Intangible Assets

In today's ultra-competitive global economy, intangibles are increasingly taking centre stage in firms' business strategies and investors' valuations. Physical and financial assets are becoming commodities, yielding at best a competitive return on investment. In their place, intangible assets such as patents, brands, unique business processes, breakthrough scientific discoveries, and strategic alliances are what firms are using to create dominant market positions, control risk, generate abnormal profits, and achieve growth and wealth. The dramatic rise and fall of high-technology company valuations over the past five years has brought the unusual economic characteristics of intangible assets into the public arena. The concurrent advantages and vulnerabilities of intangible-intensive companies has highlighted the importance of having an in-depth understanding of the economics of intangibles and developing tools to better manage and evaluate them. This Reader provides that understanding by bringing together the best research and advocacy on intangibles. The chapters provide a comprehensive tableau of both rigorous perspectives and empirical evidence about intangible assets by scholars and policy makers in accounting, economics, finance, and information technology. As such, the Reader both informs and sets a solid foundation for the next generation of challenging questions that need to be addressed. The Reader has four sections: Section I explains why intangibles have become so important in the modern economy. Section II investigates the impact of specific kinds of intangibles on firm performance and equity market values. Section III documents the severe adverse effects of the informational deficiencies that are created by the accounting and financial reporting rules that govern intangibles. Finally, the chapters in Section IV call for improved disclosure and measurement of intangibles in financial statements, and make concrete suggestions for what such solutions should look like.

John R. M. Hand is Professor and Chairman of the Accounting Faculty at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill. His research centres on the business economics, financial statement analysis, and equity valuation of companies, particularly those in the high-technology sector. He has published in numerous accounting and finance journals, and is a two-time winner of the American Accounting Association's competitive manuscript competition. Baruch Lev is the Philip Bardes Professor of Accounting and Finance with the Stern School of Business at New York University; Director of the Vincent C. Ross Center for Research; and a consultant to numerous corporations and investors. He is the award-winning author of several books and various research studies published in leading accounting, finance, and economic journals.