Recognition and Disclosure of Intangibles Under International Financial Reporting Standards
研究了2017-2022年英国上市公司在收购与非收购企业中无形资产确认与披露的差异，发现收购企业确认的无形资产占总资产32%，非收购企业仅9%，但非收购企业更多披露内部生成的无形资产，且披露对盈余和账面价值的价值相关性有不同影响。
Recently, the current International Financial Reporting Standard for intangibles has been subject to criticism, with concerns of lack of comparability between acquired and internally generated intangibles and limited disclosure of unrecognized intangibles. This study aims to inform the International Accounting Standards Board of the extent of these issues by focusing on trends in recognition and disclosure of intangible items in firms that engage in acquisitions (acquisitive) and those that do not (non‐acquisitive). Our sample is based on firms listed in the UK between 2017 and 2022. Disclosure is captured through a count of relevant key words in the financial statements and accompanying notes, distinguishing between contractual, non‐contractual, and broad intangible items. We find that recognized intangible assets are on average 32% of total assets in acquisitive firms but only 9% in non‐acquisitive firms. In contrast, disclosure of non‐contractual intangibles, which include internally generated intangibles, is higher in non‐acquisitive firms, implying that they may supplement non‐recognition with higher disclosure of intangible information. We further examine the value relevance of recognized and disclosed intangibles and find that disclosure reduces the value relevance of earnings in acquisitive firms, and increases the value relevance of book value more so in non‐acquisitive firms. Overall, our evidence points to diversity in recognition and disclosure in line with recent criticism of the intangible standard and supports the need for a revisit by standard‐setters.