Social information within the intellectual capital report

The objective of our work is to propose the integration of two complementary statements on financial information: the social report and the intellectual capital report. Both are statements of great importance in the current business context. The motive behind our proposal is that, in reviewing the current situation, we observed an overlap in the contents and goals of the two reports. For instance, information of a social nature is dealt with in the different blocks of analysis of intangibles in the intellectual capital report. Furthermore, these disclosures share the direct or indirect goal of improving the company's corporate image, which also reflects the links between the two types of reports. Hence, given the observed similarities and the greater flexibility and scope of the intellectual capital report, we propose incorporating the social report into the intellectual capital report. The benefits of this will be twofold: a reduction in the direct costs of preparing the report, and a simplification of the non-financial information for the different stakeholders. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Inc.