Intellectual Capital Disclosure in Chinese and Indian Information Technology Companies: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent and quality of voluntary intellectual capital disclosures by information technology companies of China and India.Research Design/Methodology: The research method adopted for this study is content analysis. The research is limited to the intellectual capital information disclosed in companies’ annual report. The sample for this research is based on 20 information technology (IT) companies listed by market captalisation listed on Shenzhen or Shanghai stock exchange market, and the largest 20 companies listed on Indian stock market.Findings: Indian IT companies tends to perform better than Chinese IT companies in extent and quality of disclosures. The extent of disclosure of both countries is at a relatively high level. The most frequently reported disclosure category in India is external capital, while the least one is human capital. In China, external capital is the most frequently disclosed category, while the internal capital is the least one.Limitations/Implications: The sample size of the study is relatively small. Future research can expand on the sample size to get an overview of the intellectual capital disclosure, and conduct a longitudinal study to capture the trend of reporting practices.Originality: Previous studies of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure have covered little on the relationship between market capitalization and quality of disclosure and cross-country disclosure on IC. This research tends to extend the literature on intellectual capital disclosure.