Exploring intellectual capital disclosure and its determinants in knowledge-based institutions: empirical evidence from international universities

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to add empirical evidence to the intellectual capital (IC) literature by enhancing understanding of voluntary online IC disclosure (ICD) practices in knowledge-based institutions such as universities from an international standpoint. The ultimate purpose of this study is to examine how different variables related to size, internet visibility and certain corporate governance attributes (i.e. board size and board gender diversity) affect the extent to which universities from different world’s countries convey ICD through websites. Design/methodology/approach This study investigates a sample of 100 international universities selected according to the QS World University Rankings 2020 to examine the level of ICD provided through their official websites. It uses a content analysis to measure the actual amount of IC information disclosed by these universities and a regression model to test the impact of the explanatory variables. Findings Empirical results demonstrate a negative impact of the board size and a positive effect of board gender diversity and internet visibility on the level of IC information disclosed by international universities on their website. They also demonstrate a non-significant effect of university size. Originality/value This study contributes to enriching the academic literature in different ways. In the first place, it extends the field of application of the stakeholder theory. In the second place, this study sheds light on the actual ICD level of international universities. In the third place, it examines the ICD through a channel – websites – which are still little explored by the academic literature. Finally, this study increases knowledge about the factors that can influence the ICD disclosure of international universities.

Exploring online sustainability disclosure in the healthcare industry: Evidence from best international hospitals

“…From an empirical point of view, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that have examined the impact of the Internet visibility of hospitals on the amount of information disclosed. However, in other contexts such as universities, previous studies have found a positive impact of the Internet visibility on the amount of information disclosed (Manes Rossi et al, 2018;Vitolla et al, 2023).…”