Intangibles Disclosure Information on Internet by Multinational Corporations

Rapid developments in information and communications technology, especiallywith regard to Internet, have caused a substantial impact on the delivery and dissemination ofbusiness information. Internet reporting is expected to bring significant benefits to reportingcompanies, including facilitating access to potential investors an other stakeholders,disseminating information more quickly, more widely and at less cost, providing a platform tointegrate different technologies and reducing the cost of providing hard copy annual reports.In this paper, we have examined the extent and the way companies use Internet to provideinformation about their intangibles. We have established for the Standard & Poor′s GLOBAL100 Index companies, different Internet intangibles disclosure indexes, and we have contrastedwhich variables explain the disclosure of this intangible information on Internet. Results showthat the region of origin, especially in the European companies, and the intensity of theintangible expenditures are the main factors that explain the differences in the extent of corporateintangible disclosure on Internet.