The association between governance structure and intellectual capital disclosure of Malaysian public listed companies / Norfariha Nor Halim

A developing Asian like Malaysia must be able to successfully transform from just being an input-driven to a knowledge-driven economy that emphases more on exploiting human expertise and knowledge. There is inadequate research in Malaysia that studies on the association of governance structure and intellectual capital disclosure. There is also an urgent need for growth of intellectual capital, for better understanding of the current and potential role of the intellectual capital to meet the needs of the various stakeholders. This research aim is to investigate how governance structure influences the level of intellectual capital disclosure in public listed companies in Malaysia. This research is based on information derived from annual reports comprises from public listed companies that have different types of size, age and industries. The data was analysed to evaluate and determine the governance structure and its level of intellectual capital disclosure. Findings show that the level of intellectual capital disclosure by the Malaysian public listed companies is low. The research also suggested that intellectual capital disclosure is linked to the governance structure namely board size, board independence, family ownership and government linked companies. The results of the study also revealed that an improved governance structure is essential for public listed companies to successfully uphold the importance of intellectual capital. It is hoped that the study can contribute to the improvement of intellectual capital disclosure especially among Malaysian public listed companies.