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The purpose of this paper is to give an indication of the quantity of intellectual capital information in Japanese initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses from all stock exchange listings on the Japan Stock Exchange from 2003.

The paper applied a disclosure index consisting of 78 items to quantify the amount of information regarding intellectual capital included in the IPO prospectuses of Japanese companies. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test, controlling for technological type of the company (high‐tech/low‐tech), and whether the extent of managerial ownership prior to the IPO, company age and company size influenced disclosure.

From the analyses conclusions are derived for four hypotheses. The hypotheses “industry differences” (H1), “managerial ownership” (H2) and “company size” (H3) were found not to be significant factors explaining voluntary disclosure of information. The fourth factor, “company age” (H4), did, however, have a significant influence on the extent of disclosure for Japanese companies. Further testing of the Japanese companies regarding age showed a continuing trend.

Although Japan has been strongly associated with the concept of the knowledge society, Japanese studies regarding intellectual capital have been very scarce. No studies, to the best of one's knowledge, have examined the specific disclosure of intellectual capital information included in Japanese IPO prospectuses.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the voluntary reporting of intellectual capital (IC) by the top 20 software and technology sector companies in a developing nation, India, and a developed nation, Australia. The paper aims to highlight the differences in IC disclosure practices of the companies operating in two different economies.

The study investigates the top 20 firms by market capitalisation listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange in India and the Australian Stock Exchange in Australia in the year 2007‐2008. Using the content analysis method, the paper reviews the annual reports of these firms to determine IC disclosure trends in India and Australia. Statistical tools and graphs have been used to compare and contrast ICD disclosures in two countries.

The study has identified IC disclosure differences between Indian and Australian firms, and reports disclosures by Indian companies are on a higher scale than Australian Software and Technology Sector companies. However, Levels of voluntary IC disclosure are found to be low in both the nations and most of the disclosures are declarative in nature.

This lack of consistency in reporting practices makes comparisons across countries difficult. The paper emphasises the need for a uniform and consistent framework for the reporting of intellectual capital items.

The results of this exploratory study on the knowledge based industrial sector can be used by researchers to explore different types of IC reporting initiatives pursued across specifically knowledge based industrial sectors.

This study offers insights into comparative trends in IC disclosure practices of software and technology sector companies operating in a developed and a developing country.