Mesuring Disclosure of Intangible Resources in Corporate Annual Reports

Authors: Dina Gray and Göran Roos (Center for Business Performance, Canfield School of Management).

Description: There has been a movement in the accountancy field to induce companies to disclose the worth of their intangibles, and researchers argue that the demand for the external communication of intangibles and value drivers is increasing in capital markets. This paper discusses empirical research that has been carried out in 95 companies in the UK and 16 companies in Finland to determine what intangible resources companies consider important in value creation, what intangible resources they actually measure, and what, if any, of those measures they actually disclose to their stakeholders. WordStat content analysis features have been used to assess the level of disclosure found in the corporate annual reports of those companies.

Full reference: Gray, D. & Roos, G. (2004). What intangible resources do companies value, measure, and report? A synthesis of UK and Finnish research. International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, vol. 1(3), 242-261.