Over the past few decades, intellectual capital (IC) has become a key source of wealth creation and sustainable competitive advantage for companies (Chahal and Bakshi, 2016). For example, Guthrie et al. (2006) argue that IC represents a significant proportion of total company value. The importance of IC resources in value creation has consistently increased due to the shift from industrial-based economies to knowledge-based economies (Orens et al., 2009). This trend has increased interest in IC and stimulated demand for disclosure and measurement (Liao et al., 2013). However, the problem of identifying and measuring IC means that traditional financial reporting often fails to include its value (Guthrie et al., 2006; Branco et al., 2010). The increased importance of IC information to the economy has led international accounting regulatory bodies to call for companies to voluntarily disclose such information in their corporate reporting (Oliveira et al., 2006). For example, in 2010 the International Accounting Standards Board issued a non-binding framework including IC reporting for the presentation of narrative reporting as a supplement and complement to traditional financial statements (IASB, 2010). Although many companies have already complied with the request, in order to improve transparency between management and stakeholders (Yi and Davey, 2010), complete disclosure remains nascent (Kamath, 2008). The importance of IC information has become the subject of a growing body of literature in the past 15 years (Whiting and Woodcock, 2011). While still very much in its infancy, the related study of intellectual capital reporting (ICR) is beginning to emerge as an independent discipline (Singh and Van der Zahn, 2007) and numerous empirical studies have been carried into ICR practices worldwide (e.g. Guthrie and Petty, 2000; Bozzolan et al., 2003; Abeysekera and Guthrie, 2005; Guthrie et al., 2006; Oliveira et al., 2006; Brüggen et al., 2009; Branco et al., 2010; Oliveira et al., 2013; Li and Mangena, 2014; Chahal and Bakshi, 2016). Although the ICR literature provides significant insights, studies tend to focus on its extent and report on differences between companies and countries. For example, Abeysekera (2007) documents differences in ICR practice between developing and developed countries, noting that economic, political, and social issues can drive these differences. Li and Mangena (2014) argue that ICR is a complex process that is affected by a broad set of factors. Many researchers focus on the drivers of variation in ICR levels and several recent studies have taken an empirical approach. The drivers that have been identified to date include company characteristics such as size, profitability, auditor type, industrial sector, growth, financial performance, and age (see, e.g. White et al., 2007; Brüggen et al., 2009; Branco et al., 2010; Whiting and Woodcock, 2011; Ousama et al., 2012; Alcaniz et al., 2015; Too and Yusoff, 2015).