Sigrid Vandemaele

Intellectual capital disclosure in The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK

Purpose – Intellectual capital (IC) disclosure is investigated over three years covering the IT bubble and its aftermath in three different countries (The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK).Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis is applied to the annual reports of the sample companies; 180 annual reports from The Netherlands, Sweden and UK are analysed in order to make an inter‐country comparison. Three measurement years (1998, 2000 and 2002) were chosen in order to analyse the trend in disclosure over the years.Findings – The study reveals that the Swedish sample companies disclose more, on average, about IC than Dutch and UK ones. In general, there is an upward trend in the average amount of IC disclosure over the observation period, although this trend is slightly reversed in Sweden over the period 2000‐2002. This could be an indication of convergence in disclosure practices (the average amount of IC disclosure) in the countries under scrutiny.Originality/value – The paper shows convergence in IC ...

The Distinctiveness of Family Firm Intangibles: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research

We review the theoretical and empirical literature on the resource-based view in the context of family businesses using a framework of intangible resources. This approach allows us to structure the present research on value-adding resources in family firms into four clearly distinct groups – organizational culture, reputation, human capital and networks – and provides us with the opportunity to examine the interactions of these intangible resources.We use these relationships to offer a future research agenda that is focused on the creation of competitive advantage through the combination and recombination of these resources.

Choice of Selling Mechanism at the IPO: the Case of the French Second Market

This study examines the choice of flotation mechanism within the framework of the French Second Market. Between 1983 and 1996, a firm that opted for a quotation on the Second Market, had the choice between lir an auction-like procedure lthere were two variantsr and liir a fixed-price introduction procedure. Several interesting results are presented. First, the choice for an auction-like procedure appears to be positively related to firm valuation uncertainty at the IPO. Second, the likelihood of opting for an auction-like procedure decreases as the reputation of the investment bank guiding the flotation increases. Third, the likelihood of opting for an auction is increasing in the number of secondary shares sold by venture capitalists and investment banks. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2003.

Nonfinancial Goals, Governance, and Dividend Payout in Private Family Firms

This paper uses insights from behavioral economics to explain dividend policy in private family firms. Based on a sample of 501 elgian firms, our results indicate that dividend payout is low when a family chief executive officer () leads the business and in the presence of a family‐dominated board. The tendency of a family or family‐dominated board to retain earnings appears to be stronger in earlier generational stages compared with later generational stages. The findings are consistent with (1) socioemotional objectives being important drivers of funding decisions in private firms where families possess important decision and control power and (2) these objectives being more predominant in early generational stages.