Application of association and decision rules on intellectual capital

Abstract

Intellectual capital (IC), leading to sustainable competitiveness shapes the patterns of business reality nowadays. IC disclosure has become a critical necessity in this new framework. Being a novel interdisciplinary study, the aim of this paper was to examine IC disclosure by Greek publicly traded firms implementing association and decision rules. Firms were divided into three classes (low, medium and high) according to their IC disclosure, measured by the content analysis methodology. The association rules of each class were specified, highlighting IC reporting profile and focus of the firms belonging to each class. Firms in the high class were shown to have strongly realised the crucial need for a reporting change. Teamwork, corporate culture and extra-firm potential appeared to be underlined. Applying the decision tree methodology, the paper succeeded in proving the remuneration–incentive system, R&D and business collaborations items as the IC reporting-related factors differentiating classes.

Keywords:

• intellectual capital
• knowledge management practice
• algorithms

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to gratefully thank the two anonymous referees and the editor for their helpful remarks.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eirini Manolopoulou

About the authors

Eirini Manolopoulou is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics, University of Patras and an adjunct professor in the Technological Institute of Patras. She holds a Master of Science in Finance from Warwick University, United Kingdom and a postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration from Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece. She also works in the private sector as an accountant. Her current research interests include intellectual capital, knowledge management and innovation.

Sotiris Kotsiantis

Sotiris Kotsiantis received a diploma in mathematics, a Master’s and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Patras, Greece. His research interests are in the field of data mining, machine learning and ontologies. He has many of publications to his credit in international journals and conferences. According to Google Scholar, his scores are: h-index=15 and g-index=31.

Dimitris Tzelepis

Dimitris Tzelepis is an Assistant Professor in Business Economics and Accountancy at the Department of Economics of the University of Patras, Greece. His research interests are focused in the fields of business analysis and financial accounting and reporting. He has numerous publications in international journals and conferences.