The role of board of directors in intellectual capital disclosure after the advent of integrated reporting

Intellectual capital is an important tool for strengthening a firm's competitive advantageand helping it achieve its medium- and long-term financial objectives. Currently accepted accounting principles do not outline strict rules and regulations for intellectualcapital disclosure. However, the advent of integrated reporting offer firms aninnovative tool to disseminate this information. Although previous research hasanalysed the intellectual capital found in integrated reports, no studies have analysed the board of directors' role in intellectual capital disclosure policies. This study uses agency theory to analyse the effect of board characteristics on intellectual capital disclosure quality (ICDQ) in the context of integrated reporting. To this end, it develops a new scoring system to measure ICDQ. The results, based on a sample of 130 internationalfirms operating in different sectors, show a positive relationship betweenboard size, independence, diversity and activity with ICDQ.