An Analytical Explanation of the Business Model Financial Reporting Using Fuzzy Logic

Corporate reporting, in its general sense, refers to all the communication channels between companies and stakeholders and is the main mechanism for sending information to the users. There has been an increasing concern in recent years with the insufficiency of traditional corporate reporting. Professional accounting institutes have proposed the concept of a business model to mitigate the weaknesses of the current reporting mechanism. Disclosure of business model information can reduce the information gap, enhance the validity of financial reports along with the contents of financial statements. The mission of the present study is to conduct an analytical explanation of business model financial reporting using fuzzy logic.

The present study is of applied and survey-descriptive nature in terms of purpose and methodology, respectively. The statistical population consists of university professors and executive experts who have sufficient knowledge and experience in the fields of financial reporting and business model. Due to flexibility, higher content validity, and applicability of the research in interdisciplinary studies, the methods of Fuzzy Delphi (FD) and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) were used for the evaluation, ranking, and prioritization of various aspects and components of business model financial reporting. Therefore, a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 43 items was prepared using the 5-point Likert scale, and the items were evaluated through the dispatch of questionnaires among experts and the application of Fuzzi Delphi (FD). The ranking of the validated components was done through the dispatch of pairwise comparison questionnaires between 18 experts and the application of the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process.

The findings of the present study showed that all the components and aspects of the business model financial reporting – including transparency and narrative, social accountability, stakeholders, key stimuli, justice and fairness in the distribution, and methods of representation and disclosure – were approved by the experts. The results revealed that the proposed theoretical model for the business model financial reporting has acceptable validity and can be cautiously extended to further applications. Moreover, the results demonstrate the importance of transparency and narrative, and social accountability. Overall, practitioners must pay specific attention to the role, importance, and weight of the aforementioned components for the successful implementation of business model financial reporting.

The expert's views on the validity and priority of various aspects and components in business model financial reporting demonstrate the role, importance, and ranking of reporting parameters. Practitioners in the field of accounting and financial reporting must consider the aforementioned elements in their plans for enhancing the validity of financial reporting and richening the content of financial statements.