DISCLOSURE OF SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL: A STUDY BASED ON THE ANNUAL REPORTS AND WEBSITES OF COMPANIES LISTED ON THE BOVESPA 'IN GOOD COMPANY' PROGRAM

Abstract

This paper presents the results about voluntary disclosure of social and environmental Intellectual Capital (IC) in the 2006 Annual Reports and Sustainability Reports (henceforth, Annual Reports – ARs), and on the websites of the 39 companies that are listed on the "In Good Company" program of the São Paulo Stock Market (BOVESPA). The purpose of this study is to identify how the disclosure of both types of IC is performed and what elements are most frequently disclosed by the companies assessed. To perform the analysis, two matrices containing IC elements were designed – one for social IC, and another for environmental IC. This is a descriptive study, based on data from a secondary source, employing content analysis. The results indicate that environmental elements tended to be disclosed more frequently than social elements. Among the environmental IC elements, the most recurrent category was Internal Structure, both in the reports and on the websites. The same category is the most frequent in the social analysis of the reports; conversely, External Structure was the social IC category with the highest percentages of disclosure on the websites.