What Financial and Non-Financial Information on Intangibles is Value Relevant? A Review of the Evidence

Abstract

This paper evaluates what we have learned about the relevance and reliability of financial and non-financial information on intangibles from the value relevance literature. Because value relevance studies do not easily allow judgements about the reliability of information on intangibles, and this is an issue of central interest, this paper takes a rather wide look across a range of literatures to try to piece together some indirect evidence on both relevance and reliability. The evidence from a package of value relevance and triangulation studies suggests RD and the possibility that giving management discretion, with regulatory guidance, to report intangibles might facilitate more value relevant information on intangibles.