The purpose and functions of the Highway Research Board's Committee on Conduct of Research are set forth, and papers sponsored by the Committee and presented at the Annual Meetings of the Highway Research Board are mentioned. The Committee, which seeks to improve the quality and effectiveness of research, serves as a forum for the exhange of ideas and the delineation of the problems associated with the various methods of organizing and administering research programs, the consideration of project design and instrumentation, and the application of research findings in the transportation field. The Committee has sponsored Annual Meeting sessions (in 1969, 1973, and 1974) on various aspects (selection, design, and supervision of projects as well as the implementation of results and evaluation of the benefits) of research management. Papers presented at the 1969 sessions were published in Highway Research Record 338. Eight papers presented at the 1973 sessions are included in this publication.

Management of research. introduction

The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the field of Intellectual Capital Accounting Research (ICAR). The literature indicates that an organisational and business revolution is in progress concerning the need to understand the value of knowledge resources and how to manage them. The paper explores the field of ICAR by examining a decade of published research since Petty and Guthrie's (2000) seminal paper on ICA, “Intellectual capital literature review: Measurement, reporting and management” as published in the Journal of Intellectual Capital. The paper has four specific contributions. The first contribution is to identify the field of scholarship associated with ICAR. The second is to provide a comprehensive picture of what has happened in the field of ICAR over the past decade. Third, it provides evidence as to how and why the field of ICAR is changing. Fourth, it highlights areas for future research and policy developments. From these four contributions our definition of Intellectual Capital Accounting (ICA) emerges. That is, ICA is an accounting, reporting and management technology of relevance to organisations to understand and manage knowledge resources. It can account and report on the size and development of knowledge resources such as employee competencies, customer relations, financial relationships and communication and information technologies. Additionally, the analysis highlights several interesting patterns and worrying trends in the field of ICAR.

Reflections and projections: A decade of Intellectual Capital Accounting Research

This paper investigates the relationship between intellectual capital disclosure and corporate governance variables, controlling for other firm‐specific characteristics, for a sample of 100 UK listed firms. Intellectual capital disclosure is measured by a disclosure index score, supported by word count and percentage of word count metrics to assess the variety, volume and focus of intellectual capital disclosure respectively. The independent variables comprise various forms of corporate governance structure: board composition, ownership structure, audit committee size and frequency of audit committee meetings, and CEO role duality. Results of the analysis based on the three measures of intellectual capital disclosure indicate significant association with all the governance factors except for role duality. The influence of corporate governance mechanisms on human, structural and relational capital disclosure, based on all three metrics, is also explored.

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Intellectual capital disclosure and corporate governance structure in UK firms

This paper argues that key differences between the UK and the US in the importance ascribed to a company's social responsibilities (CSR) reflect differences in the corporate governance arrangements in these two countries. Specifically, we analyse the role of a salient type of owner in the UK and the US, institutional investors, in emphasising firm-level CSR actions. We explore differences between institutional investors in the UK and the US concerning CSR, and draw on a model of instrumental, relational and moral motives to explore why institutional investors in the UK are becoming concerned with firms’ social and environmental actions. We conclude with some suggestions for future research in this area.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2006.00495.x

Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility: a comparative analysis of the UK and the US*

Using a sample from 22 countries, I investigate the relations between the accuracy of analysts’ earnings forecasts and the level of annual report disclosure, and between forecast accuracy and the degree of enforcement of accounting standards. I document that firm-level disclosures are positively related to forecast accuracy, suggesting that such disclosures provide useful information to analysts. I construct a comprehensive measure of enforcement and find that strong enforcement is associated with higher forecast accuracy. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that enforcement encourages managers to follow prescribed accounting rules, which, in turn, reduces analysts’ uncertainty about future earnings. I also find evidence consistent with disclosures being more important when analyst following is low and with enforcement being more important when more choice among accounting methods is allowed. ∗University of Toronto. I appreciate the helpful comments on various versions of this paper by Joel Amernic, Hollis Ashbaugh, Ray Ball (editor), Sudipta Basu, Jeff Callen, Bjørn Jørgensen, Peter Pope (referee), Beverly Walther, and participants at the 2001 EIASM Workshop on Accounting and Regulation, 2002 European Accounting Association Meeting, 2002 Journal of Accounting Research conference, 2002 Canadian Academic Accounting Association meeting, and 2002 American Accounting Association annual meeting. All errors are my own. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. I thank IBES International Inc. for providing earnings forecast data.

Disclosure Practices, Enforcement of Accounting Standards, and Analysts' Forecast Accuracy: An International Study

This article describes how large UK companies communicate with their institutional shareholders, and investigates how this private disclosure process relates to financial reporting. The article draws from case studies based on interviews with senior executives in 33 UK companies. Four insights into corporate disclosure arise from this case data. Firstly, a private disclosure process to institutional shareholders is outlined. Secondly, the private disclosure activity is recognised as a significant part of a larger corporate decision concerning public versus private voluntary disclosure. Thirdly, a range of factors are identified as encouraging private disclosure. These include the perceived limitations of financial reports (annual reports and interims), both as a disclosure mechanism in their own right and by comparison with private disclosure channels. Finally, despite these limitations, financial reports are recognised as a central component of a larger corporate disclosure system. The article t...

Private Disclosure and Financial Reporting

Purpose – This paper aims to explore how fund managers (FMs) deal with major problems of ignorance and uncertainty in stock selection and in asset allocation decisions.Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were conducted with 40 fund managers in the period October 1997 to January 2000. A seven stage approach was adopted to sift through and process the large volumes of case data. The interview case data formed the basis for identifying common patterns and themes across the cases.Findings – The case data revealed the nature of this private information agenda concerning intellectual capital or intangibles and the dynamic connections between these variables in the value creation process. The case data provided insight into how the book value and market value gap arose and the special role of information on intangibles and intellectual capital in valuing the company.Practical implications – The fund management behaviour has important implications for regulatory policy issues on insider information, on corpo...

Fund management, intellectual capital, intangibles and private disclosure

This paper describes how 33 large UK companies communicated with their core shareholders, the large UK financial institutions. It focuses on the private voluntary information flows from the investee company to the financial institution (FI) and their eventual release into the public domain. The case is put for the development of a combined theory, which would link, inter alia, private and public disclosure, financial intermediation, informed trading, and market efficiency. This theory development would provide a more coherent framework for understanding the role of financial reports and other public corporate disclosure behaviour in user decisions. It would also play an important role in developing corporate finance theory and its prescriptions for corporate management.

Private Voluntary Disclosure, Financial Intermediation and Market Efficiency

The article reveals a need for greater understanding and use of corporate intellectual capital (IC) information within two connected capital market areas. Firstly with regard to the conceptualisation and valuation process these capital market agents (analysts and fund managers) conduct. Secondly, within the capital market agents' own value creation chain. The concept of the value creation chain is combined with an analysis of the barriers faced by capital market agents represented by fund managers and analysts. These barriers are proposed to comprise knowledge, uncertainty, ownership and management problems. In addition, cultural pressures within analyst and fund manager communities are viewed as contributors to information barriers. Such problems are exacerbated by additional market induced problems of severe time constraints and conflicts of interest.

Value‐relevant information on corporate intangibles – creation, use, and barriers in capital markets – “between a rock and a hard place”

This paper explores the organisation of the information market and its ability to process intellectual capital information for capital markets. Discusses also incentives for market participants to create and use information on the role of intellectual capital (IC) in corporate value creation, and the capability of the market for information to process and use such information in the stock market valuation of companies. Particular attention is paid to corporate disclosure of, and fund manager use of, such information. The analysis also extends the idea of a knowledge‐intensive value creation process to fund managers and analysts. Problems within corporate, fund manager, and analysts knowledge‐intensive value creation chains are considered to be a source of barriers to the creation and use of corporate IC information in markets. Further research on these chains and barriers is required to improve the flow of IC information into stock prices.

John Holland

Papers

Private Disclosure and Financial Reporting

Fund management, intellectual capital, intangibles and private disclosure

Private Voluntary Disclosure, Financial Intermediation and Market Efficiency

Value‐relevant information on corporate intangibles – creation, use, and barriers in capital markets – “between a rock and a hard place”

Intellectual capital and the capital market - organisation and competence