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Accounting for intellectual capital: rethinking its theoretical underpinnings

Robin Roslender (Department of Accounting, Finance and Law, Faculty of Management, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK. E‐mail: robin.roslender@stir.ac.uk Robin is a Senior Lecturer in Accountancy at the University of Stirling. He holds a doctorate in sociology and is an affiliate member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. A long standing interest in accounting for the worth of employees informs his work in the intellectual capital field, where he has published extensively in recent years with Robin Fincham. His contributions to interdisciplinary accounting research have resulted him being invited to join a number of editorial boards including the Journal of Human Resource Costing and Accounting, Accounting and the Public Interest and Accounting Education.)

Measuring Business Excellence

ISSN: 1368-3047

Publication date: 1 March 2004

Abstract

The accountancy profession’s long association with measurement and reporting has ensured that it has made a substantial contribution to the evolving intellectual capital field. While many of the motivations shaping the accounting for intellectual capital project are of a practical nature, the emergence of intellectual capital and the challenges entailed in taking it into account in some way also raise important theoretical issues. As long as the accountancy profession seeks to progress accounting for intellectual capital within the confines of prevailing accounting theory, the prospects for a successful outcome appear remote. Alternative theoretical precepts need to be explored, an exercise that also has implications for the future development of financial reporting.

Keywords

  • Intellectual capital
  • Accounting theory
  • Measurement
  • Financial reporting

Citation

Roslender, R. (2004), "Accounting for intellectual capital: rethinking its theoretical underpinnings", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 38-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/13683040410524720

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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