Intangibles and intellectual capital: an introduction to a special issue

Abstract

Three years ago we launched this special issue of the European Accounting Review devoted to research on intangibles and intellectual capital. Clearly we are now living in an interesting world: constantly intensifying competition, and events such as the bursting of the technology bubble, the disappearance of many new economy companies (dotcoms, etc.), the stagnation of the world economy, not to mention the 11 September tragedy, have all contributed to significant change, and even vanishing of a large part of companies’ intangibles. However, we strongly feel that the basic issues indicated in our Call for Papers are still relevant. We would like to point out below both the reasons why intangibles are still very important and some of the conceptual issues the research on this subject faces.