Exploring Corporate Disclosure and Reporting of Intellectual Capital

This e-book explores corporate disclosure of intellectual capital (IC) in light of emerging changes in technology and communication. Arguably, the annual report has long outlived itself as the best source of corporate disclosure because it contains backward looking information and is only a one-way means of presenting information rather than engaging with information users. Similarly, the stand-alone IC report is now rarely used to disclose IC information. In fact, the words "reporting" and "disclosure" are often used synonymously when they have different meanings. Disclosure is: "the revelation of information that was previously secret or unknown", while reporting is a "detailed periodic account of a company's activities, financial condition, and prospects that is made available to shareholders and investors" (Dumay, 2016, p. 178). Thus, investors and stakeholders value IC disclosures, not reports. Therefore, this e-book encourages emerging innovations for voluntary IC disclosure, to open up new possibilities for presenting previously secret or unknown IC information about today's dynamic and intangible based organizations.