The impact of corporate governance on intellectual capitals efficiency in Iran Mahmoud Lari Dashtbayaz Department of Accounting, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Mahdi Salehi Department of Accounting, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Alieyh Mirzaei Department of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran, and Hamideh Nazaridavaji Department of Accounting, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of corporate governance on intellectual capital (IC) in companies listed on the Tehran stock exchange. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the board features (size, independence and CEO duality) and the characteristics of the audit committee (financial expertise, independence and size) are considered to measure the factors of corporate governance. The IC is also divided into communicative, human, structural and value-added IC. Research data are gathered using a sample of 132 companies during 2013-2016. Research hypotheses are analyzed using panel data and logistic regression models. Findings – The findings indicate that while the board’s independence, financial expertise and the size of the audit committee are negatively related to the communicative capital, the relationship between audit committee independence and communicative capital is positive and significant. Further, the authors observe that there is a positive relationship between board independence and human capital, a negative and significant link between audit committee size and human capital. By the way, the results revealthat audit committee independence and audit committee size have, respectively positive and negative impact on structural capital. Originality/value – The results of the current study may give more insight into the relationship between corporate governance and managerial capital in developing nations. Keywords Corporate governance, Audit committee, Audit committee characteristics, Managerial capital Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction The emergence of the modern economy is attributed to increasing managerial capitals as one of the effective resources of sustainable competitive advantage of companies. In the information era, organizations count the intellectual capital (IC) as a wealth generator and consider IC as a valuable source of information representing organizational capabilities. The IC allows the organization to be aware of the overall status of its subsections and to benefit from its intangible assets more appropriately. This type of capital can be exploited for the establishment, preparation and development of staff or human capital expertise. Moreover, Impact of corporate governance Received 4 November 2017 Revised 28 July 2019 7 April 2020 Accepted 12 May 2020 International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management © Emerald Publishing Limited 1753-8394 DOI 10.1108/IMEFM-11-2017-0291 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1753-8394.htm