Lessons for progressing narrative reporting: Learning from the experience of disseminating the Danish Intellectual Capital Statement approach

The case for the greater use of narrative disclosures within the annual report package continues to attract support from accounting academics. After a decade of comparatively limited attention, the topic of narrative reporting has returned to the accounting research agenda, in part in association with integrated reporting and a growing interest in accounting for business models, as well as a resurgence of intellectual capital research. In the light of a continuing optimism that narrative reporting will eventually assume its rightful place within financial reporting, the paper reports and reflects upon the findings of a study of the outcome of the Danish Guideline Project in the decade following its conclusion in late 2002. This initiative placed a heavy emphasis on the extension of narrative reporting in its principal output, the Intellectual Capital Statement, still widely regarded as a highly promising intellectual capital reporting framework. Based on insights derived from the study, the paper identifies a number of major obstacles that confront the advocates of narrative disclosure practices, the persistence of which is rooted in the contestable jurisdiction that characterises the accountancy profession itself.     

Corporate reporting of intellectual capital: Evidence from UK companies

This paper reports the results of an empirical investigation into the intellectual capital reporting practices of UK companies in four distinct sectors. It differs from prior intellectual capital reporting studies in that it analyses a wide range of corporate reports for their intellectual capital content. It finds major differences between the elements of intellectual capital reported in each sector studied. The study also finds that a range of different types of corporate reports were used for communicating intellectual capital information, and that the annual reports were not a good proxy for the proportion of disclosures across all corporate reports analysed in this study.     

The valuation implications of human capital in transactions on and outside the exchange

We examine the valuation implications of human capital both for a broad sample of firms and for subsamples of high-technology firms and low-technology firms. Our results suggest that the market appears to value compensation expenses not as expenses but as if they serve as a proxy for a human asset that is omitted from the balance sheets. The findings are consistent with human capital comprising a more sizable portion of the value of high-technology firms than of low-technology firms. The findings also indicate that compensation expenses are valued differently from other expense components of income. Markedly, despite critical differences between investors on the exchange and those buying shares in transactions outside the exchange (controlling interests, information asymmetry, etc.), their assessment of the enhanced value of a firm attributable to human capital is shown to be relatively similar. The results in this study are consistent with compensation expenses creating a valuable intangible asset, hence suggesting that reform in the accounting treatment of these expenses is of critical importance.     

The measurement and recognition of intangible assets: then and now

“In the Fortune 500 there are thousands upon thousands of statistics that reveal very little that’s meaningful about the corporations they purportedly describe. At least that’s the verdict of a growing number of forward-thinking market watchdogs, academics, accountants, and others.”(Fortune, April 2001). In today’s economy value is often created by intangible (intellectual) capital. The accounting profession has not met the challenge of measuring and reporting the results of knowledge-based entities. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia estimates that in the year 2000 more than US$ 1 trillion was invested in Intangibles. The problems relating to the measurement and recognition of intangibles are international in scope.This paper reviews existing and recently promulgated US, UK, and IASC accounting standards relating to Intangibles. Inconsistencies in the measurement and reporting of Intangibles under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are highlighted, and evidence is provided that suggests that recognition of Intangible (Intellectual) Capital is in accordance with existing accounting principles In particular, the newly promulgated Financial Accounting Standards Statements on Business Combinations, Goodwill, and other Intangibles is reviewed. The objective of the comparisons to UK and IASC standards and the review is to provide evidence that will improve the measurement and reporting of intangible (intellectual) capital and facilitate harmonization. Improving the global financial reporting infrastructure will ultimately lead to the reporting of relevant and reliable quality earnings.     

基于顾客价值的知识服务定价策略

知识密集型服务企业是以知识作为提供物的一类服务行业.它通过深入开发和应用企业知识,与顾客进行知识共享和知识转移.本文从分析知识密集型服务企业的产品--知识服务面临的产品定价决策问题入手,对其产品定价方法进行分类,并着重探讨更适合于这类企业发展的基于顾客价值的定价策略及其实施的核心内容.     

The potential of integrated reporting to enhance sustainability reporting in the public sector

This paper examines the influence of integrated reporting (IR) on the sustainability reporting practices of a state-owned enterprise through a content analysis of their reports and interviews with report preparers. The findings show a steady increase in the quantity and quality of sustainability disclosures. In 2012, the organization chose to adopt the IR framework in order to enhance sustainability reporting for all stakeholders. The IR process resulted in a more balanced disclosure of material aspects of sustainability. However, while IR has the potential to enhance public sector sustainability reporting, inter-generational equity issues were ignored.     

资本水平、经营模式与流动性创造——对我国寿险公司的实证检验

金融中介通过将流动负债转化为非流动资产为市场提供流动性.寿险公司在金融市场中发挥类似银行的金融中介功能.基于此,本文利用2009～2017年我国寿险公司的数据,分析寿险公司的流动性创造水平,考察其流动性创造的关键影响因素,检验流动性创造与资本水平之间的关系.研究发现,寿险公司更多地吸收流动性而非创造流动性;从流动性创造...     

推动管理会计建设、加快中小商业银行管理转型的思考

在利率市场化不断推进和同业或跨业竞争加剧的背景下,商业银行必须由规模导向向价值导向的管理模式转型,管理会计是提升中小商业银行内部管理的精细化必备手段,也是推动业务转型的利器。中小商业银行在推广管理会计理念、开发和建设管理会计系统方面有自身的独特性,本文从管理会计的内容和范围出发,结合中小银行的管理现状和特点,提出渐进式开发和推广管理会计,推动管理转型的思路。     

Standard Business Reporting in Australia: efficiency,effectiveness, or both?

The benefits of using eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) as a business reporting standard have been widely canvassed in the extant literature, in particular, as the enabling technology for standard business reporting tools. One of the key benefits noted is the ability of standard business reporting to create significant efficiencies in the regulatory reporting process. Efficiency‐driven cost reductions are highly desirable by data and report producers. However, they may not have the same potential to create long‐term firm value as improved effectiveness of decision making. This study assesses the perceptions of Australian business stakeholders in relation to the benefits of the Australian standard business reporting instantiation (SBR) for financial reporting. These perceptions were drawn from interviews of persons knowledgeable in XBRL‐based standard business reporting and submissions to Treasury relative to SBR reporting options. The combination of interviews and submissions permit insights into the views of various groups of stakeholders in relation to the potential benefits. In line with predictions based on a transaction‐cost economics perspective, interviewees who primarily came from a data and report‐producer background mentioned benefits that centre largely on asset specificity and efficiency. The interviewees who principally came from a data and report‐consumer background mentioned benefits that centre on reducing decision‐making uncertainty and decision‐making effectiveness. The data and report consumers also took a broader view of the benefits of SBR to the financial reporting supply chain. Our research suggests that advocates of SBR have successfully promoted its efficiency benefits to potential users. However, the effectiveness benefits of SBR, for example, the decision‐making benefits offered to investors via standardised reports, while becoming more broadly acknowledged, remain not a priority for all stakeholders.     

Where is the ethical knowledge in the knowledge economy?: Power and potential in the emergence of ethical knowledge as a component of intellectual capital

There is a growing discussion of intellectual capital and the knowledge economy more generally within the accounting literature. This literature, however, has focused narrowly on the considerable discrepancy between book and market values and the inability of traditional accounting concepts and methods to deal with the intangible nature of key sources of corporate competitive advantage. This essay contributes to this literature by providing a broadly poststructuralist reading of the emergence of ethical knowledge as a component of intellectual capital, a category of asset that has almost been completely overlooked within the extant accountant literature on the knowledge economy. The paper does three things. Firstly, it draws on a broad review of the accounting literature to explore how intellectual capital is being defined and constructed within that literature. Secondly, it provides a poststructural analysis of the way ethical knowledge emerged within the intellectual capital statements of an early innovator in Intellectual Capital reporting. Finally, the paper tentatively hints towards the moral and civic potential of alternative conceptualisations of ethical knowledge networks at the margins of the knowledge economy and considers some areas for further research in this regard.     

Drivers of innovation capital disclosure in intellectual capital statements: Evidence from Europe

Innovation is one of the major determinants of competitive success. As a result, there is demand for information on the innovation activities of firms among investors, other stakeholders and the public. Using content analysis, this paper examines the innovation capital disclosure (INCD) characteristics (i.e. disclosure quantity and quality) in the intellectual capital statements (ICS) of 51 European for-profit firms. Additionally, the relationships between INCD characteristics and industry, firm size, region of registered office and the disclosure guidelines adopted are analysed. Our content analysis detects an average of 29.16 items on innovation capital (INC) per ICS. These are mainly qualitative, non-financial and historically orientated. Furthermore, as expected, industry, firm size, region and disclosure guidelines drive the quantity of disclosure. Prior empirical studies of voluntary disclosure in documents other than ICS have also suggested a relationship between firm size and disclosure quality. Interestingly, our results for INCD in ICS do not support this relationship. This provides tentative evidence for a similar qualitative level of innovation capital disclosure across firm size. Furthermore, our findings show mostly homogeneous disclosure patterns across the regions in Europe, suggesting that multinational efforts towards fostering INCD has made the ICS phenomenon more a European than a local phenomenon.     

基于EVA的商业银行经济资本管理与价值创造研究

只有为企业带来超过资本最低回报要求的业务,才真正为企业创造了价值,而那些创造收益水平低于资本最低回报要求的业务,实际上是在消耗企业的价值,因而价值最大化是银行经营最终目标。银行经济资本管理可以为银行创造价值。以EVA作为价值创造能力衡量指标,经济资本管理为银行创造价值路径有四个:绩效考评、战略制定、产品定价和资产组合选择。     

知识产权保护的价值有多大？——来自中国上市公司专利数据的经验证据

本文从立法制规保护、司法保护、行政保护三个维度构造省级层面的知识产权保护指标并与上市公司专利数据匹配,使用Griliches (1981)“知识资本”价值评估模型定量测算了知识产权保护的价值。研究发现:1.专利的平均价值约为685万元/件,且发明的价值明显高于实用新型与外观设计;2.省区知识产权保护强度每提升1%将使上市公司发明、实用新型、外观设计的价值分别提升128、10、15万元,使用地方知识产权局领导的教育信息作为工具变量解决潜在的内生性问题,结论稳健成立;3.分维度看,司法保护的价值最大,立法制规保护次之,行政保护尚不明确;4.非国有企业与高科技行业企业的专利价值对知识产权保护更为敏感。本文启示,在中国经济发展的攻坚期和深水区,加强知识产权“有法必依”的司法保护、整合司法与行政“双轨制”保护,有助于激励企业研发创新。     

以优化营商环境为突破口降低制度性成本——基于湖南、辽宁、安徽和山东的调研

营商环境是企业生存和发展的土壤,是进一步降低制度性成本的关键突破口。调研组通过走访相关企业和政府部门发现,调研地区在创新政务服务、升级要素供给服务等方面着力优化营商环境,但在政策协调、知识产权保护等方面依然存在堵点难点,未来应有针对性地进一步加大营商环境建设力度,切实增加市场主体的获得感。