VAIC as a Tool for Measuring Intangibles Value in Voluntary Multi-Stakeholder Disclosure

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) on the voluntary disclosure of a sample of listed companies in the years 2006, 2009, and 2012, according to a multi-stakeholder approach. This research has been organized in two parts. Firstly, the paper discusses the literature on voluntary disclosure in a multi-stakeholder approach. From this point of view, the paper contributes to the previous literature, which mainly relates the voluntary disclosure to individual and distinct stakeholder classes. Among the literature review, the paper also focuses on the themes of intellectual capital and its measurement. In the second part of the paper, we propose an empirical investigation of a sample of 143 companies, listed on Milan Stock Exchange in the years 2006, 2009, and 2012, in order to identify—through a statistical model—the variables that affect voluntary disclosure. Among the explicative variables (firm size, company’s age, recorded intangible assets, VAIC and Tobin Q), the model also includes VAIC to test the relationship between this indicator and the voluntary disclosure. Our results show that the disclosure index is positively influenced by the size of the company and the financial structure as well as the market value of intangible assets. The relationship between voluntary disclosure and VAIC is instead negative.