The Disclosure of Recognised and Unrecognised Intangibles: Evidence From New Zealand
Date
Authors
Mehnaz, Laura
Scott, Tom
Zang, Zeting
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
We examine the reporting of intangible assets and the disclosures on intellectual capital activities by listed companies and public benefit entities in New Zealand and assess the usefulness of these disclosures. Comparing trends in intangible asset disclosure frequency, we note that the most common is capitalised software costs, followed by goodwill. For intellectual capital, we find that qualitative disclosures are more prevalent than quantitative, with disclosure on relational capital being the most frequent. In addition, we find that intangible assets are value relevant, and more intellectual capital disclosures increase the value relevance of goodwill. Finally, we consider intangible reporting by public benefit entities and show that while the rate of intangibles capitalised is similar, they are of less relative economic importance. Overall, our findings provide evidence of divergence in intangible categorisation practice, highlight the absence of reporting digital technologies and call for improved disclosure criteria for recognised and unrecognised intangibles.Description
Keywords
3501 Accounting, Auditing and Accountability, 3502 Banking, Finance and Investment, 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 1499 Other Economics, 1501 Accounting, Auditing and Accountability
Source
Australian Accounting Review, ISSN: 1035-6908 (Print); 1835-2561 (Online), Wiley, 34(4), 346-365. doi: 10.1111/auar.12422
Publisher's version
Rights statement
© 2024 The Authors. Australian Accounting Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of CPA Australia. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.