Audit Committee Characteristics on Intellectual Capital Disclosure: A Study of Sri Lanka

Abstract

This research seeks to reduce a gap in the extant literature on the relationship between audit committee characteristics and intellectual capital disclosure in Sri Lanka as an example of emerging market. As the internal political climate has been favourable for after the conclusion of the war, it is important to understand how audit committee characteristics impact on intellectual capital disclosure in such an emerging market. This study uses quantitative techniques to assess the audit committee characteristics and intellectual capital disclosure of Sri Lankan firms. A 100-firm sample is randomly drawn from the Colombo stock exchange (CSE)-listed firms. Secondary data for 2016/17 are obtained from the CSE databases and are used to calculate the audit committee characteristics and intellectual capital disclosure measures for the sampled firms. The study reveals that audit committee characteristics such as size, audit committee meetings, audit independence and financial expertise to be significantly and positively related to overall intellectual capital disclosure. Findings suggest that Sri Lanka passes through its post-war-recovery phase, reform of its financial reporting regulatory is essential to sustain economic growth and development. Sri Lanka build on regulatory changes and encourage audit committees to ensure the quality of the overall reporting process to include social, environmental, intellectual as well as financial capital of firm.