presentation and content of business model (BM) information in corporate reports to manage their legitimacy in response to European Directive 2014/95. Legitimacy theory is used to identify disclosure strategies pursued by firms in reaction to the new regulation. To understand how firms adopt these strategic responses, semiotic analysis is applied to a s le of European companies’ reports through Crowther’s (2012) framework, which is based on a mechanism of binary oppositions. Half of the s le strategically choose to comply with the European Union (EU) Directive regarding BM information through the use of non-accounting language, figures, and diagrams. Other firms did not disclose any substantive information but managed the impression of compliance with the regulation, while the remainder of the s le dismissed the regulation altogether. This study demonstrates how organisations use the disclosure of BM information in their corporate reports to control their legitimacy. The results support the idea that firms can acquire legitimacy by complying with the law or giving the impression of compliance with the regulation. This study provides evidence on the first-time adoption of the EU Directive, and therefore, future research can enlarge the s le and conduct the analysis over a broader time frame. A more precise indication of the EU Directive regarding “where” firms should report BM information, “how” the description of a BM should refer to the environmental, social, governance (ESG) factors, and a set of performance measures to track the evolution of a company’s BM overtime is needed. While there has been a notable amount of research that has applied content analysis methodologies to investigate the thematic and syntactic aspects of BM disclosure in corporate reports, only a few studies have investigated BM disclosures in relation to the EU Directive. Furthermore, the application of semiotic analysis extends beyond traditional content analysis methodologies because it considers the structure of the story at many levels, thus developing a more complete textual picture of how BMs are described, allowing an analysis of the reasons behind the disclosure strategies pursued by firms.
Publisher: Journal of Business Models
Date: 2021
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 30-10-2009
DOI: 10.1108/14013381011010150
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to give an indication of the quantity of intellectual capital information in Japanese initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses from all stock exchange listings on the Japan Stock Exchange from 2003. The paper applied a disclosure index consisting of 78 items to quantify the amount of information regarding intellectual capital included in the IPO prospectuses of Japanese companies. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test, controlling for technological type of the company (high‐tech/low‐tech), and whether the extent of managerial ownership prior to the IPO, company age and company size influenced disclosure. From the analyses conclusions are derived for four hypotheses. The hypotheses “industry differences” ( H1 ), “managerial ownership” ( H2 ) and “company size” ( H3 ) were found not to be significant factors explaining voluntary disclosure of information. The fourth factor, “company age” ( H4 ), did, however, have a significant influence on the extent of disclosure for Japanese companies. Further testing of the Japanese companies regarding age showed a continuing trend. Although Japan has been strongly associated with the concept of the knowledge society, Japanese studies regarding intellectual capital have been very scarce. No studies, to the best of one's knowledge, have examined the specific disclosure of intellectual capital information included in Japanese IPO prospectuses.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Date: 07-12-2021
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 10-10-2016
DOI: 10.1108/EJIM-10-2015-0099
Abstract: Despite the common understanding that business model (BM) innovation is of vital importance for securing competitive positioning in the market place, managers still seem to lack appropriate frameworks and tools which can support them in renewing and rejuvenating their company’s existing BM. The purpose of this paper is to develop a structural and comprehensive toolbox of available BM configurations, from which companies can choose, to innovate their BM upon, and to design an appropriate BM innovation framework which can facilitate them in re-designing, selecting, and implementing new BM configuration possibilities. A structured literature review is conducted to identify all the relevant BM configurations. Then, a value driver analysis is performed to group these BM configurations into appropriate categories. Finally, an ontological classification scheme and a structural and workable process, i.e. a BM innovation framework, are inductively developed. The paper systematically develops a list of 71 BM configurations and groups them into an ontological classification scheme according to five groups: Value Proposition, Value Segment, Value Configuration, Value Network, and Value Capture. The paper illustrates how the BM innovation framework, enabled by this ontological classification scheme, provides a platform for identifying BM innovation routes for companies, allowing managers to envisage radical, disruptive, and new-to-the-world BM configuration ideas, or apply existing configurations from other industrial settings in what may be deemed new-to-the-industry innovation. The paper enriches the amount of potential BM configurations available for managers to choose from when innovating their BMs, and extends the analysis to five core BM configuration categories. Moreover, the BM innovation framework suggested highlights the strong relationships among the value drivers, thus presenting the opportunity for managers to assess potential conflicts or synergies between various value drivers, and to align the BM management process as a whole.
Publisher: Aalborg University
Date: 11-07-2022
Abstract: The absence of people (employees) from the business model literature is at odds with their pivotal contribution to the value creation, delivery and capture process. As a resource that management is continually challenged to grow, their success in doing so has been identified as an outcome falling within the scope of Integrated Reporting, an approach currently touted as the new corporate reporting. This short paper suggests a number of employee attributes that might be documented in such reports.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2021
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 17-03-2023
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 22-06-2012
DOI: 10.1108/14013381211284254
Abstract: This paper is concerned with identifying the role(s) of the in idual employee(s) in the value creation process of three network‐based business models that are analyzed through case studies. The paper aims to focus on how the relationships between the network‐partners internally and also outside the network affect value creation. The study conducted is a case study of three network‐based business models applying a semi‐structured interview approach as the primary source of data. The study shows that, together with the terms “integrating” and “enabling” which the traditional literature tends to use, expressions like “building” and “aligning” can be added in order to describe the role of human resources in the value creation process of the network‐based business models. Human resources are found to be important for aligning the value proposition of the network as a whole to the customers' needs and expectations. The generalizability of the results are restricted by the fact that the network‐based businesses studied have a different set of stakeholder tensions than more traditionally organized. This paper demonstrates the advantages of network‐based value configurations and indicates how performance measures may be directly derived from value creation maps. This paper contributes to understanding advantages and drawbacks of network‐based companies and how such types of organization challenge the people within and outside of them.
Publisher: Journal of Business Models
Date: 2015
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 21-10-2013
Abstract: – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the measurement and the management of the dynamic aspects of intellectual capital through the use of causal mapping. – The paper details the methods utilized in a single in-depth case study of a network-based business model. – The paper illustrates how causal mapping can be used to understand how intellectual capital really works in the specific business context in which it is deployed. Moreover, exploiting the causal map as a platform for extracting a set of indicators can provide information on the length of the lag and the persistence of the effects of managerial actions. In addition, it can signal when and how to refine and update the causal map. The combination of these factors can potentially support the dynamic measurement and management of intellectual capital. – The paper presented has two main limitations. First, the use of a single case study to provide in-depth and rich data limits the generalizability of the observations. Second, the proposed approach has not been implemented in practice. Future research opportunities include interventionist-type case studies that put the causal mapping approach into practice. – The paper highlights the need to build causal maps to enhance the measurement and management of intellectual capital, which is dynamic in nature. As a consequence, this tool can be useful for monitoring the intangibles of companies and networks and to better understand the contribution their intellectual capital makes to the value creation process. – The paper openly questions the measurement of the fluid and dynamic aspects of intellectual capital. It proposes a tool for governing these aspects and it suggests that even the existing intellectual capital measurement systems can improve their usefulness by including these dimensions. So, a shift in intellectual capital measurement is prescribed.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-2017
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 19-11-2021
Publisher: IGI Global
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-270-1.CH011
Abstract: During the last decade, many calls for improving disclosure practices, in relation to intellectual capital and intangibles, have been uttered in the standard setting, academic, and business communities. There seem to be two types of solutions to this problem. One angle of attack is to seek to improve transparency through implementation of global accounting standards, and moving from historic value to fair-value practices. Another way of dealing with the problem is to step outside the accounting paradigm to see if transparency and relevance problems can be solved by way of supplementary disclosures. For some, this is a logical step. However, for many, this represents shaky ground. It is ironic that while supplementary information has been shown to reduce investors’ uncertainty, it is not being acknowledged as a key element in solving the existing problems by standard setters and academics. This chapter is a wake-up call to the drowsy constituents of academia and policy making, asking them to see beyond their normative accounting paradigm and in turn, showing them how far the strategy-oriented solutions they choose to ignore have come. In this chapter, we thus illustrate for the reader how reporting and management of companies’ knowledge resources and intellectual capital is possible through the strategic ideas of the Danish guideline for IC statements.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2013
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 04-2006
Publisher: Journal of Business Models
Date: 2018
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2015
DOI: 10.2139/SSRN.2575962
Publisher: Journal of Business Models
Date: 2020
Publisher: Inderscience Publishers
Date: 2013
Publisher: Inderscience Publishers
Date: 2015
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-09-2016
Publisher: Inderscience Publishers
Date: 2020
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 11-02-2019
DOI: 10.1108/MEDAR-03-2018-0318
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the process leading from innovation performance to business performance and, from this basis, facilitate the identification of relevant performance measures. The paper takes its point of departure from a synthesis of the literature around innovation, intellectual capital (IC), knowledge management and business models. The research streams of innovation performance and business performance are combined to provide insights bridging these two traditions. This paper provides empirical evidence from two case studies of business development projects that involved both intervention- and non-intervention-based data collection methods. The research traditions of both innovation performance and business performance identify knowledge, learning and IC as the basis for all value creation activities in organisations. This paper provides a synthesis of the literature in these fields and relates them to each other in accordance with the “process of creating”. This structure allows the discussion of innovation performance and business performance separately and in conjunction with one another, as well providing opportunities for identifying relevant key performance indicators. Caution should be taken in the nature of the developed conceptual framework which rests upon the perspective of the author’s subjective interpretation of the current literature. These insights are relevant for the development of a performance management structure capable of straddling the common exploration–exploitation paradox, which, in this context, often becomes a compromise between performance optimization and a developmental focus. The discussion reveals three overall constructs, and, from this a future research agenda is developed.
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2018
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 07-01-2014
Abstract: – The purpose of this paper is to document the relationship between intellectual capital disclosure and analyst following for biotechnology firms listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange between 2001 and 2010. – Intellectual capital disclosure was computed from financial statements applying the disclosure index of Bukh et al. (2005), while analyst following data were retrieved from the Institutional Brokers’ Estimate System (I/B/E/S). – The results show that analysts are more likely to follow firms with high intellectual capital disclosure. This finding suggests that analysts wish to follow those firms for which they have more information. The results also show that the most important intellectual capital disclosures for analysts are those related to employees and strategic statements. This paper therefore expands on previous results by raising awareness of which information companies should disclose to the capital market in order to improve analyst following, in turn helping to improve the general disclosure environment. – More relevant methods, such as surveys or interviews with management, could be used to improve the information content of intellectual capital disclosure. Analysts probably deduce the intellectual capital of a firm from interaction with management rather than financial statements. – Firms in and beyond the biotechnology sector can improve their information environment by disclosing more information on intellectual capital in relation to employees and strategic statements in their financial statements. – The findings shed light on the importance of understanding intellectual capital in the biotechnology sector for analysts and investors who wish to value such firms.
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 09-01-2017
Abstract: Two drawbacks to current management information practices are identified. First, the level of abstraction from which internal management disclosures are constructed using current frameworks is too generic and second, the current process of identifying relevant management disclosures is outdated. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to discuss whether contemporary conceptions of value creation from the field of business models can improve the currently applied frameworks used for generating internal management disclosures on intellectual capital. Hence, this paper offers a timely critique of the balanced scorecard, and other performance measurement concepts developed over the last 25 years. The paper reviews contemporary literature on the balanced scorecard, and related concepts, for generating internal management disclosures relating to intellectual capital. Furthermore, the problems that balanced scorecard type frameworks have as vehicles for constructing relevant internal management disclosures are explored. This essay argues that internal management disclosures need more precise underpinnings of value creation than offered by current frameworks. An empirically validated structure that establishes alignment between value creation and internal management disclosures, through the mechanism of business model configurations, is applied to overcome the two identified drawbacks of current practices. This is a conceptual/normative offering. Following the critique, this essay prompts a new way forward for identifying internal management disclosures and performance measures, their validation, and subsequent benchmarking by expanding upon the concept of business model configurations. This concept offers a value driver platform with related clusters of KPIs connected to each of the 71 identified business model configurations as a starting point for management’s identification of relevant KPIs, and their analysis, benchmarking, and application for performance management. The arguments offered in this essay illustrate how it is possible to enhance the relevance of internal management disclosures by challenging and changing the normative level of abstraction applied.
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 05-04-2011
DOI: 10.1108/14013381111125314
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to study the role of strategic information in the process of analyzing and understanding a specific company. Special emphasis is given to how forward‐looking information becomes important in relation to establishing a perception of market value by financial sell‐side analysts. The empirical part of the paper is based on semi‐structured interviews with financial analysts, fund managers, and the top management team from a large medical device company listed on a Scandinavian Stock Exchange. The case company is internationally renowned for its state‐of‐the‐art business reporting. It is shown how the three parties produce and consume strategic information and apply it in the process of analyzing and understanding the company and how strategic information plays markedly different roles across the groups participating in the market for information. It was specifically found that understanding the stock price and the company were two distinctly different issues. While management and the long‐term oriented sell‐side analysts' interests related to the company, fund managers and so‐called trigger‐oriented sell‐side analysts were primarily concerned with predicting the stock price. This study motivates for a more nuanced understanding of how strategic information is applied in investment decisions, thereby extending existing research. As the case company is considered a best practice case, there are limitations to its generalizability. The results of this study may help companies in their quest for creating transparency around their business model and how to address the different informational needs of the capital market. This study provides new insights to further the understanding of how information is moved into investment decisions and thus may form the basis of further studies into this field.
Publisher: Journal of Business Models
Date: 2019
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 22-09-2017
Publisher: Journal of Business Models
Date: 2018
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Date: 07-12-2021
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 10-11-2021
Publisher: Aalborg University
Date: 12-2023
DOI: 10.54337/OJS.BESS.V4I2.7751
Abstract: This research note aims to aid university researchers in connecting with the notion of impact, a crucial element in achieving the third mission of universities. To make an impact is essentially a question of making a difference and influencing someone or something. Funding bodies, governments and taxpayers seek value for their investments in research, particularly value for money, whether academia likes it or not. Therefore, for universities, the impact is no longer merely a question of the number of scientific publications, building a community of interest around a subject or counting patents. Instead, impact now emphasises value delivery to stakeholders innovative research is required to achieve this. This note surveys the literature on research impact and presents guidelines for how to conceptualise and provide evidence of the impact of research. Links between outputs, outcomes and impacts and how they are applied to communicating the evidence of overall research impact are clarified. Finally, we identify policy implications for the value-for-money perspective currently emphasised by funding bodies.
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 19-11-2021
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 06-04-2010
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 10-09-2018
DOI: 10.1108/JAAR-08-2016-0087
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of budget targets for performance evaluation in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from a contingency perspective. This paper is based on a survey conducted among small- and medium-sized Danish production companies. It takes a contingency approach and applies structural equation modeling to analyze the data. The authors find that budget emphasis is related to size, decentralization and interdependence. Furthermore, the authors hypothesize and find that the degree of budget emphasis is positively related to performance. The usual limitations associated with survey-based research should be considered before drawing conclusions from the findings. In that regard, replications of the study could be useful. The practical implication of this paper is that emphasis on the budget target in performance evaluation is of relevance for small- and medium-sized production companies. This paper contributes by providing insights into management accounting in SMEs. More specifically, this paper contributes to the debate in the SME literature regarding the value of planning and budgeting in SMEs as the paper focuses on the use of budgets for performance evaluation.
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 16-01-2017
DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-04-2014-1671
Abstract: 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. Following the reconstruction of the original s le of 102 companies that originally participated in the project, a survey using semi-structured interviews was pursued among 64 in iduals 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. 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. 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 s le may provide details of a different experience, although it is unlikely that these would seriously challenge the findings reported here. This study is the first to explore the fate of the critically acclaimed ICS approach among companies participating in the DGP.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2009
Publisher: Journal of Business Models
Date: 2021
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 12-2005
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-08-2018
DOI: 10.1111/AUAR.12196
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-02-2014
DOI: 10.1111/HEQU.12035
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2015
Publisher: Journal of Business Models
Date: 2021
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 09-07-2018
DOI: 10.1108/JRME-11-2016-0048
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how entrepreneurs market their business opportunities towards business angels in the investment process. This is achieved by introducing the business model canvas as a mitigating framework to help entrepreneurs in communicating and structuring the information desired by business angels. This paper mobilises a case study approach by following a series of investment processes and investment meetings between entrepreneurs and business angels through 27 semi-structured interviews as well as participant observation and qualitative participant feedback from 13 investment processes. The findings illustrate how introducing a framework like the business model canvas helps alleviate the informational and communication challenges between entrepreneurs and business angels. However, some problems occurred when the entrepreneurs and the business angels did not fully agree on the value proposition of the investment opportunity. The findings show that entrepreneurs who market their business cases to investors obtain better feedback and a higher chance of funding using the business model canvas. Implications of this paper also relate to the preparation of the entrepreneurs and that matchmakers between entrepreneurs and investors can use the business model canvas to facilitate such processes. This paper contributes to both the theory of the investment process as well as the application of the business model canvas.
No related grants have been discovered for Christian Nielsen.