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21 – 30 of over 1000Yi Xiang and Jacqueline L. Birt
This paper aims to investigate internet reporting and social media strategies by Australian firms. This study looks at the extent of internet reporting and considers firm…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate internet reporting and social media strategies by Australian firms. This study looks at the extent of internet reporting and considers firm characteristics associated with disclosing information on the internet. This research is timely as in the past decade, this paper has witnessed the rapid growth of technologies such as the internet and social media and their subsequent impact on business and the economy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper constructs a disclosure index featuring a wide range of both financial and non-financial disclosures including social media strategy. This study then investigates the firm characteristics associated with the level of internet disclosure.
Findings
This paper finds that a firm’s internet reporting is associated with firm size, financial performance and analysts’ coverage but not associated with the percentage of independent board members. A firm’s social media strategy is associated with firm size and its environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) ranking.
Practical implications
The findings can help firms improve their internet reporting disclosures by providing a comprehensive list of disclosures that could benefit users of financial reports. It also helps standard setters and regulators understand some of the firm factors related to internet reporting and provide guidance for standard setters to consider in developing best practice internet reporting standards.
Originality/value
The research features the top 100 Australian companies’ internet disclosures in 2018 and also includes social media strategy. The results highlight that there is room for improvement with firms’ internet disclosure. By constructing a comprehensive index, this study provides guidance for standard setters to consider in developing best practice internet reporting standards.
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In 2001, the Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ) published a special issue entitled “Managing, measuring and reporting intellectual capital for the new…
Abstract
Purpose
In 2001, the Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ) published a special issue entitled “Managing, measuring and reporting intellectual capital for the new millennium”. After 20 years, we revisit the eight articles in this special issue to trace early developments in interdisciplinary intellectual capital (IC) accounting research, link these developments to the current state of play, and set out an agenda for future research. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper, written reflectively, includes an impact assessment of the articles using citation analysis and a thematic framing of the prominent issues they discussed. We critically reflect on the status of these eight foundational papers after 20 years, before presenting propositions for a multidisciplinary IC research future.
Findings
We find that IC research needs to extend beyond organisational boundaries to help improve human rights, human dignity and the human condition as part of the wider interdisciplinary accounting project. We argue that fifth stage IC research can assist because it explores beyond organisational boundaries and helps address the wicked problems of the world.
Research limitations/implications
This paper only investigates the themes found in the AAAJ special issue. However, the implications for researchers are intended to be transformational because, to go forward and help resolve the material issues facing society and the planet, researchers need to move from being observers to participants.
Originality/value
We argue that IC researchers must embrace both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary IC research. This requires IC researchers to reflect on what they are trying to achieve and which issues facing the planet are material.
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Michael Habersam, Martin Piber and Matti Skoog
The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a longitudinal study on the use of mandatory knowledge balance sheets (KBS) in Austrian public universities. It contributes…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a longitudinal study on the use of mandatory knowledge balance sheets (KBS) in Austrian public universities. It contributes to the discourse on fourth-stage intellectual capital (IC) research. Conclusions drawn from the analysis of the empirical material are expected to focus further research on fourth-stage IC and to improve practices of IC disclosure.
Design/methodology/approach
A mandatory KBS has been used to govern the Austrian Higher Education Institution sector for more than a decade. In a qualitative longitudinal case study, the authors analyze two series of qualitative interviews and documents in order to reveal functional and dysfunctional effects of the KBS in use.
Findings
The conclusions focus on the communicative culture in the implementation process, the way change processes are organized and the value of strategy for orientation, sense making and an effective allocation of resources.
Practical implications
The practical implications are twofold: first, to identify aspects of monetary, utilitarian, social and environmental value dimensions, a concerted effort to embed quantitative data in a discourse on qualitative impact on value would be needed. Second, the authors support a “communicative culture first” rather than a “tool-box first” approach.
Originality/value
Original empirical data have been gathered in a longitudinal study of a valuable and unique case. Retrospectively, a better understanding of the top-down implementation of the KBS and its pitfalls is achieved.
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Irena Rodov and Philippe Leliaert
Today’s measurement systems fail to adequately account for intellectual capital (IC) in a transparent yet comprehensive manner. In spite of many recent attempts to qualify and…
Abstract
Today’s measurement systems fail to adequately account for intellectual capital (IC) in a transparent yet comprehensive manner. In spite of many recent attempts to qualify and sometimes quantify intangibles, there exists as yet not one standardized system that is sufficiently developed and globally accepted. The aim of the present paper is to contribute towards the creation of such a system. The financial method of intangible assets measurement (FiMIAM) presented in this paper aims to overcome some of the weaknesses of recent methods of IC valuation, and contribute to the creation of complete balance‐sheets, reflecting both the tangible and intangible assets of a company.
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The purpose of this paper is to answer the question “What are the barriers to the use of IC concepts?” by discussing and critiquing two contemporary grand theories about IC, being…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to answer the question “What are the barriers to the use of IC concepts?” by discussing and critiquing two contemporary grand theories about IC, being market‐to‐book ratios as a representation of IC and that disclosing IC leads to greater profitability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews contemporary IC literature and explores reasons why these grand theories of IC hinder its adoption.
Findings
The research finds that these grand theories mislead because they cannot be proven empirically. Therefore, managers should attempt to better understand the possible causal relationships between their people, processes and stakeholders (human, structural and relational capital) rather than adopting someone else's mousetrap.
Practical implications
In order to improve the use of IC concepts they should be examined as differentiation theories of practice that take into account the agent (people) as a unit of analysis, the actual practice of IC and the resultant changes within an organisation, rather than trying to achieve the impossible generalisations of IC grand theories. Researchers need to conduct more critical and performative research into IC rather than ostensive research.
Originality/value
Allows academics and practitioners to understand the barriers to implementing IC in organisations, potentially allowing for the development of better engineered IC practices rather than the development of additional IC models.
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Francesca Francioli and Massimo Albanese
The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to disclose, report, and manage intellectual capital (IC) in a network of companies. To this end, it provides a monetary evaluation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to disclose, report, and manage intellectual capital (IC) in a network of companies. To this end, it provides a monetary evaluation of core competencies (CCs), which may be defined as a bundle of various types of intangibles, aggregating their value into a network statement, called a network competence report (NCR).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper utilises the interventionist approach. The intervention was conducted by the authors and studied through joint reflections on documentation from meetings and individual, semi-structured interviews.
Findings
The NCR makes IC more transparent, thereby allowing companies and network managers to assess the strengths and weaknesses of CCs with a consequent potential insight into their potential earnings.
Research limitations/implications
This method is labour-intensive, especially in its first application, and the data collection requires considerable company involvement. The interventionist approach may have influenced the empirical results, which may be affected by subjectivity. As the paper involves a single network, care should be taken in generalising its empirical evidence.
Practical implications
In making IC management more effective, the NCR is valuable for academics, management, political authorities and, more generally, for a network’s stakeholders. The NCR is a tool for internal and external communication purposes, creating the conditions to mobilise IC. The proposed model supports the diagnosis of networks by providing CC maps and assessments relevant to their governance and competitiveness. The NCR depicts company and network CCs, allowing intertemporal comparisons that facilitate understanding of the effectiveness of the network’s actions and the importance of belonging to it.
Originality/value
This paper represents a first attempt to evaluate, in monetary terms, CCs in a network. Its value lies in its practical implications. Moreover, the paper investigates IC in applied terms, contributing to reducing the gap between theory and practice.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide new evidence, made possible by human capital data that became available after IFRS adoption, on the productivity of intellectual capital…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide new evidence, made possible by human capital data that became available after IFRS adoption, on the productivity of intellectual capital and its components. These productivity measures are modelled to determine their value-relevance in the share market, and the modelling is extended to comparative productivity measures for the book-value of assets.
Design/methodology/approach
Financial data are sourced from financial databases and company annual reports on a sample of 160 Australian listed firms over a five-year period. Panel regression analysis is used to test five models built from Riahi-Belkaoui's (1999) general price model of the value-relevance of accounting numbers.
Findings
The results show that the productivity of human capital, structural capital and intellectual capital are each significantly positively related to share price (i.e. have value-relevance), whereas the productivity of total assets at book-value is non-significant and tangible assets is inversely significant.
Originality/value
This study constructs a new improved method of computing the amount of structural capital, and uses recently available financial statement data to provide first-time evidence on human capital and its inclusion in the determination of the amount of intellectual capital. These new models and data enable a direct comparison to be made between the value-relevance of intellectual and the book-value of assets.
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Eric G. Flamholtz, Ulf Johanson and Robin Roslender
The paper celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Flamholtz’s seminal paper on the Human Resource Accounting approach to taking people into account, providing a…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Flamholtz’s seminal paper on the Human Resource Accounting approach to taking people into account, providing a critical review of its progress since that time and offering some thoughts on how the project might now be beneficially shaped.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an authoritative review of the progress of the accounting for people project to date.
Findings
The continuing exploration of how it might be possible to take people into account is identified to be entering a new and exciting phase.
Research limitations/implications
The authors readily acknowledge that what the paper provides is an account of the evolution of the accounting for people field, which they argue is currently extending into a new and important phase relating to employee health and wellbeing.
Originality/value
The paper’s principal contribution lies in bringing together three authors who have made significant contributions to the topic of accounting for people over the past 50 years.
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Local Government in Indonesia annually publishes Local Government Financial Statements (LGFS) for helping their stakeholders in making decisions. Audit Opinion of the LGFS for…
Abstract
Local Government in Indonesia annually publishes Local Government Financial Statements (LGFS) for helping their stakeholders in making decisions. Audit Opinion of the LGFS for counties and cities in East Java Province during the last 8 years (2006-2013) showed a quite astonishing result. From all of 301 financial statements, only 45 LGFS (14.95%) obtained Unqualified Opinion, other financial statements (256 or 85.05%) received Non-Unqualified Opinion. This study aims to analyze the accounts and problems in the accounts which cause LGFS obtain Non-Unqualified Opinion. Using content analysis with NVIVO10 applications, this study analyzed 256 audit opinions of the LGFS of counties and cities in East Java during 2006-2013 that obtained Non-Unqualified Opinion to identify the accounts and problems in the accounts which cause LGFS obtain Non-Unqualified Opinion. The results showed that the most frequent accounts as an exception in the audit opinion are the accounts on Budget Realization Report (BR) with the frequency of occurrence as much as 6628 times. The Balance Sheet (BS) accounts was at the second place with the total frequency of occurrence 4206 times. And last, there was a Cash Flow Statement (CF) account with the frequency of occurrence as much as 693 times. In BR, the most frequent account which appears as an exception is spending account (as much as 4198 times), while the assets are the most frequent accounts as an exception in the Balance Sheet (as much as 4206 times). The problem with the accounts that often appear as an exception was mainly due to the weakness of the Internal Control System (ICS), followed by non-compliance with the provisions of law and the last problem is in-economies, inefficiency and ineffectiveness.
Petr Parshakov and Elena Shakina
This study suggests an alternative to confirmatory content analysis (CA) and empirically demonstrates that explorative CA enables new insights into the mechanism of intellectual…
Abstract
Purpose
This study suggests an alternative to confirmatory content analysis (CA) and empirically demonstrates that explorative CA enables new insights into the mechanism of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure. In so doing, this research contributes to both methodological and empirical advancements in IC disclosure research.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing the assumptions of positive accounting theory and taking book value of intangible assets as a reference, our research design utilizes well-established text-mining (TM) tools based on a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression. We assume that the degree of cohesion between officially disclosed and evaluated intangible assets on balance sheets and those contextually delivered in narrative form may affect how IC is ultimately disclosed in annual reports.
Findings
Our main finding is in line with the results and criticism of previous studies. We show that companies do not extensively disclose IC in their annual reports. However, some narrative forms for IC disclosure are identified and confirmed by several robustness checks.
Research limitations/implications
First, the findings provide internal validity only for large US enterprises. These firms have similar, well-structured reporting requirements. This analysis might be enriched by an examination and a comparison of different institutional contexts, such as emerging countries. Second, following previous studies, annual reports serve as the source of data. Consequently, the findings are relevant only for mandatory and voluntary disclosure of IC, mitigating the relevance of this study for contexts of involuntary disclosure.
Originality/value
This study makes two contributions. First, we add to the empirical literature by offering one more piece of evidence on whether and, if so, the extent to which companies disclose IC in their annual reports. Second, we provide further examination of confirmatory CA by proposing a number of statistically validated codes and tokens that are indicators of IC communication by companies.
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