Accounting For Intangibles - An Exploration

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In recent years, one of the most important emerging features of economic systems and organizations is the role of intangibles in wealth creation, which are for this reason often comprehensively referred to as Intellectual Capital. Even though intangibles have always been important for running economic activity, they are nowadays at the centre of an increasing interest by the scientific community and the practice world. The attention devoted to this subject area is becoming very substantial when considering the large number of articles and books published in the last decade or so, as well as the major events and projects promoted by numerous national and international institutions (European Commission; OECD; United Nations; various country governments such as Denmark, Japan, Germany; Brookings Institution, and so on).

The underlying reason is that intangibles are strongly considered as today's major value drivers of firms, industries and regions, and therefore to measure, analyze and manage them is a crucial effort in the direction of comprehending and improving value creation with reference to the different economic levels and sectors. However, despite their widely accepted relevance, intangibles still appear to be poorly understood and not sufficiently investigated and analyzed both by academics and practitioners. What seems to be increasingly recognized is indeed the necessity for adopting fresh approaches to the measurement and management of intangibles. Although some steps have been made towards a better visualization of these resources, a clear knowledge gap continues to exist in this field, calling for new models, tools and methodologies significant to the realms of theory and practice, in the field of accounting, finance, and financial reporting.

Meanwhile, recent events and phenomena have further increased the importance of intangibles to managers, infomediaries and investors.

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