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Purpose Reflecting on Big Data’s assumed benefits, this study aims to identify the risks and challenges of data security underpinning Big Data’s socio-economic value and intellectual capital (IC). Design/methodology/approach The study reviews academic literature, professional documents and public information to provide insights, critique and projections for IC and Big Data research and practice. Findings The “voracity” for data represents a further “V” of Big Data, which results in a continuous hunt for data beyond legal and ethical boundaries. Cybercrimes, data security breaches and privacy violations reflect voracity and represent the dark side of the Big Data ecosystem. Losing the confidentiality, integrity or availability of data because of a data security breach poses threat to IC and value creation. Thus, cyberthreats compromise the social value of Big Data, impacting on stakeholders’ and society’s interests. Research limitations/implications Because of the interpretative nature of this study, other researchers may not draw the same conclusions from the evidence provided. It leaves some open questions for a wide research agenda about the societal, ethical and managerial implications of Big Data. Originality/value This paper introduces the risks of data security and the challenges of Big Data to stimulate new research paths for IC and accounting research.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how firms disclose the presentation and content of business model (BM) information in corporate reports to manage their legitimacy in response to European Directive 2014/95. Design/methodology/approach Legitimacy theory is used to identify disclosure strategies pursued by firms in reaction to the new regulation. To understand how firms adopt these strategic responses, semiotic analysis is applied to a sample of European companies’ reports through Crowther’s (2012) framework, which is based on a mechanism of binary oppositions. Findings Half of the sample strategically choose to comply with the European Union (EU) Directive regarding BM information through the use of non-accounting language, figures, and diagrams. Other firms did not disclose any substantive information but managed the impression of compliance with the regulation, while the remainder of the sample dismissed the regulation altogether. Research limitations/implications This study demonstrates how organisations use the disclosure of BM information in their corporate reports to control their legitimacy. The results support the idea that firms can acquire legitimacy by complying with the law or giving the impression of compliance with the regulation. This study provides evidence on the first-time adoption of the EU Directive, and therefore, future research can enlarge the sample and conduct the analysis over a broader time frame. Practical implications A more precise indication of the EU Directive regarding “where” firms should report BM information, “how” the description of a BM should refer to the environmental, social, governance (ESG) factors, and a set of performance measures to track the evolution of a company’s BM overtime is needed. Originality/value While there has been a notable amount of research that has applied content analysis methodologies to investigate the thematic and syntactic aspects of BM disclosure in corporate reports, only a few studies have investigated BM disclosures in relation to the EU Directive. Furthermore, the application of semiotic analysis extends beyond traditional content analysis methodologies because it considers the structure of the story at many levels, thus developing a more complete textual picture of how BMs are described, allowing an analysis of the reasons behind the disclosure strategies pursued by firms.

Purpose As Big Data is creating new underpinnings for organisations’ intellectual capital (IC) and knowledge management, this paper aims to analyse the implications of Big Data for IC accounting to provide new conceptual and practical insights about the future of IC accounting. Design/methodology/approach Based on a conceptual framework informed by decision science theory, the authors explain the factors supporting Big Data’s value and review the academic literature and practical evidence to analyse the implications of Big Data for IC accounting. Findings In reflecting on Big Data’s ability to supply a new value for IC and its implications for IC accounting, the authors conclude that Big Data represents a new IC asset, and this represents a rationale for a renewed wave of interest in IC accounting. IC accounting can contribute to understand the determinants of Big Data’s value, such as data quality, security and privacy issues, data visualisation and users’ interaction. In doing so, IC measurement, reporting and auditing need to keep focusing on how human capital and organisational and technical processes (structural capital) can unlock or even obstruct Big Data’s value for IC. Research limitations/implications The topic of Big Data in IC and accounting research is in its infancy; therefore, this paper acts at a normative level. While this represents a research limitation of the study, it is also a call for future empirical studies. Practical implications Once again, practitioners and researchers need to face the challenge of avoiding the trap of IC accountingisation to make IC accounting relevant for the Big Data revolution. Within the euphoric and utopian views of the Big Data revolution, this paper contributes to enriching awareness about the practical factors underpinning Big Data’s value for IC and foster the cognitive and behavioural dynamic between data, IC information and user interaction. Social implications The paper is relevant to prepares, users and auditors of financial statements. Originality/value This paper aims to instill a novel debate on Big Data into IC accounting research by providing new avenues for future research.

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