The Impact of Intangible Assets on the Company’s Market Value

This study investigates and measures the effect of intangibles on the company's market value in Lithuania. We provide a model of the impact of intangible assets on the market value of companies, based on theoretical assumptions about normative and positive accounting, efficient markets, signaling and representation, which underpin the practical relevance of the developed model. The developed model of the impact of intangible assets on the market value of companies can be applied to investigate a) the impact of intangible assets on the business value of companies and b) the effect of intangible assets on the market value of companies by including new or other factors that may affect the market value of an entity. We analyzed the value of the intangible' assets' recorded in firms' books according to international accounting standards (financial information) and we focused on information about additional intangible resources -as recorded expenditure into annual reports (nonfinancial information). The results provide empirical evidence that the value of intangible assets is divided into two kinds of value, financial and nonfinancial information, which have different effects on the market value of companies. Findings confirm that the value of intangible assets is important for companies to maximize their market value.