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Measuring Intangible Capital: A Review of Current Practice
Author(s) -
Hunter Laurie,
Webster Elizabeth,
Wyatt Anne
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
australian accounting review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.551
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1835-2561
pISSN - 1035-6908
DOI - 10.1111/j.1835-2561.2005.tb00288.x
Subject(s) - capital (architecture) , accounting , business , measure (data warehouse) , economics , finance , computer science , data mining , archaeology , history
This paper examines international practices that measure firm‐level investments into intangible capital. The issues motivating the paper are the need for a standardised framework for measuring intangible capital and the possibility for standardised applications of these measures into the future. The paper analyses the differences and problems associated with the properties of the “official” (accounting) and “non‐official” measurement approaches. We propose that the way to a standardised, more comparable approach to measuring intangible capital is to employ a back‐to‐basics “costs” approach which classifies investments in intangible capital as assets based on management intent at the time.