Intangible assets: Measurement, drivers, and usefulness

This chapter develops an economic approach to estimating the value of intangible assets that are not recorded on the firm's balance sheet. The authors demonstrate that their approach provides economically meaningful and useful estimates for the value of intangible assets. Their results indicate that investments in R&D, advertising, brands, and information technology are important drivers of intangible capital, and in turn corporate value. Their approach is shown to be useful to investors seeking information on future performance of intangible-intensive firms. They document evidence that the intangibles-based measures can effectively distinguish between overvalued and undervalued stocks. They believe the intangibles measures described here can add an essential, and hitherto missing, valuation tool for managers and investors concerned with intangible assets.