Intellectual capital disclosure and corporate governance structure among Malaysian government-linked companies

Abstract

This study examines the level of intellectual capital disclosure among the 32 Malaysian GLCs by comparing with the Non-GLCs for the period 2007-2009. In addition, this study also investigates the impact of board structure on the intellectual capital disclosure of Malaysian GLCs. The board structure mechanisms comprise; board composition, role duality, board size and cross directorship. The control variables consist of the company-specific characteristics –leverage, profitability and age of the company. The content analysis is used to extract the intellectual capital disclosure items from the annual report. The results show that the GLCs disclosed more intellectual capital information than Non-GLCs. Board size and leverage are significant and positively related to the intellectual capital disclosure of Malaysian GLCs.