As the world economy is experiencing a transition from industrial to knowledge economy, intellectual capital (IC) has become a prominent feature of business transactions and discourse. Interest in IC and IC disclosure is rising in developed and developing countries. At present, Intellectual Capital Disclosure (ICD) is done voluntarily by very few leading corporations all around the world. Omission of ICD may adversely influence the quality of decisions made by users of accounting information or lead to material misstatements. Hence, rising importance of IC has necessitated insightful studies. With this background in mind, the study of 25 Bangladeshi knowledge based companies listed in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) from Information Technology considered to be highly knowledge intensive has been undertaken in order to find out the disclosure level of recording and reporting of intellectual capital through content analysis of their corporate annual reports. It is evident from the study that level of intellectual capital reporting in the Bangladeshi companies is negligible and intellectual capital reporting has not received any preference or priority for the mentors of these corporations. On the basis the findings, the study recommends national and international accounting regulatory bodies to develop specific and uniform standard on identifying, measuring and reporting IC.
Keywords: Information Technology, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge-based Economy, Tangible Assets
