New insights into the nexus between board characteristics and intellectual capital disclosure: the case of the emerging economy of Mauritius

Purpose - We investigate the association between intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) and board characteristics in the unique setting of Mauritius, a Small Island Developing State. The uniqueness of the setting stems from the country's corporate governance landscape, where most companies have female directors and a high proportion of directors with multiple directorships, director independence is symbolic and directors come from a close-knit group. Design/methodology/approach - We use 120 firm-year observations from companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius from 2014 to 2017. All data is hand collected from annual reports using content analysis method. Panel multivariate regression is used to test the hypotheses with relevant controls, including intellectual capital performance. Findings - ICD is negatively associated with board independence and positively associated with gender diversity of the board. No association is found between ICD and the size of the board, multiple directorships or the average tenure of the board members. Originality/value - This is the first study investigating the association of board gender diversity, multiple directorship and tenure of board members with ICD in annual reports. The relationships observed between board characteristics and ICD highlight the context-dependent nature of these relationships. This study also overcomes the correlated omitted variable bias likely to have affected the analyses in previous studies examining the nexus between board characteristics and ICD through its control for intellectual capital performance.