Does board gender diversity affect intellectual capital voluntary disclosure? Evidence from Tunisia

The purpose of this paper is to investigate both extent and trend of intellectual capital (IC) information disclosed in annual reports and to examine the impact of board gender diversity (BGD) on IC voluntary disclosure in Tunisia. The statistical analysis is conducted on a sample of 54 Tunisian non-financial listed companies observed over the 2008–2019 period. Both weighted and unweighted disclosure indices, composed of 76 IC items, are constructed to measure IC voluntary disclosure extent in Tunisian companies’ annual reports. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regressions are performed to analyze data. In fact, eight multiple regression models on panel data are developed to examine the impact of BGD on IC voluntary disclosure. The results show that BGD affects significantly IC voluntary disclosure extent, in line with resource dependence theory. BGD is viewed as a complementary corporate governance mechanism that has a significant positive effect on IC voluntary disclosure. These empirical findings have several implications for investors, managers, regulatory bodies and any other interested group as they report the matter of BGD on IC voluntary disclosure. By contributing to IC and BGD literature and adopting both unweighted and weighted IC index based on stakeholders’ perception, this paper can be regarded, to the best of the author’s knowledge, as the first empirical study that provides empirical evidence on the association between BGD and IC disclosure in Tunisia, as an example of a developing economy.