Sayel Ramadhan, Sabreen Mehar Auragzeb
The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between firm-specific characteristics and the extent of Intellectual Capital Disclosure (ICD) in the annual reports of listed companies in Bahrain Bourse for the year 2020 (a total of 45 companies). Content analysis of the companies' annual reports supported by word count was used to collect the data and a disclosure index consisting of forty five items was developed to assess the level of (ICD). Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression were used to analyze the data. The results of the three measures of intellectual capital disclosure show that almost all companies disclose some intellectual capital items but the overall presence of (ICD) index is low. Total (ICD) index is 38.27% with 30.2% for human capital; 45.9% for relational capital and 38.7% for structural capital. This was expected because the study uses a mix of industry type. There were no significant relationships between firm characteristics namely, company size, profitability, leverage, industry type, and age and the level of intellectual capital disclosure. There is a significant relationship between the level of ICD and the size of audit firm. The study recommends that accounting regulatory bodies should develop mandatory guidelines on ICD to ensure proper and consistent disclosure of intellectual capital.