Sharpening the intangibles edge.
Sharpening the intangibles edge.
复制标题
锐化无形资产的优势。
作者：
B. Lev
无形资产--专利和技术诀窍、品牌、熟练的劳动力、牢固的客户关系、软件、独特的流程和组织设计等--是公司增长和股东价值的主要来源。然而，广泛的研究表明，投资者系统地错误定价无形资产密集型企业的股票。显然，定价过高会浪费资本。但定价过低会提高资本成本，阻碍高管们利用进一步增长机会的努力。如何打破这种恶性循环？通过生成有关无形资产投资的更好信息，并向资本市场披露至少部分数据。然而，获取这些信息说起来容易做起来难。没有市场为智力资本、品牌或人力资本产生可见的价格，以帮助投资者正确评估无形资产密集型公司。目前的会计惯例将用于无形资产的资金与一般费用混为一谈，因此投资者和高管甚至不知道有多少资金投资于无形资产，更不用说这些投资的回报率了。至少，公司应该把花在无形资产上的钱分出来，并向市场披露。更根本的是，高管们应该开始将无形资产视为资产，而不是成本，以便将其视为投资，并对其回报进行识别和监控。作者强调，本文提出的建议只是一个开始。公司和会计机构应作出系统的努力，编制能够可靠地反映无形资产独特属性的信息。目前严重的资源配置不当应该足以激励企业参与甚至领导这种发展。
Intangible assets--patents and know-how, brands, a skilled workforce, strong customer relationships, software, unique processes and organizational designs, and the like--generate most of a company's growth and shareholder value. Yet extensive research indicates that investors systematically misprice the shares of intangibles-intensive enterprises. Clearly, overpricing wastes capital. But underpricing raises the cost of capital, hamstringing executives in their efforts to take advantage of further growth opportunities. How do you break this vicious cycle? By generating better information about your investments in intangibles, and by disclosing at least some of that data to the capital markets. Getting at that information is easier said than done, however. There are no markets generating visible prices for intellectual capital, brands, or human capital to assist investors in correctly valuing intangibles-intensive companies. And current accounting practices lump funds spent on intangibles with general expenses, so that investors and executives don't even know how much is being invested in them, let alone what a return on those investments might be. At the very least, companies should break out the amounts spent on intangibles and disclose them to the markets. More fundamentally, executives should start thinking of intangibles not as costs but as assets, so that they are recognized as investments whose returns are identified and monitored. The proposals laid down in this article are only a beginning, the author stresses. Corporations and accounting bodies should make systematic efforts to develop information that can reliably reflect the unique attributes of intangible assets. The current serious misallocations of resources should be incentive enough for businesses to join--and even lead--such developments.