The Level Intellectual Capital Disclosure by Companies Listed in Qatar

The paper aims to examine the extent of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure in the annual reports of Qatari listed companies. The research sample consists of 41 Qatari listed companies over a period of three years (i.e. 2010, 2011 and 2012). The paper found that the mean of the extent of IC disclosure by the Qatari listed companies was 0.377 over the 2010-2012 period. This finding indicates that the companies disclosed information about their IC, on average, by 38%, which is high compared to some prior studies. In addition, it found that internal capital has the highest disclosure with a mean of 0.472 and the lowest was for human capital with a mean of 0.234 over the three-year period. Moreover, the paper found that there were significant differences between the extent of disclosures of IC categories. This is a pioneering study examining the disclosure practices of Qatari listed companies. It uses a comprehensive disclosure index to capture a wider range of IC information. Moreover, the paper adds to current IC disclosure literature for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).