Shortcomings in the Measurement of Innovation: Implications for Accounting Standard Setting

Innovation is nowadays a fundamental determinant of value creation in business companies and economic growth. Therefore, the measurement of innovation has become a significant concern both for business companies and governments. Traditionally, attempts to measure innovation have adopted a macroeconomic approach, as they have been largely based on broad surveys. However, no attempt has been made to date in order to complement the information provided by such surveys with aggregated data obtained from the financial reports of individual companies. This paper analyses the conceptual and methodological problems underlying the measurement of business innovation by means of surveys and discusses the lack of ability of accounting standards to accurately reflect innovative activities in the financial statements of business firms.In the light of the evidence provided by the empirical studies published to date, we analyse the Spanish situation by reviewing innovation studies conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), and assessing the relationship between the value relevance of accounting information and the firm's technological level. Our results suggest that both, micro- and macroeconomic approaches towards the measurement of innovation have significant shortcomings. Thus, a joint effort seems to be needed in order to overcome the methodological limitations affecting innovation studies based on surveys and those relying on financial accounting information. Despite their limitations, surveys provide a sound basis for the identification of trends, key factors and explanatory variables. On the other hand, financial statements could provide a sound basis for the measurement of innovation if they included more relevant information on the intangible determinants of the value of companies. This has obvious implications for the standard setting process.     

高等学校企业无形资产评估参考因素分析

针对目前无形资产评估时价值的确认受各种不确定性因素影响的问题,文章根据高校企业无形资产的特点,从理论上对高校企业无形资产评估时应考虑的各项因素进行初步的分析讨论,以期能对高校企业科技成果产业化和股份制改造时价值确认提供有益参考。     

营销性无形资产转让定价问题新探

近十年来,跨国公司的发展导致营销性无形资产转让定价问题频繁出现,并且关涉的利益往往数额巨大,因而引起了世界各国以及国际组织的关注。本文通过分析OECD与联合国近年发布的文件中的相关内容,世界各国的做法以及比较有影响的营销性无形资产转让定价案例,旨在强调在当前的国际背景下,我国应当提高对营销性无形资产重视,积极应对税基侵蚀与利润转移问题带来的挑战,最大程度维护自身税收利益和国家主权。