Title: Corporate governance and intellectual capital disclosure

Authors: G. Bharathi Kamath

Addresses: Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy (MSE-PP), Ranade Bhavan, University of Mumbai, Kalina Campus, Vidyanagari, Santacruz (East), Mumbai-400098, India

Abstract: Corporate governance (CG) characteristics of firms do have influence on the financial and intangible performance of firms. Recent research studies find significant impact of CG on voluntary disclosures in annual reports of the firms. Intellectual capital disclosures are voluntary disclosures that have gained significant attention in recent years. This paper tries to analyse the nature and extent of intellectual capital disclosure of four groups of firms from the manufacturing and the service sector in India for the financial year 2017-2018. Further, it explores CG characteristics of the firms and its influence on extent of IC disclosures. The results of the paper indicate that there is a significant difference in the level of disclosures in the service and the manufacturing sector. The nature of disclosures is varied among four sub-groups. Human capital disclosures are highest in the manufacturing sector, whereas customer capital disclosures are more in the service sector. Board size, its independence, has a significant positive impact on the extent of overall IC disclosures. The age of the firm and its size has a very strong impact on the level of IC disclosures in almost all industries. The financial performance measured by return on assets of the firms also show association in some cases.

Keywords: corporate governance; intellectual capital disclosure; IDC; board independence; board size; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2021.118412

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2021 Vol.18 No.4, pp.365 - 398

Received: 28 Jan 2020
Accepted: 20 Oct 2020
Published online: 25 Oct 2021 *

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