Strategy and Business Model Disclosure in Corporate Annual Reports: A Study of UK Listed Companies

The UK Companies Act 2006 has made it a legal requirement for companies, since October 2013, to disclose their 'Strategy' and 'Business Model' as part of their annual report. The Act, however, does not define what is meant by the two terms. This means that the content of the disclosure remains at the discretion of managers. Prior to this, the UK 2010 Corporate Governance Code required companies to disclose their Strategy and Business Model. The Code, however, is based on a 'comply or explain' approach. This study contributes to the understanding of the disclosure of Strategy and Business Model in the annual reports of UK listed companies before and after the introduction of the regulatory requirements. To achieve this, the thesis aims to investigate the extent of the disclosure of Strategy and Business Model, the impact of regulations and the determinants of such disclosures. The sample includes companies operating in three industry sectors: Banking; Food and Drug Retailers; and Gas, Water and Multi-utilities, over a period of 10 years, taking into consideration, the periods before and after the Corporate Governance and Companies Act requirements. To achieve the aims of the thesis, it has been necessary to adopt a pragmatic approach, which entails the use of results from a qualitative approach as inputs to a quantitative approach. Further, the study adopts a longitudinal approach and collects empirical data from annual reports and databases. This study also relies on agency and signalling theory to provide explanations on Strategy and Business Model disclosures in annual reports. The study finds that the mandatory requirement has had a statistically significant influence on the disclosure of both Strategy and Business Model. However, the practice of Business Model disclosure is not yet at the same level as Strategy. Lastly, the findings reveal that disclosure is mostly affected by market and corporate governance incentives.