Literature review
Developments over recent decades have resulted in a transformation from the industrial era
to the knowledge-based era. This shift has increased the significance of intellectual capital
in terms of obtaining competitive advantage that leads to sustainable performance.
Traditional financial performance measures provide an incomplete picture of the firm due to
the existence of intangible sources such as intellectual assets and processes together with
investments in social responsibility. To overcome this conflicting issue, emphasis is given to
CSR and VAIC, resulting in a decline in the significance of traditional financial performance
measures in determining the true value of the firm (Guthrie et al., 2007).
The pivotal role of intellectual capital (IC) in firms’ value creation, which is a crucial
component of sustainable performance, has been the subject of numerous studies in
literature. An analysis conducted by Accenture on S&P 500 companies between 1980 and
2002 reveals the reduced significance of tangible assets on company value, emphasising
that these assets now account for only 25 per cent of market value, whereas they constituted
80 per cent of market value 20 years ago (Ballow et al., 2004).
The major motivation behind the voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital depends on the
axiom put forward by Stewart (1997) that ‘‘what gets measured gets managed’’. As Guthrie
et al. (2006) also state, there is the potential risk that firms’ management and other
stakeholders will not give enough attention to IC unless it is reported. Numerous metrics to
measure IC have been developed in the field of knowledge management (see Liebowitz and
Suen, 2000).