Empirical Analysis on Determinants of Intellectual Capital Disclosure Behaviour for Romanian Companies

The issue of disclosure of intellectual capital has been much debated in recent decades yet still unfinished. Numerous empirical studies have been developed to assess the size of a company's intellectual capital disclosure as well as the factors leading to a greater transparency regarding the disclosure of these immeasurable resources. In support of previous research, this study comes with the aim of understanding the behaviour of Romanian companies on the disclosure of intellectual capital exploited. The 38 companies investigated are knowledge-based companies, being part of fields of activity such as: information and communication, research and development, architectural and engineering services, computer manufacture, clothing and pharmaceutical products. All are companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), both in the Regulated Market section and in the RASDAQ section. The degree of intellectual capital disclosure was assessed with the method of content analysis, aiming at the information provided on the 72-item / indicators on intellectual capital (each 25 items / indicators for both human capital and relational capital and 22 items / indicators for structural capital). The information was collected from annual reports, annual financial statements, notes and other reports published by companies in 2010-2013, either via the BSE website, or on their own websites. The low level of disclosure of information on intellectual capital has led us to work for understanding the behaviour of disclosure, statistically testing links between the degree of disclosure of intellectual capital and variables such as: the size of the ratio of fixed assets, the ownership structure, the profitability (appreciated according to the return on assets correlated with the rate of inflation) and the level of created value measured by the indicators Economic Value Added and Market Value Added. The low level of the sample and the subjective nature of selection and assessment of items / indicators on intellectual capital are considered limits of this study. The paper confirms some of the previous hypotheses concerning factors susceptible to influence the degree of disclosure of intellectual capital, but testing the link between the level of disclosure and the indicators of value creation is part of the original aspect of this study. Identifying the factors that lead to an increased level of intellectual capital disclosure must get the attention of the accounting standards regulator in order to improve the financial reporting of intangible assets.