TRENDS OF THE DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION ON INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL IN ANNUAL STATEMENTS IN LITHUANIAN ENTERPRISES

Abstract

Even though the disclosure of data on the intellectual capital of an enterprise is not currently mandatory in financial statements yet more and more enterprises both in Lithuania and abroad supply their annual statements with information on their intellectual capital. That is why the object of this research is the disclosure of information on intellectual capital in annual statements of Lithuanian enterprises while the aim is the discovery of the trends of disclosure of information on intellectual capital as well as a comparison of the obtained results with the data of previous research (Vaškelienė et al., 2008) based on conducting annual reports of Lithuanian joint stock enterprises of the years 2009 to 2012. This research employs the content analysis method and methods of generalization and synthesis of academic writings. The present research reveals that the decrease of information on intellectual capital for external information users disclosed by Lithuanian joint stock enterprises and changes in the disclosure structure were observed in the years 2009 to 2012. It was likely impacted by the decrease of the list of mandatory annual statements, i.e. since 2007 onwards, Lithuanian joint stock enterprises have not been obliged to present annual statements (prospectuses).

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.18.3.4270