Purpose

Human capital (HC) represents a particularly important element capable of guiding the firms’ value creation process in the new economy. The purpose of this study is to analyze the level of HC information contained within integrated reports and to identify the variables that influence the HC disclosure policies of companies.

Design/methodology/approach

Research hypotheses, developed on the basis of agency theory, were tested using a regression model on a sample of 137 worldwide companies. A HC disclosure index was designed to examine the level of HC disclosure and a content analysis was used to investigate the integrated reports.

Findings

Results showed a positive and significant impact of firm size, board size, board independence and board diversity on the level of HC information disclosed by companies within their integrated reports. On the contrary, they demonstrated a not significant effect of firm profitability.

Practical implications

Results have important implications for corporate executives, high-level corporate governance, policymakers and investors. They point out additional further motivations for creating larger boards and including non-executive members and women on the board. In addition, investors could use the HC disclosure index to evaluate companies’ HC disclosure policies in their investment decisions.

Originality/value

This study extends the agency theory application scope and extends the analysis of HC disclosure to other corporate documents, namely, integrated reports. Besides, it increases knowledge about the factors capable of influencing HC disclosure, identifying a series of elements capable of directly affecting the level of information that companies disclose.

中文翻译：

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综合报告视角下影响人力资本披露的因素

目的

人力资本（HC）是一个特别重要的要素，能够指导新经济中企业的价值创造过程。这项研究的目的是分析综合报告中包含的HC信息水平，并确定影响公司HC披露政策的变量。

设计/方法/方法

使用代理模型对基于代理理论的研究假设进行了研究，对全球137家公司的样本进行了检验。设计了HC披露指数以检查HC披露的水平，并使用内容分析来调查综合报告。

发现

结果显示，公司规模，董事会规模，董事会独立性和董事会多元化对公司在其综合报告中披露的HC信息水平具有积极而显着的影响。相反，它们显示出公司盈利能力的影响并不显着。

实际影响

结果对公司高管，高层公司治理，政策制定者和投资者具有重要意义。他们指出了创建更大董事会并包括董事会非执行成员和女性的其他进一步动机。此外，投资者可以使用HC披露指数来评估公司在其投资决策中的HC披露政策。

创意/价值

本研究扩展了代理理论的应用范围，并将对HC披露的分析扩展到其他公司文件，即综合报告。此外，它还增加了有关影响HC披露的因素的知识，确定了一系列直接影响公司披露信息水平的要素。