Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore how social forces are imposed on fund managers when they do their jobs of observing company information, in particular intellectual capital (IC) information. Design/methodology/approach -The paper uses a qualitative research approach involving interviews with 14 fund managers in Stockholm. The empirical analysis and the theoretical discussion are influenced by a combination of system and network theories where social networks are built up by communication.Findings -Fund managers are influenced by the rationale of social networks when they reduce the complexity in company information. Three social forces emerged from the empirical data which influence fund managers when they deal with corporate information; the involvement of the organisational code, the market price and rationale, and the agenda surrounding a company. Furthermore, increased complexity of IC information does not seem to bother fund managers. The rationale of interacting social networks reduces this complexity in order for the information to make sense in its meaning-based reproduction. Originality/value -This paper argues that in order to deepen our understanding about the communication between companies and actors on the capital market we need to open up the issue of how complexity is dealt with. Based on the theoretical framework used in the study, information barriers become variables between the rationales of social networks.

Use of company intellectual capital information in some Japanese financial firms Structured abstract:Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of (1) how Japanese Financial Institutions (JFF) acquire and use company intellectual capital (IC) information in their common routine equity investment decisions, (2) how this activity contributes to knowledge creation in the JFFs, and (3) how investee company knowledge creation is affected by the JFF's.Design/methodogy/approach -The research employed a multi-case design, using four JFF cases. The JFFs and their IC use were discussed in terms of Nonaka and Toyama's 'theory of the knowledge creating firm ' (2005). The associated concepts of 'Ba', 'SECI' and 'Kata' were conceptually located within the internal and external order emerging in the cases and were used to analyze JFF knowledge creating behavior. Despite the limits to SECI or Kata processes noted in the cases, these concepts were valuable in analyzing the case data.Findings -Company IC information contributed to earnings estimates and company valuation. Emotional information about intangibles contributed to JFF feelings and confidence in their information use and valuation. JFF knowledge was an important component of the key interacting and informed contexts used by JFFs to make collective sense of these different but complementary types of information in knowledge creation. This generated opportunities to improve disclosure and accountability between JFFs and their investee companies. Common patterns of behaviour across the JFFs were counterbalanced by variety and differences noted in JFF behaviour.Practical implication -The findings provide important insights in how JFF knowledge creating patterns could limit or progress a common language of communication between companies and markets on the subject of IC. This could impact on the quality of corporate disclosure and accountability processes. The results will be used in the context of a further IC disclosure development in Japan.Originality -The paper demonstrates that there is a need for further use of qualitative studies of financial market behavior. Especially in the area of understanding the communication of IC between firms and financial market agents, the potential of using sociology of finance approaches appears to be considerable.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how capital market actors deal with information on personnel and work environment.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a qualitative research approach involving interviews with 14 fund managers and two bankers in Stockholm. The empirical analysis is influenced by a combination of system and network theories where social networks are imposed on capital market actors, when they observe corporate information vis‐à‐vis personnel and work environment.FindingsCapital market actors are influenced by social forces when they reduce the complexity of information on corporate personnel and work environment. Four themes emerged in this study concerning emergent paradoxes which results from such a reduction. First, capital market actors seem to regard personnel in a variety of ways: sometimes as a resource, and sometimes as a risk or a non‐flexible cost problem. Second, they tend to reduce the complexity of information by depending on having the right management in organisations. Third, capital market actors refer to work environment matters as things that involve ethics and can affect their own reputation. Finally, they were continuously looking for signs that their initial analyses could be wrong. To various extents, the themes support each other by solving the emergent paradoxes that, according to systems theory, inevitably result from the reduction of external complexity.Originality/valueThis paper argues that the ambivalence and disinterest shown by capital‐market actors concerning information on personnel and work environment could be better understood by referring to how social forces influence capital‐market actors when they reduce the complexity of such information.

PurposeThe purpose of the present paper is to discuss the Guideline for Intellectual Property Information Disclosure (GIPID) in relation to the ambitious aspirations behind the guideline and in that way develop a future research agenda aiming at addressing the main challenges regarding the construction of guidelines for future IC reporting.Design/methodology/approachThe purpose will be achieved by comparing the GIPID with two other IC guideline proposals, namely MERITUM and the Danish Guideline for Intellectual Capital Statements, respectively, from a capital market communication perspective and from a management control perspective. References are made to 12 Japanese companies that have published IP reports. The sample companies operate in a wide range of nine industries covering, for example, security, manufacturing, transportation, and chemistry, and comprise large as well as small firms.FindingsThe study identifies four major challenges for intellectual capital guidelines and reporting. These challenges regard market communication, management control, uniqueness versus comparability, and confidentiality versus accountability. The paper concludes with a number of questions of vital importance for future research within the research area.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers that discuss the Japanese Guideline for Intellectual Property Information Disclosure as well as to compare it with similar European guidelines.

Purpose – This study aims to explore fund manager use of trust to reduce information complexity concerning corporate intangible resources and sustainability and what consequences this have for corporates as providers of information. Analytically, fund managers are considered part of a system with social meaning. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research approach is used. Data are obtained from two focus group discussions that occurred on two separate occasions. The first discussion was between four communications executives at leading Swedish companies. The second discussion was between four experienced fund managers in the Swedish financial market. Findings – The results suggest that fund managers oscillate between exhibiting trust and distrust when reducing the complexity of information on intangible resources and sustainability. Fund managers tend to trust the stable context of company information and strive to trust top management. Communicative dilemmas emerge when fund managers oscillate between trust and distrust. The fund manager disinterest in details emerges because of a reliance on a stable information context and company management. The representation dilemma emerges when narratives are used in corporate reporting. Research limitations/implications – This study contributes empirically to the knowledge concerning the social complexity of fund management. Practical implications – The paper increases the understanding of communicative difficulties for corporates to communicate with actors on the financial markets through narratives on intangible resources and sustainability. Originality/value – By focusing on the social meaning in the communication between companies and financial markets, we have contrasted the dominant view of financial economics of financial market actors as rational agents and the individualistic mode of theorizing in accordance with rational choice theory.