Intellectual capital reporting: a conceptual study with application in the Portuguese case

This paper analyses the reporting of intellectual capital (IC) in Portugal. The paper surveys the studies made on the reporting of IC considering the traditional, company based idea, that IC explains the difference between the market value and the book value. But additionally, a new approach to the reporting of IC related with the economic notion of market is presented. The two approaches are critically compared. The new approach is applied. Some conclusions are drawn, namely on the need for a mixture of approaches in order to comprehensively study the IC of nations.