Background & problem: Different types of financial reporting such as accounting principles has existed through centuries. However, financial reporting has a perceived inadequacy when it comes to adding other types of information and there exist a misfit between the information given by companies and the information that is demanded. The limitation of the current reporting model by failing to reflect factor that are of importance may and will have an impact on the value of an organization.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate if <IR> has led to an increase of Intellectual capital (IC) disclosure. A scoreboard analysis will be used on annual reports from companies listed on the OMXS30 which is followed by a comparison between companies in the OMXS30 that are recognized to have implemented <IR> and companies that are not.

Method: An inductive research approach has been applied to this study. The reason has been that the area of the study was new and information available was limited and the study had to be open for changes during the process. Furthermore, the study has chosen a qualitative research method that includes some quantitative features.

Conclusion:  The study has presented both an increase of IC disclosure and an increase in users of <IR> during the ten year period that have been examined. However, the study has not been able to point out if <IR> can be seen as the sole factor that has contributed to the increase. Firstly, there is only a marginal difference between users and non-users of <IR> in regards to IC disclosure. Secondly, the authors of this thesis cannot distinguish if the increase is related to the creation of <IR> or if it’s related to the natural development of society together with other forms of guidelines for sustainability disclosure.