Corporate Governance and Disclosure Practices of Firms : The Impact of Nature and Types of Intellectual Capital

In this knowledge economy, there is a gradual shift in focus from capital and labor intensive firms to knowledge intensive firms. This paper focuses on the corporate governance and disclosure practices of firms listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The sample firms represent different sectors of Intellectual Capital (IC) intensive firms segregated according to types of IC (viz., human capital, structural capital and relational capital). These sectors are characterized by large investment in intangible or knowledge assets with relatively small proportion of tangible assets in their asset base. This research calculates IC intensity ratio for sample firms, and studies its impact on the corporate governance and disclosure practices of firms. By analyzing the key characteristics of these IC intensive industries and subsequently studying the impact of the nature of industry (i.e. IC intensive firms) and types of IC on the corporate governance and disclosure practices, this research identifies and tests the empirical evidence for such relationship