The
Commissariat Général au Plan (national
planning body)
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In France, the concepts of knowledge and intangible economy have gradually gained a great importance. However, there is no "Intangible Assets Agenda" as such, although France has had a great influence towards OECD in the 1980's to launch an institutional reflection an measurement and valuation of Intangible assets.
Thus, there is no "specific policy" concerning intangible but more individualised actions and an interest for innovation, knowledge and human capital within all the components of policies. For example, the recent law on Innovation in 1999 or the "Tableaux de bord de l'Innovation" in 1999 put the emphasis on new ways of evaluating competitiveness and sectoral measures (on IPR issues for example). Also, the Government launched "innovation policies" encouraging access to finance, R&D investments, training, etc. (as for the other EU governments).
Moreover, it does not seem that France is likely to implement an integrated policy in the near future.
However, raising awareness of companies managers on these issues seems still necessary as it was recently shown by a survey conducted by the French consulting and auditing company Mazars in April 2000: more than a half of French company managers do not understand the concept of intangible capital (capital immatériel).
1. The Commissariat Général au Plan (national planning body)
The Commissariat Général au Plan (CGP) is the public body which is - historically and at present - most involved in the Intangibles assets issue as a whole.
The Commissariat Général au Plan operates under the authority of the Prime Minister. Its mandate is to inform public policy-making and to strengthen the cohesion of the State and the coherence of its action through the exercise of three functions: concertation, forecasting and assessment.
CGP Work on IA has started as early as 1981. The Commissioner M. Albert has decided to implement a working group on intangible investments. Chaired by J.J. Bonnaud, its mandate was three-fold:
- provide a definition of intangible investments, on the basis of clearly formulated criteria;
- propose a analytical methodology to account for intangible in consistency with national accounting system constraints and identify barriers to reform;
- develop recommendations to the government so that it can provide financial support companies wishing to invest in intangible assets.
One year after, this report has been presented to the Government. It put the emphasis highly on the fact that these concepts were innovative and needed to be taken into consideration for future policies. However, rapidly, the working group has been confronted with serious difficulties (problem of definition and classification due to the heterogeneous and wide scope of intangible assets; no technical and regulatory references, etc.). Thus, it has not been considered as a success.
Over the 15 following years, CGP has not worked on the IA topic as such but has published several working groups reports containing chapters on intangible investments:
- "Entreprise et performance globale, Outils, évaluation, pilotage" - Rapport du groupe présidé par Jacques Barraux;
- "Recherche et innovation: la France dans la compétition mondiale" - Rapport du groupe présidé par Bernard Majoie;
- "Le dispositif français de normalisation, Evaluation et Perspectives" - Rapport au Gouvernement Technologies de l'information, organisation et performances économiques, Rapport du groupe présidé par Eric Brousseau et Alain Rallet (1999).
However, in 1995, it has launched a call for tender for studies on "the company and the intangible economy". This call has generated several study projects on performance evaluation, new analysis of markets, new forms of economic co-ordination and relations between economic actors, as well as links between innovation and immaterial.
Three directions have been proposed to researchers:
- to understand how the company is led to take intangibles into account: how to integrate these growing intangible activities which cannot be directly linked to industrial production? How evaluation and performance analysis can take intangible factors into consideration? To what extent market analysis must be redesigned in order to value the dual nature of products, which combine more and more goods and services, hard and soft?
- to analyse to different forms of socio-economic combination defining relationships between economic agents - in particular companies with their environment - and to look at the role played by intangible components in these forms of coordination;
- to study the linkages between innovation and intangibles and tend to build a new conceptualisation of economic activities based on the integration of intangibles. Analyse the process of innovation and its dynamics, as well as the intangible innovation and identify determining factors.
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List of studies |
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Title |
Research Group |
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Les
actifs immatériels dans l'entreprise |
Claude
Crampes |
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Le Capital humain des entreprises : constitution et relation avec les performances micro et macro-économiques The human capital of companies: creation and relation with economic micro and macro performance |
Gérard
Ballot, Damien Besancenot, Charles-Henri
d'Armicoles, Fathi Falkhfakh |
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L'émergence
d’oligopoles en réseau fondés sur la
connaissance |
Michel
Delapierre |
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L'institution
brevet dans une économie fondée sur la
connaissance: éléments d'analyse |
Jean-Miche
Dalle - Dominique Foray |
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Mesure,
évaluation et analyse de l’efficacité
des facteurs immatériels |
Christian
Hoarau |
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Contact Commissariat
général au plan Service
du développement technologique et
industriel Service
économique, financier et international 18,
rue de Martignac 75700 Paris 07 SP |
2. Secrétariat d'Etat à l'industrie
The Secrétariat d’Etat à l'industrie puts a lot of efforts on activities related to the intangible economy but does not have an integrated approach:
- The SESSI (service des études et des statistiques - studies and statistical service) is in charge of statistical analysis concerning the industrial development and sectorial statistics. The SESSI publishes a newsletter each month ("les 4 pages du SESSI") on innovative issues, such as investments to protect environment, quality and certification, new skills to innovate in industry. It also conducts studies on Internet, new technologies, marketing as a strategic tool for SMEs and industrial sectors (Mr. Heitzman and M. Postel Vinay);
- Norms and quality issues are under the responsibility of SQUALPI and the Government has implemented an interministerial delegation for norms;
- ICT issues are monitored by the "Service des technologies et de la Société de l'Information". Since the French Action Plan "The entry of France in the Information Society" in January 1998, Information society issues are central in the governmental work (M. Caquot and M. Zmiro). The Interministerial Committee for information society which will take place in July 2000 has set training and learning in the information society as a priority.
- Tableaux de bord de l'innovation:
Launched in april 1999, the Innovation Scoreboard is carried out by the DIGITIP (direction générale de l'Industrie, des Technologies de l'Information et des Postes) in cooperation with the national statistical agency, INSEE, the "Direction du Trésor" and the "Direction de la Prévision". Published every 6 months, the Scoreboard presents 18 indicators which reflect the development of technological innovation. They are split into 4 categories: new funds, new entrepreneurs, new technologies and new usages. For each category, a key indicator has been selected and a main indicator shows the evolution of the turn-over of key sectors linked to ICT.
- The Government has commissioned several reports on "economic intelligence" (Patrick Lefas), Technology and Innovation (Henri Guillaume) etc. wich put an emphasis on intangible investments. All these reports are available on the Web site of the French Government for the information society.
Support to innovation has been appreciated as too "technicist" and based on tangible investments. Today, the Government tends to redirect its support to industry and research to more intangible investments.
Institut national de la propriété industrielle (INPI)
The French Patent and Trademark office is an autonomous government agency under the authority of the Ministry of industry working on trademark, patents and industrial design. INPI's actions in terms of raising awareness concerning the need to identify and protect intellectual property have been reinforced.
ANVAR - The French Agency for Innovation (Agence nationale de la valorisation de la recherche)
Placed under the authority of the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of SMEs, the aim of ANVAR is to promote and finance innovation in French industry in particular for small and medium sized industry and to facilitate the emergence of new products and processes in all areas of activity.
It has 24 regional offices which offer a multi-faceted professional approach :
- providing information, guidance, access to consultancy services and expertise;
- establishing contacts with technical partners (laboratories, transfer agencies);
- assisting for partner search to set up industrial and commercial operations and for capital funds to start-ups or growth companies.
In May 2000, it has been decided that ANVAR could support projects investing not only in technological innovations but also in innovation in services and usages.
1998 law has opened the way for changes in the presentation of annual accounts in France. It has also created the new accounting standards' setting body, the Comité de la réglementation comptable – CRC. Besides CRC, there is the National Accounting Council (Conseil National de la Comptabilité) which is a consultative body. At this stage, work on intangible assets is still open. However, one can note the following :
- in France, there has been since several years some innovations such as the "Annexe" to the annual report and the Bilan Social.
- in 1987, the National Accounting Council has created an "Commission on intangible investments" which took the form of a working group (Commission des Investissements immatériels) chaired by Isabelle de Kerviler. It was asked to define an accounting methodology allowing to identify commercial expenditures, which accumulate under the form of intangible assets. Some studies had shown that the commercial capital of a firm was largely unknown, resulting in management and financial difficulties. In a first phase, the Commission has worked on a general methodology aiming to improve the recognition in accounting of intangible assets developed internally. The objective was to allow, within certain limits and conditions, the inclusion on the assets side of some expenditures in intangible investments. Then, the Commission decided to restrict its reflection to specific intangible investments and, in particular, to investments in brands because of its being a strategic and controversial issue. In fact, brands are considered as the most tangible of intangibles.
A report has been issued in 1995 entitled "Brands: an asset for the company?" (Les marques: un actif pour l'entreprise - Rapport de synthèse sur la comptabilisation et l'évaluation des marques développées en interne" - Ministère des Finances). The report has made some proposals tending to give an accounting recognition of brands. However, these proposals have never been officially examined by the CNC. The objective was first to launch a debate on these issues. Today, the Commission does not exist anymore.
Today, most of the work on accounting for intangible assets is done at the EU and international level. However, there is still an interest in this matter.
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Contact Conseil
national de la comptabilité |
4. Other organisations, networks and researchers
4.1 Agence pour la Diffusion de l'Information Technologique - ADIT
The ADIT (Agence pour la Diffusion de l'Information Technologique) is a state-owned, industrial and business firm, under the authority of the Minister of Research and the Minister of Foreign Affairs (the Ministries of Defense, Economics and Industry are on the Board of Directors). Its purpose is to gather, process and circulate all available international scientific and technological information to further research for civilian and business purposes and help the development of French enterprises.
In this capacity, the ADIT advances:
- the implementation of the national newswatch policy pertaining to technological and economic developments;
- the prospective undertakings pertaining to changing science and technology worldwide, - the circulation of informative documents on the technological and industrial policies, programs and achievements of our foreign partners and competitors.
4.2 Mazars
Mazars, of French origin, is a major auditing and accounting firm which has affirmed a high interest in working on intangible assets.
- Mazars regularly organises and takes part in conferences to present its view on Intellectual Capital as an "essential Factor in Company Valuation". For example, in April 2000, it has organised a conference in Paris in partnership with Paris BourseSBF on the theme: "Intellectual Capital: Valuing Your Company".
- Mazars has created a collection on intellectual capital with two books in French:
- one on the work of Karl-Erick Sveiby "The New Organizational Wealth, managing & measuring knowledge-based assets" with chapter-by-chapter commentary from Mazars (march 2000)
- the other , on the same principle, i.e. comments on the book "Intellectual Capital", by Leif Edvinsson. Its aim is to complement the earlier work while going further into the methodology.
- Intellectual capital surveys : in April 2000, Mazars, in conjunction with Sofrès, has published the results of a survey of 450 French, British and Spanish executives conducted at the end of 1999 on the subject of intangible capital.
| Entitled "Intellectual Capital, the New Corporate Challenge", this survey shows that French companies managers have a limited vision of " intangible capital " by limiting the notion to customer relationship, internal organisation and human resources. On the latter aspect, French company heads take a short-term view, still using tolls such as training and compensation rather than e.g. skills management tools. As a general rule, in a contrast with their British and Spanish counterparts, French managers do not have a clear perception of the intangible assets, as 53% declare that they simply do not understand the concept. |  |
Mazars had previously conducted a similar survey in December 1998 which canvassed the opinions of some 300 senior managers in France and in the United Kingdom. The introduction is the following: "How does one explain the fact that two companies with identical capital structure may in one case be successful and in the other case under perform? The reason is that the fundamental difference between these two companies is not the comparison of ‘Financial Capital’ but that of ‘Intellectual Capital".
- In February 2000, Mazars Finance, in association with the Club HEC Finance Internationale, has announced that it will conduct a research work on the subject "Value Creation and Immaterial Capital". A special report on this research will be published, and an event (round table, conference) will be held in September 2000 to communicate with present and prospective clients on a subject of growing interest, on which the Mazars Group is positioned.
To be noted that, in February 2000, Mazars' chairman, Patrick de Cambourg has been appointed to the Conseil National de la Comptabilité, France's national accounting board, by the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry for a period of three years. Patrick de Cambourg was chosen for his accounting expertise and to represent the economic sector.
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Contact Mazars |
4.3 Futuribles
Created in 1960, Futuribles is a association dedicated to forecast studies. Led by Hugues de Jouvenel, the association publishes regularly articles on topics related to the intangible economy. In 1999, it has organised a seminar on intangibles, including some presentations on valuing the intangible economy.
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Contact Hugues
de Jouvenel |
4.4 Research groups and researchers on intangible
Patrick Epingard is a researcher on intangible economy. Professor to the National institute of telecommunications (Institut National des télécommunications - INT), he has recently published a book entitled "L'investissement immatériel : cœur d'une économie fondée sur le savoir" (Patrick Epingard. - Paris : CNRS Editions, 1999) (The intangible investment: the core of the knowledge based economy").
Ahmed Bonfour professor at the University of Marne-La-Vallée (OEP laboratory) has written in 1998 a book entitled "Le Management des ressources immatérielles : maîtriser les nouveaux leviers de l'avantage compétitif" - Managing Intangible Resources: control the new levers of competitive advantages (Dunod, 1998). E-mail: bounfour@univ-mlv.fr For a summary of his book.
Hervé Stolowy is professor and researcher in accounting at HEC School of Management Department of Accounting and Management Control. Hervé Stolowy (stolowy@hec.fr) has written and participated in several books. Among its recent working papers on intangibles, one can note:
- "Accounting for Brands in IAS 38 of IASC (Intangible Assets) Compared with French and German Practices - An Illustration of the Difficulty of International Harmonization" (August 1999);
- "How Accounting Standards Approach and Classify Intangibles - An International Survey" for the Annual Meeting of the European Accounting Association, Bordeaux, France (May 1999)
These articles are available on Hervé Stolowy personal web pages. He is also involved in the European research project MERITUM.
HEC School of management is involved in several researches and organises conferences on intangibles. As an example, in June 2000, HEC has invited Baruch Lev (Professor of Accounting and Finance at New York University, the Director of the Vincent C. Ross Institute for Accounting Research and the Project for Research on Intangibles) to make a conference on the topic " "Knowledge Management: Measurement and Valuation Issues". Other HEC professors are involved on intangible such as Michel Lebas and Hélène Löning.
Dominique Foray is an economist specialised in the economics of science and technology, the analysis of path-dependent processes of economic change, and the economics of knowledge : intellectual property, information technology, capital market, knowledge management and public policy. He is currently strongly involved in studies about the knowledge-based economies. Dominique Foray (dominique.foray@dauphine.fr)is Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Professor at the "Institut pour le Management de la Recherche et de l'Innovation" (IMRI) of the University of Paris-Dauphine. From 1993 to 1995, he has been a permanent consultant at the OECD Division for Science, Technology and Industry where he contributed to the Programme on "National Systems of Innovation". He has recently prepared a report for the French Government on the intellectual property policy and has published several papers on knowledge, in particular on the measurement of knowledge economy (for OECD).
CRI - Collectif de
recherche sur l'immatériel
This informal small group brings together academics and practitioners.
It is led by Dominique Bessire from the Université de Paris and Roger
Nifle (rnifle@coherence.com)
from the "Institut Cohérences".
Intangible assets are analysed with a focus on sociology and management
of human resources.
Institut de recherche
en propriété intellectuelle Henry Desbois de la Chambre de Commerce et
d'industrie de Paris - IRPI - CCIP
IRPI's objective is to conduct studies and research on all aspects
of intellectual property, compile ad-hoc literature, organise stages and
training, raise awareness and assist the Chamber of Commerce. Its web
site aims to be a "portal" on intellectual property. It
contains several links and resources on intangible assets.
Neteconomie
French Internet web site with resources and fora including knowledge
management and intangible economy.