Research bodies and Communities of Researchers
Sweden
Denmark
Netherlands
United Kingdom
France |
Germany
Italy
EU funded Research Projects and Nordika
OECD
US projects |
There are many researchers and doctoral students in Sweden universities and Research Centres dealing with intangible assets. Therefore, they have published more than a hundred studies and books on the topic. These researchers are closer to the HCRA School.
One of the driving forces is the School of Business at Stockholm University which has undertaken several studies on intangibles, and in particular two researchers:
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Ulf Johanson. He is involved in international (MERITUM) and national research projects.
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Jan-Erick Gröjer is also involved in MERITUM and works with Ulf Johanson.
Within Stockholm University, a special research Institute works with the Human Resource Costing and Accounting concepts: the Personnel Economics Institute - PEI. Headed by Birgitta Olsson, it performs studies concerning HRCA issues, is in charge of the "Journal of Human Resource Costing and Accounting" and organises international workshops. This year, the workshop is dedicated to "Measuring and Managing the Invisible". It will take place on June 16, 2000 in Stockholm.
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Contact Stockholm
University Personnel
Economics Institute |
The Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and Århus University are active in research concerning intellectual capital.
From CBS, Heine Thorsgaard Larsen work areas are Intellectual Capital Statements, Balanced Scorecard, Knowledge and strategic management, Management Control and Accountability. He has written several working and articles available on his personal web page.
Jan Mouritsen is professor of Management Control at CBS. His current research interests lie in two main areas. One is ‘Management Technology and the Technologies of Managing’. The other area is ‘Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management’ where he is conducting longitudinal research studying the making of intellectual capital statements. This research is oriented towards understanding how firms ‘digitise’ knowledge management activities. As par of this research program, there is also attention to financial analysts’ conduct in relation to immaterial assets. Jan Mouritsen in involved in the Danish IC statement project as well as the European MERITUM project.
He has published lots of papers and articles in a range of journals including Accounting Organisations and Society, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Scandinavian Journal of Management, and Management Accounting Research. He has also written many books and monographs in both the English and Danish languages. Jan Mouritsen is Board member of the European Institute of Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) and on the editorial boards of a number of accounting, management and IT journals.
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Contact Copenhagen
Business School |
Per Nikolaj Drachmann Bukh is Associate Professor at the Arhus University. His research interest are Management Control Systems, Cost and Management Accounting, Service Management and Marketing, Intellectual Capital Accounting and Knowledge Management, Investor Relations and Disclosure and Growth and Entrepreneurship. He is involved in several projects concerning intangible assets, in particular the Danish IC statement project with Jan Mouritsen and Heine T. Larsen, the European MERITUM (with international partners). He has published many working papers and articles. The complete list is available on his personal web page.
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Contact Århus
Universitet |
Denmark counts other experts and researchers in the field of intangibles.
One can mention Bengt-Ake Lundvall who is a professor in economics at the Department for Business Studies at Aalborg University. He is also a research manager for the nation-wide Danish network, DRUID (Danish Research Unit for Industrial Dynamics) and Project Director for DISKO (a project on the Danish Innovation System in a Comparative Perspective). In 1992 -1995 he was Deputy Director at the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry. His current work is focused on systems of innovation, the learning economy and knowledge management.
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Contact University
of Aalborg |
Several actors and networks have been identified as playing a particular role in the "intangible landscape" research.
The Government has launched a project "Balancing account with Knowledge". Following this project, it will launch a R&D programme on intangibles. The new approach to intangible assets will also affect the content of accountancy courses and business economics in general. In order to ensure that the academic world adopts a co-ordinated approach to this topic, the government wishes to encourage a range of disciplines to focus on intangible assets through a research programme. This could include a survey of the consequences of this proposal for Corporate Finance, Intellectual Property, and so on.MERIT ( Maastricht Economic Research institute and Innovation)
MERIT is a university research institute based at the Economics Faculty of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. It focuses research on the economics of technological change and innovation and specialises in the measure of knowledge.
One leading researcher is Luc Soete, Professor of International Economics and Director of MERIT. His research interests cover the broad range of theoretical and empirical studies of the impact of technological change, in particular new information and communication technologies on employment, economic growth, and international trade and investment, as well as the related policy and measurement issues. With respect to the latter he is currently one of the strong proponents of the "new economy" phenomenon.
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Contact MERIT
- Maastricht Economic Research institute
and Innovation |
Economic Institute for small and Medium sized Industry (EIM)
The Economic Institute for small and Medium sized Industry (EIM) has carried out an exploratory study into a standard method for the SME sector. Entitled "The valuing and/or disclosing of intangible business assets in the SME sector"; it was published in December 1998 (P. Th. van der Zeijden and KR Jonkheer - EI Zoetermeer).
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Contact Economic
Institute for small and Medium sized
Industry (EIM) |
KPMG Knowledge Management The Netherlands
KPMG Netherlands has created a specific activity on Knowledge Management: the Knowledge Plaza. In The Netherlands, it has been involved in several projects and studies for the Government:
- The "Balancing Account with Knowledge Project" commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Industry
- a Study "Knowledge in Balance" ("Kennis in balans") has been commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in 1996. The objective was to look into the feasibility of drawing up a "knowledge balance sheet". KPMG examined the annual reports of a number of Dutch companies. The study concluded that the inclusion of knowledge on the balance sheet was not a practical position. It suggested one possibility, which was to insert an appendix to the annual report. KPMG furthermore advocated the setting up of a Human Resource Accounting database for benchmarking purposes.
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Contact KPMG
Knowledge Management The Netherlands |
Kenniscentrum CIBIT - International Knowledge Management Network
Kenniscentrum CIBIT provides consultancy services and top level education for professionals. Its focus is in three main areas: Knowledge Management: Smart ways of working; Smart Business with ICT: customer care, virtual organisations and virtual learning and Smart IT for business: methodologies and technologies for innovative system.
In 1989, it has founded an International Knowledge Management Network with the aim to promote and develop Knowledge Management within organisations and agglomerations of organisations. Today, it groups around 700 members around the world.
Kenniscentrum CIBIT and the International Knowledge Management Network took part in a benchmarking study on "Knowledge Management and the Learning Organisation" of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC). Kenniscentrum CIBIT has also published a booklet on Knowledge Management entitled "Knowledge Management: dealing intelligently with knowledge". Finally, it has implemented an Intranet for its members and a programme of master class.
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Contact Kenniscentrum
CIBIT - International Knowledge
Management |
Programme for Research into the measurement and valuation of intangible assets
Late 1999, DTI has launched a Study looking at the feasibility and desirability of further research in the measurement and valuation of intangible assets, in particular to study the case for, and scope and organisation of, a DTI-funded programme on Intangible Assets.
Conducted by Ian Miles and a team from CRIC and PREST (Manchester University), the scoping study itself had several aims:
- Assess the feasibility of the basic aims of the proposed programme;
- "Mapping the field" : defining and classifying IAs ; identifying streams of research where the research could be developed further by assessing the opinions of research leaders ; state of the arts in terms of measurement and valuation ; defining the goals of a research programme;
- Programme content and Structure: identifying lines of study within the general aims of the planned research where key needs for knowledge could be profitably met; Identify possible users of the research and their interests in intangibles as well as public and private sponsorship and participation; identify potential sources of industry co-funding or cost sharing; defining the programme size, structure and activity;
- Suggest next steps;
- Gather existing research information and literature survey and identify and form contacts with existing clusters of research and establish a list of researchers/research teams who might participate in the programme.
The report, entitled "Grasping the Nettle" has been presented to DTI in April 2000. Prior to that, an earlier draft was discussed at a "Town Hall" meeting in London on 24th March 2000. The study concluded that such assets were widely recognised to be of increasing significance to business performance and economic competitiveness but that the factors behind this development were imperfectly understood. The authors consider that there is strong case for intensified research efforts in field and they propose a scheme to launch a multidisciplinary research agenda, using a number of approaches to relate together researchers and practitioners. It is proposed that it be centred around the following themes:
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Useful Measures;
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The Role of Intermediaries and Networks;
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Variations across firms and sectors in IAs;
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The Institutional lnfrastructure.
It is furthermore suggested that the programme might be structured around two centrepiece activities, dealing with, respectively, tools and instruments for tackling measurement and valuation issues posed at the micro-(firm-level) and macro- (statistical aggregate level) levels of analysis. The report goes on to suggest structures which can support these objectives and proposals.
Depending on DTI decision, the next steps will be to issue call for tenders for research projects (Summer / Autumn 2000) and to select winning projects (Winter 2000).
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Contact DTI
- Innovation Policy and Standards
Directorate – TESE CRIC
(Centre for Research on Innovation and
Competition) and PREST (Policy
Research in Engineering, Science and
Technology) - University of Manchester |
Academics
As mentioned above, the University of Manchester is active with ESRC (Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition), PREST (Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology) and the CRIC Center.
Ian Miles is a Director of PREST and a CRIC Co-Director. Before coming to Manchester in 1990, he was for 18 years a researcher at SPRU (the Science Policy Research Unit) at the University of Sussex. His research interests include innovation studies, foresight, indicators (social indicators and S&T data), service sectors and e-commerce. He was responsible for the feasibility study for DTI concerning a programme for research into the measurement and valuation on intangible assets. More details are available on his personal web pages.
Other researchers are Hugh Cameron, Jeff Butler and Mark Tomlinson.
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Contact University
of Manchester |
Apart from the CRIC Center, the focus on measurement and valuation of Intangible Assets is rather poorly represented in the great majority of UK research efforts to date. In fact, Ian Miles and his team have identified a wide range of disciplines and practitioners looking only at subsets of Intangible assets and there is work underway on various types of IA and on a number of specific issues (R&D, IPR, training, adverstising, companies performance, brands, etc. - a list with contact details is annexed to the CRIC report). These teams are not explicitly labelled IA, and IA is not yet an umbrella concept under which they coordinate or exchange.
However, as indicated by the CRIC study, this situation could evolve, as shown by the growing activities of research centres.
Also, the Research Councils are more and more interested in many aspects of the Intangible Assets Agenda as "Knowledge" has become a core theme in much social research in recent years and is now a priority for academic research (in particular, through its Intellectual Property Programme as well as the Intellectual Property Forum).
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 |
Research groups and researchers on intangibles
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 (rrifle@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.
Several research groups work on intangible issues:
Fraunhofer Institute
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is the leading organisation of applied research in Germany. Several institutes within Fraunhofer are dealing with intangibles and knowledge management:
- The knowledge management competence centre of the Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK (Fraunhofer Institute for Production systems and Design Technology) in Berlin helps companies to exploit the knowledge potential inherent in their employees. Basic information on knowledge management is provided, and specific solutions are devised in order to extract latent knowledge;
- Fraunhofer-Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO in Stuttgart addresses questions related to technology management. One of the main focuses of research is the development of progressive information and communication systems (http://www.iao-fhg.de); FHG-IAO is involved in the MAGIC project (Measuring and Accounting Intellectual Capital) under the responsibility of Ina Werner (ina.wagner@iao.fhg.de) and Ilja Hauss ( ilja.hauss@iao.fhg.de).
- The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI complements the techno-scientific spectrum of the Fraunhofer Society by economic and social aspects. ISI analyses technological developments, their market potentials and their impacts on economy, government and society. (Prof. Dr. Frieder Meyer-Krahmer).
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Contact Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft |
Thomas Guenther of
the University of Technology of Dresden has conducted an empirical study
based on 132 German companies with brands. The state-of-the-art of brand
management, brand control and brand valuation have been investigated. The focus
of the study is the general perception of brands as an intangible asset and as
an investment, the organisation of brand management, the valuation of brands for
internal control purposes and the operational and strategic performance measures
for brand management. In addition, the budgeting process, the brand-related
decision making and the underlying incentive systems are investigated. This
study has been presented at the EAA'2000 Annual Congress held in Munich in March
2000.
A new survey has been undertaken in 2000 with 182 companies looking on the
measurement of performance. It presents comparisons between measuring tangible
and intangible resources. Download the
survey.
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Contact Dresden
University of Technology |
IFO - Institute for Economic Research
IFO is one of the largest economic research institutes in Germany. The IFO Institute is a service-based research organisation with a three-fold orientation: to conduct economic research, to offer advice to economic policy-makers and to provide services for the research and business communities. IFO has contributed to European Commission report on The competitiveness of European industry.
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Contact IFO -
Institute for Economic Research |
Volker Klockhaus from the University of Cologne and Axel Haller also work on accounting related to intangible issues.
The Institute for Studies on Scientific Research and Documentation (Istituto di Studi sulla Ricerca e Documentazione Scientifica (ISRDS) of the National Research Council (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) carries out research and training in the fields of research policy and scientific information policy.
As research director, Giorgio Sirilli, economist and statistician, works on intangible related topics, in particular on science and technology policy, economics of technical change, science and technology indicators, management of innovation, evaluation of research and development, innovation in the public administration. Giorgio Sirilli is also delegate to committees dealing with science and technology issues in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European union. He chairs the OECD Group of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI) which is in charge of the development of methodologies and statistical tools for the collection of data and analysis of indicators. He has published several books and articles dealing with science and technology indicators, old and new paradigms in the measurement of R&D and measuring Innovation in Europe and Italy.
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Contact Istituto
di Studi sulla Ricerca e Documentazione
Scientifica Istituto
di Studi sulla Ricerca e Documentazione
Scientifica |
Among academics, several research groups have been identified:
- Politecnico di Milano : Vittorio Chiesa work's perspective on intangibles is the evaluation of a firm's intangible assets especially those related to technology (vittorio.chiesa@polimi.it) .
- IEAIC "Istituto di Economia delle Aziende Industriali e Commerciali" of the Boconi University carries out several researches on Intangible assets. An Intangible Project is on-going ("Progetto Intangibles"). Among experts, we can cite Luigi Guatri, Gualtiero Brugger, Salvatore Vicari (). In particular, Luigi Guatri haw written several papers on the value of intangibles in the measure of firms performance.
- Stefano Zambon (zambon@economia.unife.it) is professor of Business Economy (Economia Aziendale) at the University of Ferrara. Specialised in intangible assets issues, he has written several publications and papers on the strategic value of knowledge and intellectual capital and participates regularly to national and international conferences.
EU funded Research Projects and Nordika
Various research projects are also being carried out on intangible investments as part of the Fourth and Fifth Framework R&D Programme.
In particular, two research projects are on-going:
MERITUM (Measuring Intangibles to Understand and Improve Innovation Management"Initiated in 1998 and funded by the TSER programme (Targeted Socio-economic research), the aim of the MERITUM project is to investigate possibilities to measure and report intangibles. 9 universities and research institutes in 6 European countries are participating in the project (Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Spain and Sweden).
The general aim of this European project is:
- To provide insight into the process of transforming intangibles into increased wealth. How are they managed and accounted for and how do they contribute to growth and employment?
- To develop guidelines for the measurement and disclosure of intangibles.
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Researchers:
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The Project is divided in sub-activities:
- Activity 1: The classification study : its objective is to develop a set of classification schemes of intangibles acceptable and useful for the purpose of management control as well as valuation of the enterprise by the capital market;
- Activity 2: The management control study: the aim is to investigate how the management control is carried out, why and when organisation members do what they do, and how component parts (people, organisational units, etc.) interact;
- Activity 3: The capital market study: the objective is to investigate the following research questions; (1) What is the difference between market and book value?; (2) Can the difference between market and book value be explained by dependency on human capital or any other specific category of intangibles?; (3) Is there an abnormal return on human capital dependent stocks?; (4) Is there an abnormal return on stocks dependent on other categories of intangibles?
- Activity 4: Guidelines for measurement and disclosure of intangibles.
In parallel, some national Centre have developed their own sub-projects.
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Contact MERITUM
Coordinator: Other contact details of the research team are available on Meritum web site: http://www.fek.su.se/home/bic/meritum/ |
The MAGIC project (Measuring and Accounting Intellectual Capital)
The overall objective of the MAGIC project is the development of a low-cost and pragmatic IT-solution for the measuring and accounting of Intellectual Capital in engineering and manufacturing environments. Therefore holistic methods and tools have to be developed which enable the quantitative as well as the qualitative evaluation of IC. This project is led by Oy Quality Production & Research Ltd (FI) and involves 5 other partners and a business group. In a survey conducted by FhG-IAO (one of partners) 83% of industrial respondents believe that measuring intellectual capital is critical to achieving business success.
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The industrial relevance of the measuring and accounting IC itself according to the MAGIC project:
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The main deliverables of the project will essentially consist of:
- Benchmarking study of "Best Practice" in measuring Intellectual Capital (IC)
- KM methodology handbook describing the system of methods and tools for the measurement and accounting of IC
- IT-tool for the support of the measurement and accounting of IC based on standard software solutions
- CD containing elaborated road map "How to evaluate and better manage Intellectual Capital (IC)"
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Contact
Fraunhofer Institute of
the University of Stuttgart - Institute of Human Factors
and Technology Management (IAT) |
The Norkika Project
Nordika stands for "Nordic project for measurement of Intellectual Capital". This project has been initiated by the Nordic Industrial Fund (Nordisk Industrifond, part of the Nordic Council of Ministers) and concerns Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It has started in September 1999.
The project does not conduct research itself, but has full access to national research projects through the Task Force (representatives from the Nordic countries' Ministries of Industry) and the Round Table (companies and business organisations).
Nordika should further the business community’s ability to manage and report IC. SMEs are a specific and strong target. The project builds on activities in each country, the Nordic countries leading the way in this area, with initiatives within trade and industry, policy development and academic research.
Nordika’s primary aim is Nordic and international co-operation on IC management and reporting. Specifically, the aim is to:
- Establish close cooperation between the Nordic countries’ national initiatives;
- Explain how companies can go about developing and reporting IC by publishing a joint-Nordic voluntary guideline on IC reporting;
- Participate in the international co-operation on IC in OECD, EU and other international fora and networks.
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Task Force: Danish
Agency for Trade and Industry, DK |
Round Table: Danish Industry
Association |
The project is expected to result in the publication of a joint-Nordic voluntary guideline on Intellectual Capital measuring and reporting autumn 2001.
According to Henrik Jensen, project manager of Nordika, the project will be a major opportunity to influence international decision-making on the subject from a Nordic perspective. "In Norden, we tend to focus intensely on qualifications, while favouring a flat administrative structure that encourages delegation. Together, we should be able to set the international agenda for intangibles accounting" (source: SMB-Forum Special Nr.1/99)
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Contact Nordika
Project Manager: Henrik Jensen |
United States Research Projects
Two main projects are conducted in the USA:
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The Intangibles Research Project established at the Vincent C. Ross Institute of Accounting Research at New York University
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the Brookings project established by the Brookings Institution in Washington.
These two projects have close links and Baruch Lev plays an eminent role with both projects.
The purpose of the Brookings Project is :
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to help initiate a national discussion in the US about better ways of measuring, monitoring and reporting on critical intangible sources of wealth, both inside firms, and in the national accounts;
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to assess work already underway to develop better measures of intangibles;
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to report what is currently known about the level and the measurement investments in intangibles, how decisions are made about making such investments, and the extent to which investment decisions are influenced by the methods of measurement;
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to consider how public policies (e.g. regulations, reporting requirements, and tax rules) affect the development of better measures, and affect decision-making in the private sector where actors try to develop better measures;
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to make recommendations on policy changes that could help eliminate or reduce unnecessary or unwarranted adverse distortions.
Two tasks are undertaken:
- the preparation of a report reviewing the available information about investments in intangibles, documenting trends, surveying current practices by firms, and assessing the institutional context (e.g. regulatory environment, reporting requirements, tax rules, etc.) that influences firms' decisions to invest in intangibles, and their methods of accounting for these investments both internally and externally. It will be prepared by Baruch Lev, professor of accounting at New York University's Stern School of Management. The results of the report will be presented at a conference where they will be discussed and debated by knowledgeable experts;
- the preparation of a consensus statement with recommendations on policy changes. This statement is based on a survey of barriers and biases included in laws, regulations, reporting requirements, tax rules, and other policies and practices which prevent better measurement, management, and reporting of intangible investments. It will be prepared by a Task Force including representatives from private industry, accounting firms, consulting firms, institutional investors, industry groups, regulators, scholars, and others.
Results of the project are not yet available and the conference is not yet scheduled. However, an extensive commented bibliography is available on the Project web site, covering the following topics:
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The Intangible Research project established in October 1996 at the Vincent C. Ross Institute of Accounting Research at New York University (the Intangible research Centre) is sponsored and guided by a distinguished board and directed by Professor Baruch Lev. It is "an exploration of the nature, measurement, and disclosure of the complete set of assets, tangible and intangible, which create value for shareholders". The project concentrates on internally generated intangibles, the most critical deficiency of current reporting in meeting users' needs.
The Intangible Research Centre has organised three "Intangible conferences":
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The first conference (May 1998) focused on the relationship between intangibles and capital markets.
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The second conference (May 1999) looked at the managerial and organisational aspects of intangible investments.
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The last conference took place in May 18-19 2000 and it was devoted to intangible investments (intellectual capital), in particular the scientific foundations of knowledge management.
The 4th Intangible conference will take place in May 2001 and will be dedicated to "Investment in Knowledge: Valuation of Knowledge Intensive Enterprise and Asset".
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Contact Brookings
project The
Intangible research project |