Intellectual capital management and information risk

Abstract

The value relevance of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure has been vastly investigated in different countries and settings. Prior studies investigate the effect that IC has on different organisational performance dimensions. In particular some scholars found that IC information is able to provide valuable information for issuing positive recommendations on listed companies. However, to date the literature lacks in providing evidence of the effect of IC management on a company’s information risk, defined as the analyst’s recommendations to buy, hold or sell stocks. The aim of this research is thus to analyse the effect that IC performance may have on the information risk, measured as the way in which the market is informed about the firm performance. To test our main research question, we ran panel data regressions applied to a sample of 3027 US listed companies, which disclosed IC information on a stand-alone social or IC statement over the period 2008-2012. Empirical results may be of interest for both academics and practitioners, since it allows to reduce a gap in the literature about the contribution of the IC performance on firms’ reputation and to give support to managers to properly understand the potential of both beneficial and unintended effects of such voluntary disclosure.