Objective: This study investigates the most frequently disclosed KPIs used by pharmaceutical companies to report internally generated intangible assets, based on a document analysis of annual and supplementary reports. Method: For this purpose, we used the European Commission’s Scoreboard database. The pharmaceutical sector was selected to assess the impact of intangible assets in this industry. Reports from 48 pharmaceutical companies were analyzed; among them, 13 disclosed KPIs related to intangible assets and thus constituted the basis for the analysis. The KPIs identified in these reports were classified as financial or non‑financial. Originality/Relevance: The measurement and reporting of internally generated intangible assets have long been a challenge for corporations. This study addresses this gap by analyzing which KPIs are currently used to disclose these assets. From this perspective, we highlight KPIs as essential communicators of internally generated value. Results: The analysis demonstrated that the most frequently used and disclosed indicators were CapEx, OpEx, EBIT, number of employees, and Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Furthermore, a lack of standardization in KPIs was observed, along with the absence of calculation detail in many cases, which hinders comparability across companies. Theoretical/Methodological contributions: The study uses a public database (Scoreboard) to select and relate financial data to the specific KPIs employed in the industry.
Junior et al. (Fri,) studied this question.