Governance and voluntary disclosure of intangibles

This paper examines the effect of governance on the quality of firms’ voluntary disclosure of intangibles. While disclosure of intangibles reduces information asymmetry, company-level managerial ownership and country-level institutional environment provide incentives that can affect the quality of disclosure. I use a comprehensive set of information about intangibles for disclosure, the aggregate percentage of ownership by directors for managerial ownership, and an index of legal institutions for institutional environments. Based on data from 430 East Asian firms, lower quality disclosure is evident for firms in stronger institutional environment regime. However, the quality of disclosure is not affected by managerial ownership or its joint-effect with institutional environment. The findings highlight the importance of voluntary disclosure about intangibles regardless of the influencing effect of governance mechanisms.