Incidence of corporate characteristics in the policy of voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital information: evidence in spanish companies

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the corporate characteristics of the
Spanish companies included in the Ibex 35 stock market index, which
influence the policy of voluntary disclosure of Intellectual Capital. The
period analyzed comprised the years 2004 to 2008. The analysis was
conducted from the point of view of the Theories of Resources and
Capabilities Agency, Sign, Legitimacy and Stakeholders.
We selected 115 annual reports for the 23 companies included in the
IBEX 35. These reports contain data for 5 years. Using the
methodology of "content analysis" we developed indices of disclosure.
These indices quantify Intellectual Capital information, and their
respective categories: Human, Relational and Structural Capital. For
treatment of the data we carried out a descriptive analysis of the
different variables. We also performed a multivariate logistic
regression analysis by constructing four models for the Intellectual
Capital and Human, Relational and Structural Capital.
Our results reveal that companies that provide more information
about Intellectual, Relational and Structural Capital are larger
(measured by the number of employees). Another variable that
has relevance in the case of providing information about the
Relational Capital is the market to book ratio, and, in the case of
human capital, the level of indebtedness. Furthermore, depending
on the sector of activity we can say that more or less information
is reported. Moreover, although we are in the Knowledge Society,
companies provide little information on the Intellectual Capital
and its categories.