Reporting intellectual capital in annual reports: evidence from Ireland

Examines the extent to which 11 knowledge‐based Irish listed companies are adopting methodologies for reporting of intellectual capital in their annual reports. Their market and book values were compared and a content analysis of the annual reports of the 11 listed companies was conducted. With the exception of two of the 11 listed companies, significant differences in market and book values were found, suggesting that knowledge‐based Irish listed companies have a substantial level of non‐physical, intangible, intellectual capital assets. The level of disclosure of intellectual capital attributes by the 11 listed companies studied was low.