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.