Intangibles and methods for their valuation in financial terms: literature review

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review literature devoted to intangibles and their valuation and give examples of the methods that can be used for valuation of individual intangibles in financial terms. Design/methodology: The paper presents a systematic review of articles dedicated to intangibles and their valuation. Findings: This article presents the definitions of intangibles, intangible assets, knowledge assets and other related terms. These terms are used interchangeably in spite of their different meanings. Differences and relations between these terms are clearly explained. The paper also proposes the list of basic intangibles with suggested methods for their valuation in financial terms. Income and cost approaches should be used mainly in this purpose. Market approach has only limited use. Research limitations/implications: Not all the papers related to this topic could be covered in this paper. Presented list of important intangible components may be enhanced and examples of some other methods for their valuation may be added in the future. Practical implications: The paper calls for development of framework comprising list of the most important intangibles, proposals of methods used for their valuation and examples of their use. This framework can be helpful for organisation, which are confronted with a difficult task of intangibles valuation. Originality/value: Basic definitions and differences between intangibles, intangible assets, identifiable intangible assets, knowledge assets and intellectual capital have not been mentioned in one paper yet. List of intangibles and methods for their valuation gives a direction for future work that can be fruitful for valuation of intangibles.Peer Reviewe