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Introduction
The economic system has changed and become more based on intangible resources. Beyond tangible and visible physical capital, intelligence, skills and knowledge are becoming increasingly exponential (Marr, 2008). It is the advent of the post-industrial era that is increasingly based on the intangible but less and less on physical and financial elements. It is an economy that has no physical foundation but which relies heavily on intellectual capacities to put them at the center of value creation (Holland, 2003).
In Tunisia, a development strategy based on the intangible economy has been pursued since the tenth plan (2002-2006) (Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies (TICQS), 2012). An upgrading program has also been adopted since 1995 in order to support the competitive capacity of Tunisian companies as well as to stimulate industrial partnership, and to strengthen the socio-economic environment of the company. In this respect, the competitiveness survey carried out in February 2010 by the Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies (TICQS), on a sample of adherents and non-adherents companies to the upgrading program, showed that this program has indeed favored the appropriation process of knowledge by Tunisian companies. The best performing upgraded companies are those that have pursued a strategy focused on product diversification, R&D, innovation, training, certification and ICT (Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies, 2010). Moreover, in its knowledge economy annual report of 2012, the TICQS stated that Tunisia is making progress, albeit at a moderate pace, toward the knowledge-based economy (TICQS, 2012).
Despite the Tunisia’s progress toward knowledge economy and the great efforts to promote and support intangible investments, such as upgrading programs, very few studies have explored the intellectual capital (IC) information perception. No study has examined the perceptions of IC disclosure from a preparers’ and users’ perspective in Tunisia. Research in this area has particularly focused on the perception of managers (e.g. Boujelbene and Affes, 2013) or that of financial analysts and portfolios managers (e.g. Ferchichi, 2011; Ferchichi and Paturel, 2016).
In order to fill these gaps in the literature, it is interesting, in the light of the intangible investment increase in Tunisia and the lack of academic studies in this field, to explore preparers’ and users’ perception of the IC information usefulness.
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