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The intangible assets of a company have been presented by national and international surveys as a resource to influence the creation of value and the increase in organizational performance. In view of this, this study aims to analyze the relationship between intangibility and the performance of companies in Latin America.

For this purpose, multiple regression with panel data was used and three perspectives for measuring intangible resources were defined: representativeness of the intangible asset, accounting measure for measuring the intangible, degree of intangibility and Tobin’ Q, the latter two representing economic and financial measures to determine intangibility. The study covered the period from 2011 to 2017 with a sample of 1,236 publicly traded companies located in some Latin American countries, namely, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

The results demonstrated the existence of a significant and positive relationship between the variables of intangibility, degree of intangibility and Tobin’s Q, and the performance variables, return on assets, operating margin and asset turnover, reinforcing the study hypothesis that the greater the investment in intangible resource, the greater the company’s performance.

The limitations of this study involve the lack of complete information about intangible resources in the financial statements of some companies and some countries, making it hard to analyze the proposed relationship more broadly and accurately. Another limitation involves the causal relationship that may have existed between the regressors of the models defined in the study and their error, thus generating an endogeneity problem in the proposed models. It is recommended for future research to use specific methods to mitigate possible problems of endogeneity in regressions.

Mainly the possibility of deepening the relationship between intangibility and business performance, thus obtaining new knowledge through the reflexes of this relationship on companies in Latin American countries, finding more consistent results.

The study contributes to the decision-making process in the business world by informing the primary users of accounting information such as investors, administrators, accountants, regulators and creditors.

This research contributes by addressing a theme whose studies present many gaps, making it possible to deepen the relationship between intangibility and business performance and gain new knowledge through the reflexes of this relationship on companies in Latin American countries.

The competitive model has changed. In this context, society entered into an era in which intangible assets are the greatest assets of a company. However, some gaps and uncertainties are presented in the literature as to understand the value of a company based on knowledge intensive activities. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the methods of evaluation of intangible assets in the context of business, economic and strategic management.

This is a qualitative research. This research is characterized as descriptive, bibliographic, inductive.

The main results of this research can highlight the existence of valuation methods of intangible assets intended for specific industries, as public and/or private, that can be better aligned to the context of business; economic and/or strategic management.

It was found that intangible assets are a current topic and increasingly addressed in the literature.

A “Swedish Community of Practice” emerged during the mid 1980s in Sweden. The “community” today follows two tracks; one is Human Resource Costing & Accounting (HRCA) and the other is a nonfinancial measurement system for intangible assets based on a theory originally brought forward by a work group consisting of members from several Swedish knowledge companies, the so called “Konrad Group.” This article describes the development of the latter track. Inspired by McLuhan, it is suggested that individuals in organizations create external and internal structures to express themselves. Indicators can be created that monitor External Structure (Customers and Suppliers), Internal Structure (Organization) and People's Competence. The indicators can be incorporated into a management information system. Indicators that monitor renewal, efficiency and stability are preferred. A matrix framework, called “The Intangible Assets Monitor,” is suggested for presenting the indicators. A number of generic indicators are defined under each heading and suggestions for interpretation and examples of how Swedish companies use the indictors are cited.

Intangible assets are seen as critical drivers of future performance for most organizations. For this reason many managers endeavor to better measure and manage those intangible value drivers. This article explores the challenges of measuring and managing intangibles.

Guided by practical experiences, case examples, and theory, this article systematically outlines how to tackle the problems we face when measuring aspects of organizations that are inherently difficult to measure.

There are different reasons for measuring and managing intangibles in organizations. Some require objectivity (accounting, external reporting), whereas others focus on the informative value (internal reporting, strategic decision making). It is difficult, if not impossible, to derive meaningful and objective measures for intangible assets.

Instead of trying to quantify the unquantifiable for accounting and objective external reporting purposes, managers should design indicators that can be used to assess performance of intangible elements in order to guide management decision‐making and strategic learning.

This article, based the book Strategic Performance Management, outlines why striving for objectivity can yield meaningless performance indicators and dysfunctional behavior. The real value is derived from indicators that assist our day‐to‐day decision‐making and organizational learning.

Following the mandatory IFRS adoption in 2005, the Continental European accounting systems changed. This study investigates if it influenced the value relevance of intangible assets in Italy.

To measure the value relevance of intangible assets of non-financial firms listed on Borsa Italiana from 2000 to 2015, this study isolates the impact of several classes of intangible assets on stock prices and then classifies firms according to intangible asset intensity.

Goodwill, intellectual property and other rights, start-up costs or other intangible assets are significantly correlated with stock prices when Italian accounting standards were applied prior to 2005, whereas research and development expenditures are not associated with stock prices. The mandatory IFRS adoption has exerted positive effects only for goodwill and research and development expenditures, and it is negative for start-up costs. Further, when intangible-intensive firms are considered in the post-IFRS adoption period, declining value relevance exists relative to intellectual property and other rights or research and development expenditures; goodwill and other intangible assets increase in value relevance.

This study is subject to country-specific determinants and firm-specific characteristics. It treats accounting standards as exogenous, and the classification reflects the concentration of intangible assets in an industry. By relying on investors’ assessments of risk, it does not sufficiently explore the risk conveyed by future abnormal earnings and earnings volatility.

This study offers insights for measuring and reporting intangible assets, by specifying that their value relevance depends on their level and aggregation.

This study investigates the value relevance of intangible assets in the post-IFRS period, in reference to intangible-intensive firms. It also divides intangible assets into several classes to specify the value relevance of goodwill.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevance of asset composition of a firm (tangible versus intangible properties), when evaluating its financial health. The paper argues that relevance of any asset is a function of how effectively it is used.

The paper uses two distinctive samples: a sample of traditional firms holding primarily traditional physical assets and a sample of technology service firms holding primarily intangible assets and examines the ability of intangible assets to surrogate as financial health signals.

The results show that when evaluating firms with significant intangible assets, using information about intangible assets to improve financial health evaluation. However, fundamental financial variables continue to be important in signaling financial health, regardless of asset composition.

The results highlight the importance of both objectively‐measured and reported fundamental financial information and subjectively measured intangible asset values. The results would help managers and markets in using greater caution when evaluating firms with intangible assets.

Unlike prior studies, this paper uses both fundamental financial variables and surrogates for intangible asset values in the model. The paper contributes by highlight the importance and limitations of intangible asset values.

This study seeks to provide a broad ranging review that identifies, summarises and integrates the different multi-level approaches contributing to advances in research on measuring IC. This furthermore sets out and highlights an agenda for future research.

Deploying a systematic and thorough review of the literature, the authors were able to identify 60 articles and identify the main theories applied and the respective methodological orientations of these articles across three levels of analysis: micro, meso and macro.

The study's findings suggest that the literature on measuring IC has approached the theme across three different levels –micro, meso and macro. In addition, the results enable the identification of seven dimensions to IC: competitive advantage, economic value generated, resources and capacities, corporate governance, IC components, innovation management and the dissemination of IC.

The mixed-methods approach, which combines a traditional systematic literature review with ontological thematic analysis, casts light on the core aspects that led to the identification of a new approach in the academic literature on measuring IC.

This study puts forward a holistic model with measurements for IC across the three levels of analysis as well as the respective criteria for choosing the variables.

This study represents a first attempt to analyse the emerging literature on IC measurement through a multi-level approach; integrating and extracting the potential theoretical contributions in this field of knowledge; proposing an integrated model as well as a theoretically relevant and innovative research agenda that opens up paths to future research projects.

This paper discusses the identification and measurement of intangible assets in the public sector. A discussion of intellectual capital theory identifies and classifies a number of intangible assets of relevance to the public sector. Multidimensional scaling and related multivariate techniques are proposed for their detection and quantification. The methodology is illustrated with a case study: the provision of council services through the Internet by Spanish municipalities. The technique identifies three intangible assets related to external structural capital: service, image and transparency. Five strategic groups reveal the different objectives, strategic use of the Internet, and actions taken by the various Spanish councils.

Today’s measurement systems fail to adequately account for intellectual capital (IC) in a transparent yet comprehensive manner. In spite of many recent attempts to qualify and sometimes quantify intangibles, there exists as yet not one standardized system that is sufficiently developed and globally accepted. The aim of the present paper is to contribute towards the creation of such a system. The financial method of intangible assets measurement (FiMIAM) presented in this paper aims to overcome some of the weaknesses of recent methods of IC valuation, and contribute to the creation of complete balance‐sheets, reflecting both the tangible and intangible assets of a company.

The purpose of this paper is to value the patents of pharmaceutical companies using discounted cash flows, and compare the value-relevance of these assets against alternative intangible asset measures such as reported intangible assets and R & D capital.

The study values pharmaceutical intangibles using three methods: an income method; the sum of unamortised R & D expenditures; the firm’s reported intangible assets. Value-relevance tests use ordinary least squares regression and Vuong and Clarke tests.

First, the study finds that the discounted cash-flow valuation of pharmaceutical patents is value-relevant. Second, the value of pharmaceutical patents explains market value better than reported intangible assets but not R & D capital. However, the valuation of pharmaceutical patents is more consistent with the risks of R & D than the valuation of R & D capital which assumes recovery of R & D expenditure.

This is the first known study that values patents using an income method and compares those valuations with reported intangible assets and R & D capital valuation models.