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This paper explores the way in which industrial pollution has been expressed in the narrative accounts of nature, landscape and industry by William Gilpin in his 18th-century picturesque travel writings. A positive description of pollution is generally outdated and unacceptable in the current society. The authors contrast his “picturesque” view with the contemporary perception of industrial pollution, reflect on these early accounts of industrial impacts as representing the roots of impression management and use the analysis to inform current accounting.

The research uses an interpretive content analysis of the text to draw out themes and features of impression management. Goffman's impression management is the theoretical lens through which Gilpin's travel accounts are interpreted, considering this microhistory through a thematic research approach. The picturesque accounts are explored with reference to the context of impression management.

Gilpin's travel writings and the “Picturesque” aesthetic movement, it appears, constructed a social reality around negative industrial externalities such as air pollution and indeed around humans' impact on nature, through a lens which described pollution as adding aesthetically to the natural landscape. The lens through which the picturesque tourist viewed and expressed negative externalities involved quite literally the tourists' tricks of the trade, Claude glass, called also Gray's glass, a tinted lens to frame the view.

The paper adds to the wealth of literature in accounting and business pertaining to the ways in which companies socially construct reality through their accounts and links closely to the impression management literature in accounting. There is also a body of literature relating to the use of images and photographs in published corporate reports, which again is linked to impression management as well as to a growing literature exploring the potential for the aesthetic influence in accounting and corporate communication. Further, this paper contributes to the growing body of research into the historical roots of environmental reporting.

Purpose: This chapter aims to identify and evaluate the various components of business model disclosures in an Integrated Report and ascertain how the notion of business model is perceived among practitioners.

Need for the Study: According to previous research, the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC) objective of improving corporate reporting by encouraging organisations to disclose their business model has not found the desired recognition. Therefore, the study elaborates on the various components of business model reporting and their implications on corporate reporting in general.

Methodology: A review of literature was conducted to identify and analyse research based on business models and their disclosures in integrated reporting. A narrative review was undertaken for selected literature.

Findings: The findings suggest that most large-sized organisations use integrated reporting for impression management and are not inclined to disclose too much about their business models for fear of competition. There is still a lack of clear understanding of what a business model should entail.

Practical Implication: This study adds to the research on business model disclosures in integrated reporting. Voluntary disclosure and a better understanding of such disclosures will prepare organisations of all sizes and industries for an event when Integrated Reporting becomes statutory.

This paper lays the groundwork for future research in supply chain transparency in two ways. First, the authors delineate the construct and explore how it is shifting the business landscape. Second, the authors connect nine theories to the construct to guide future scholars in this growing research area.

The authors explore the practical implications for the future of supply chain transparency research through the application of nine theories: stakeholder theory; the technology acceptance model; transaction cost theory; commodity theory; competing values theory; ambidexterity; the natural-resource-based view of the firm; actor-network theory and neo-institutional theory. The authors also consider the blending of theories to provide further insights into the ways firms engage in supply chain transparency.

This analysis relates theories from several disciplines (i.e. marketing, supply chain management, economics, information systems and organizational behavior) to add theoretical insights to the concept of supply chain transparency, with suggestions for using these theories in conjunction to address complex emerging issues. The authors offer guidance and direction for cross-disciplinary research to help supply chain and logistics influence other fields.

Supply chain transparency is a boundary-spanning phenomenon swiftly proliferating multiple aspects of business. This research applies nine theoretical perspectives to guide future researchers and lays the foundation for managers looking to adopt transparency into their supply chains.