In a self-reporting environment, each party involved provides the other with information relating to activity, such as sales volume data.

The study, entitled Contract Compliance in the High-Tech Industry, also found that the reason such SRR are not audited is fear of offending a business partner or customer.

Nearly 60 percent of the respondents agreed that, by not auditing partners' reports they risked encouraging grey market activity in products.Maurice Pagnozzio, KPMG contract compliance services Asia Pacific leader, said if companies can see the benefits in better control of intellectual property as well, the arguments for bringing SRRs under proper control begin to look overwhelming.

"Of the 155 respondents we surveyed, 72 percent indicated they were in a SRR, yet only six percent said they audit even half of their relationships," Pagnozzio said.

"Most often, the misreporting is not intended or malicious, it's simply because of poor compliance processes and controls or original contracts that are too vague and therefore easily misunderstood."