Johan Henningsson

The Japanese Government's intellectual capital reporting guideline: What are the challenges for firms and capital market agents?

Purpose – The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the Guideline for Intellectual Property Information Disclosure (GIPID) in relation to the ambitious aspirations behind the guideline and in ...

The Japanese Government's intellectual capital reporting guideline

Purpose – The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the Guideline for Intellectual Property Information Disclosure (GIPID) in relation to the ambitious aspirations behind the guideline and in that way develop a future research agenda aiming at addressing the main challenges regarding the construction of guidelines for future IC reporting.Design/methodology/approach – The purpose will be achieved by comparing the GIPID with two other IC guideline proposals, namely MERITUM and the Danish Guideline for Intellectual Capital Statements, respectively, from a capital market communication perspective and from a management control perspective. References are made to 12 Japanese companies that have published IP reports. The sample companies operate in a wide range of nine industries covering, for example, security, manufacturing, transportation, and chemistry, and comprise large as well as small firms.Findings – The study identifies four major challenges for intellectual capital guidelines and reporting. These...

Fund managers as cultured observers

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how social forces are imposed on fund managers when they do their jobs of observing company information, in particular intellectual capital (IC) information. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses a qualitative research approach involving interviews with 14 fund managers in Stockholm. The empirical analysis and the theoretical discussion are influenced by a combination of system and network theories where social networks are built up by communication. Findings - Fund managers are influenced by the rationale of social networks when they reduce the complexity in company information. Three social forces emerged from the empirical data which influence fund managers when they deal with corporate information; the involvement of the organisational code, the market price and rationale, and the agenda surrounding a company. Furthermore, increased complexity of IC information does not seem to bother fund managers. The rationale of interacting social networks reduces this complexity in order for the information to make sense in its meaning-based reproduction. Originality/value - This paper argues that in order to deepen our understanding about the communication between companies and actors on the capital market we need to open up the issue of how complexity is dealt with. Based on the theoretical framework used in the study, information barriers become variables between the rationales of social networks.

Use of IC information in Japanese financial firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of: how Japanese financial firms (JFF) acquire and use company intellectual capital (IC) information in their common routine equity investment decisions, how this activity contributes to knowledge creation in the JFFs, and how investee company knowledge creation is affected by the JFFs.Design/methodology/approach – The research employed a multi‐case design, using four JFF cases. The investigation was performed in terms of Nonaka and Toyamas “theory of the knowledge creating firm”.Findings – IC information contributed to earnings estimates and company valuation. Emotional information contributed to JFF feelings and confidence in their information use and valuation. JFF knowledge was an important component of the key interacting and informed contexts used by JFFs. This generated opportunities to improve disclosure and accountability between JFFs and their investee companies. Common patterns of behaviour across the JFFs were counterbalanced b...

When capital market actors reduce the complexity of corporate personnel and work environment information

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how capital market actors deal with information on personnel and work environment.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a qualitative research approach involving interviews with 14 fund managers and two bankers in Stockholm. The empirical analysis is influenced by a combination of system and network theories where social networks are imposed on capital market actors, when they observe corporate information vis‐a‐vis personnel and work environment.Findings – Capital market actors are influenced by social forces when they reduce the complexity of information on corporate personnel and work environment. Four themes emerged in this study concerning emergent paradoxes which results from such a reduction. First, capital market actors seem to regard personnel in a variety of ways: sometimes as a resource, and sometimes as a risk or a non‐flexible cost problem. Second, they tend to reduce the complexity of information by depending on having the right manage...

Fund manager trust and information complexity

Purpose - – This study aims to explore fund manager use of trust to reduce information complexity concerning corporate intangible resources and sustainability and what consequences this have for corporates as providers of information. Analytically, fund managers are considered part of a system with social meaning. Design/methodology/approach - – A qualitative research approach is used. Data are obtained from two focus group discussions that occurred on two separate occasions. The first discussion was between four communications executives at leading Swedish companies. The second discussion was between four experienced fund managers in the Swedish financial market. Findings - – The results suggest that fund managers oscillate between exhibiting trust and distrust when reducing the complexity of information on intangible resources and sustainability. Fund managers tend to trust the stable context of company information and strive to trust top management. Communicative dilemmas emerge when fund managers oscillate between trust and distrust. The fund manager disinterest in details emerges because of a reliance on a stable information context and company management. The representation dilemma emerges when narratives are used in corporate reporting. Research limitations/implications - – This study contributes empirically to the knowledge concerning the social complexity of fund management. Practical implications - – The paper increases the understanding of communicative difficulties for corporates to communicate with actors on the financial markets through narratives on intangible resources and sustainability. Originality/value - – By focusing on the social meaning in the communication between companies and financial markets, we have contrasted the dominant view of financial economics of financial market actors as rational agents and the individualistic mode of theorizing in accordance with rational choice theory.