160 Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2017
Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
The use of Facebook pages as voluntary disclosure
media: an analysis of intellectual capital disclosures
in ASX 200 companies
Yunita Anwar*
Griffith University,
Brisbane, Australia
and
Bina Nusantara University,
Jakarta, Indonesia
Email: yunita.anwar@griffithuni.edu.au
Email: yunita_anwar@binus.ac.id
*Corresponding author
Martin Surya Mulyadi
Bina Nusantara University,
Jakarta, Indonesia
Email: martin@binus.ac.id
Abstract: Researchers in the past have used annual reports to analyse
intellectual capital (IC) disclosures. In response to the recent concern on the
timeliness issue of annual reports, this research provides empirical evidence on
IC disclosures among top Australian companies, using their Facebook pages.
The similar focus of previous IC disclosures in the annual reports and the
previous core focus of social media indicates that social media is viable
alternative media for companies to disclose IC. Furthermore, Facebook has
been the most popular social media among Australians and Australian
businesses. This research is important in that it addresses IC disclosures from
the social media perspective, an area of research in non-marketing disclosure
study in social media which is under investigated. This research documents that
Facebook has been used by ASX 200 high IC companies to disclose their IC
information. Similar to previous research on IC disclosures research in annual
reports, this research reveals that external capital is the most disclosed category
on companies’ Facebook pages and customers are the most disclosed IC
sub-category. Further, this research also documents a two-way communication
process on the companies’ Facebook pages and shows that the companies have
responded and communicated well with their stakeholders.
Keywords: social media disclosures; Facebook non-marketing disclosures;
Facebook disclosures; intellectual capital; intellectual capital disclosures;
voluntary disclosures.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Anwar, Y. and
Mulyadi, M.S. (2017) ‘The use of Facebook pages as voluntary disclosure
media: an analysis of intellectual capital disclosures in ASX 200 companies’,
Int. J. Web-Based Communities, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp.160–171.