Title: What do we know about entrepreneurship as an intangible asset?

Authors: P.M. Rao

Addresses: College of Management, Long Island University, Post Campus, Brookville, 11548, New York, USA

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is two-fold: One, to present the argument that entrepreneurship is an important, albeit difficult-to-measure intangible asset. Two, to discuss what we do know about measurement of other intangible assets at the macro as well as the firm level. Lack of an operational definition of entrepreneur continues to plague empirical research on the role of entrepreneur for innovation. Many proxy measures for entrepreneurs have very little to do with technological innovation. The innovative use of Q ratio as a measure of 'entrepreneurial fever' and the idea of imitating entrepreneur advanced by some scholars are promising. There has been significant progress in the measurement of other intangible capital such as R&D. Intangible assets far exceed the level of tangible assets in the US economy and the conventional accounting practice of expensing intangibles results in a distorted and misleading picture not only at the firm level, but also at the macro level.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs; intangible assets; new firm formation; Tobin's Q ratio; new venture creation; innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2016.073355

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2016 Vol.27 No.1, pp.40 - 51

Received: 13 Apr 2015
Accepted: 15 Apr 2015
Published online: 30 Nov 2015 *

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