Intangible Asset Dynamics and Firm Behaviour

Alessandro Arrighetti, Fabio Landini and Andrea Lasagni

Industry and Innovation, 2015, vol. 22, issue 5, 402-422

Abstract: We study the adoption of different patterns of intangible asset (IA) accumulation in manufacturing firms. Contrary to most of the previous literature, we find such patterns to be highly differentiated. In particular, we identify three types of firm behaviour: high and persistent, low and persistent, and discontinuous. We link the capability-based view of the firm to theories of asset complementarities and market signalling to explain how firm-specific traits affect such behaviours. We obtain the following results: first, the persistent accumulation of IAs is favoured by the internal availability of highly skilled personnel; second, firms with (a) large IA base and (b) high propensity to exploit complementarities in the asset stocks are more likely to persistently accumulate IAs than to discontinuously or never accumulate IAs and third, the adoption of quality management standards facilitates the accumulation of IAs, especially if this is done discontinuously. This paper adds to the previous literature in two ways: first, it highlights the existence of great heterogeneity in the dynamics of IA accumulation and, second, it provides an explanation for such heterogeneity.

Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13662716.2015.1064256 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Intangible assets dynamics and firm behaviour (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:indinn:v:22:y:2015:i:5:p:402-422

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CIAI20

DOI: 10.1080/13662716.2015.1064256

Access Statistics for this article

Industry and Innovation is currently edited by Associate Professor Mark Lorenzen

More articles in Industry and Innovation from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().