The Extent of Using Intellectual Capital Criteria at Jordanian Public Shareholding Companies - A Field Study from the Jordanian Shareholding Companies’ Point of View

Intellectual capital or knowledge has become a lifeline for all business organizations and companies. It plays a key role in the survival and the continuation of these organizations. Companies need to report their competitive position in the business environment, but organizations and companies find it difficult to measure for intellectual capital, as well as to define intellectual capital and the accounting methods to measure and display it in financial statements. The process of measuring intellectual capital and disclosure represents a major challenge for accountants. There is an urgent need to find measured accounting standards and develop the ones existing for some elements of this capital as the decision makers at the present time are in dire need of information on the elements of intellectual capital and the cost of these items and returns achieved by each element. Therefore, this research tried to review the theories regarding the concept of intellectual capital and accounting mechanisms that could be adopted to measure and present it. In addition to this, a special questionnaire for major companies in Jordan was prepared to find out their views about the importance and efficacy of this important resource. One of the most important research recommendations is the need for accountants to be aware and understand the nature and importance of intellectual capital in creating competitive value for shareholding companies in all their types and the need to develop models for the measurement of intellectual capital in companies that combine the indicators of financial and non-financial indicators.