درمان حسابداری نامشهود؛ بررسی انتقادی مقالات

Intangible investments have become the main value creators for many companies and economic sectors. However, these investments are rarely recognized as assets by current accounting standards. We provide a critical review of the literature on the consequences of this lack of accounting recognition of intangibles for the value-relevance of financial information, resource allocation in the capital market, growth of intangible investments, and the firm's market value. We then review recent empirical research on voluntary disclosure of information on intangibles. Our survey concludes that disclosure can considered as a solution to the negative consequences of non-recognition of intangibles in financial statements.

The nature of investment made by companies has drastically changed during the last two decades: in addition to the investment in tangible capital, several investments in “intangible capital” have become increasingly important. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007), investments in intangible capital are competing with investment in tangible capital in some countries. For example, in 2002, the total expenditure in intangible capital was larger than the investment in tangible capital in the United States and Finland. At a micro-economic level, several authors, such as Stewart (1997) and Zéghal (2000), reveal that intangible assets are taking an increasingly important place in a company's capital and are, in fact, becoming more important than tangible assets.

In the new economy, intangible assets have become the main value creators for a large number of companies and economic sectors. However, the valuation of these assets within the accounting framework raises several problems with regard to their identification, measurement, and control. Under current accounting standards, most of the intangible investments are to be expensed when incurred. The relative lack of accounting recognition of intangibles investments as assets led several researchers to wonder about the consequences of this inadequate accounting treatment on (1) the value-relevance of financial information, (2) the resource allocation in the capital market, (3) the growth in intangible investments, and (4) the market value of the firm.