Intellectual Capital: A Review from the Literature

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to get a clear concept about intellectual capital and reports on intellectual capital in different entities based on the literature review. Research design, data, and methodology - This study was mainly written in a way of descriptive research. The current studies deal with the theoretical and reporting aspects on intellectual capital. Thus, this research is developed on the basis of previous descriptive and empirical research papers. Results - This study finds that intellectual capital is the combination of human capital, structural capital and relational capital but there is no unique measurement system or process to define intellectual capital. The findings also indicates that the measurement for intellectual capital varies based on the measurement process, time period, firms, industries and country to country perspectives. It can be also observed that firms have the tendency not to disclose the intellectual capital information. Conclusions - This study recommends that intellectual capital should be presented in a fixed format and human, relational and structural capital should be included as intellectual capital. Additionally, it suggests that mandatory requirement of legislation, effective corporate governance mechanism and stock exchange listing requirement might increase the quality of intellectual reporting.