Intellectual capital disclosure trends: some Malaysian evidence

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the trend of intellectual capital disclosures (ICD) over a three‐year period (2008‐2010), when the Malaysian business environment was characterized by a number of major events such as the recent 2008/2009 global financial crisis and corporate governance restructuring.Design/methodology/approachA checklist was constructed to measure the extent and quality of ICD in Malaysian corporate annual reports. The extent of ICD was measured on a dichotomous basis (0, 1) while the quality of ICD was measured using a four‐point scale (0‐3).FindingsThe results showed an increasing trend of the ICD and a significant overall increase by the sample Malaysian companies. The results also revealed that there are significant differences between the categories of the IC disclosures, with external capital related information accounting for the largest portion. However, only human capital disclosures significantly increased over time.Practical implicationsThe time series analysis carried out in this study observed that, despite the general ICD increasing trend, item‐specific analysis showed inconsistent results. Hence, the regulators may want to devise reporting guidelines for IC for Malaysian public listed companies.Originality/valueThis paper is one of the few which investigate trends in ICD following significant changes in the business environment in an attempt to determine if those changes have some impact on ICD practices.