Evaluation of the Reality of the Intangible Assets of Some Companies Listed in the Iraq Stock Exchange

Abstract

The modern business environment witnessed many transformations during the nineties of the last century, most notably the increasing importance of the intangible elements represented in knowledge, technology, individual skills and other factors that have become the main source of wealth and income and the enhancement of the competitive advantages owned by business enterprises that help them survive and grow. This was accompanied by an increase in the market value of business establishments in a manner that exceeds many times its book value, especially in knowledge and technology-intensive sectors such as communications, medicine and software. This made the financial statements lose a lot of their solvency and comparability. Intangible assets are one of the contributing factors in determining the discrepancy between the company's value according to its accounting records, and the company's value according to its market value. With that argument in mind, it is necessary to understand the true nature of intangible assets from the point of view of financiers. Intangible assets are important for many establishments in most industrial sectors such as patents, goodwill, and service sectors such as computer software development work.