The Economic Importance Of Intangible Assets

This book is the result of a two-year interdisciplinary research programme named PRISM (Policy making, Reporting and measuring, Intangibles, Skills development and Management), financed by the European Commission and aimed both at understanding better how these assets are created and developed and what the policy implications of their growing importance in economies are. The book focuses on the policy issues raised by the increasing importance of intangible assets in a country's growth and competitiveness. The main idea is that the value of intangible assets, which is imperfectly captured by current economic indicators and imperfectly formalized in economic theory, lies in their being the cumulative elements that keep the economy together - the glue of the system. This argument leads to the focus on networks and social capital as drivers of the development of intangible assets and is illustrated by the case of EU innovation and knowledge diffusion policy.

Praise for Intangible Assets "In Intangible Assets, Jeffrey Cohen presents an informative, thought-provoking and practical look at an increasingly important component of every business's worth. He describes the art and science of identifying assets that have clear economic benefit, but are typically not found on the balance sheet, and he provides an invaluable framework within which the reader can value these assets, despite their elusive nature." --Rick Westervelt, President, Skylist, Inc. "Jeffrey Cohen's integrative approach to conceptual issues of intangible assets is creative and a refreshing contribution. He brings law, economics, finance, and accounting to the same table, which results in a comprehensive framework for understanding how value is created and sustained. His construct of 'proto-assets' and 'portfolio of intangible economic benefits' is key. Written in an easy-to-read style with many practical examples, this book will be useful for both novice and experienced professionals." --W. Dana Northcut, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor of Accounting Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago Principal, Chicago Partners, LLC "This volume is the perfect resource for newcomers to IP valuation. Through lucid explanations and well-chosen illustrations, it does for the reader exactly what a valuation expert should do for a client--it makes the abstract concrete. But this volume is not just for the novice; it holds insights that will be useful to IP experts in law, accounting, and economics." --Edward F. Malone, Partner, Jenner & Block LLP

Intangible assets-which include computer software, research and development (R&D), intellectual property, workforce training, and spending to raise the efficiency and brand identification of firms-comprise a subset of services, which, in turn, accounts for three-quarters of all economic activity. Increasingly, intangibles are a principal driver of the competitiveness of U.S.-based firms, economic growth, and opportunities for U.S. workers. Yet, despite these developments, many intangible assets are not reported by companies, and, in the national economic accounts, they are treated as expenses rather than investments. On June 23, 2008, a workshop was held to examine measurement of intangibles and their role in the U.S. and global economies. The workshop, summarized in the present volume, included discussions of a range of policy-relevant topics, including: what intangibles are and how they work; the variety and scale of emerging markets in intangibles; and what the government's role should be in supporting markets and promoting investment in intangibles.

Early in the twenty-first century, a quiet revolution occurred. For the first time, the major developed economies began to invest more in intangible assets, like design, branding, and software, than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers. For all sorts of businesses, the ability to deploy assets that one can neither see nor touch is increasingly the main source of long-term success. But this is not just a familiar story of the so-called new economy. Capitalism without Capital shows that the growing importance of intangible assets has also played a role in some of the larger economic changes of the past decade, including the growth in economic inequality and the stagnation of productivity. Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake explore the unusual economic characteristics of intangible investment and discuss how an economy rich in intangibles is fundamentally different from one based on tangibles. Capitalism without Capital concludes by outlining how managers, investors, and policymakers can exploit the characteristics of an intangible age to grow their businesses, portfolios, and economies.

Master's Thesis from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: B, University of Applied Sciences Berlin, 26 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The change in the economy in the 20th century is more towards an economy based on ideas, away from the matter based economy of earlier times. The emphasis has shifted from natural resources to thought, ideas, design and organization11 Services replaced the importance of manufacturing. Contractor 2001, names this overall change as a de-materialization of the economy and quantifies the significance of the change by pointing out that by the end of the twentieth century 79 percent of jobs and 76 percent of the GNP in the United States were in the service sector. This change wasn't visible only in the US. European and Emerging nations did also portray similar trends. In 1969 Tobin introduced a new ratio called Tobin's q Ratio12, which have been a great influence on the valuation/measure of intangible components of enterprises. Having a look at the example of Microsoft's ratio between its market value and its book value, which in 1999 25 to 1 was, reveals the fact that most of the value is in the form of knowledge capital, in its employees, organization, patents, copyrights, brand value, etc. This ratio is bound to increase as the importance of intangible assets rises over the course of years. Though this increase is certain and expected, the valuation of these assets is still not clarified nor agreed upon. The value of the intangible assets is of importance to different audiences such as academicians, scholars, accountants, consultants, etc. and they haven't been able to come up with one single approach to solving the problem. This thesis will focus on a particular subset of intangible assets, namely patents, and demonstrate how to value them.

This book examines the role of intangible assets (IA) in companies and countries for achieving sustainable economic growth. The authors particularly focus on Sweden and other Nordic countries to analyse the IA gap using a systematized “IA metrics” approach. They also discuss the incentives needed for strategic investments into useful IA to gain national competitiveness from an economic, social and environmental policy perspective. The authors contend that despite the increasing importance of IA and intellectual capital (IC) in the economy, the current discussion has only been centered on intellectual property, which is one of the more prominent forms of intangibles. As this book demonstrates, IC and IA encompass wider dimensions of human, process, market, and renewal capital, among others. Featuring real case examples from Spotify, Minecraft and Izettle, this book offers a strategy for the resurrection of competitive advantage in the globalized economy and the advancement of some key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Safeguarding Intangible Assets provides strategies for preserving and enhancing a company’s intangible assets to increase its profitability, competitiveness, and sustainability. Intangible assets such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, methodologies, and brand typically account for 80 percent of an organization’s value and revenue. There are many forces making it more and more difficult to protect these assets, and securing them is a complex issue often overlooked by security and risk managers. Many security managers do not have adequate policies or procedures in place to protect these assets from compromise, infringement, and theft. Safeguarding Intangible Assets provides managers with the tools necessary for protecting these assets through effective and consistent oversight designed to preserve their control, use, and ownership. The book offers strategies for various types of business transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate-university R&D alliances, new product launches, early stage firms, and university-based spin-offs. Offers step-by-step guidelines and best practices for establishing and maintaining an intangible asset protection program Provides intangible asset risk management strategies that preserve the company’s value, revenue, and competitive advantages Shows how to collaboratively build a company culture that anticipates and recognizes intangible asset risks in everyday transactions and operations Strengthens the interface with other departments’ security practices, including IT, management, legal, accounting, finance, and risk management