Market value of firms and book value of firms are rarely the same. The difference, which is attributed to unrecorded or unrecognized intangible assets, has increased significantly since the 1970s. The issue of appropriately valuing these intangible assets, however, still remains unresolved. The purpose of this study is to address this lack of understanding of valuing intangible assets in the hospitality industry. Five intangible asset investments: Research and Development, Training, Advertising, Labor, Pension, and one business model, Franchising, are chosen as the valuation constructs in this study based on previous research in the hospitality industry. The valuation models for the casual dining restaurant industry and the quick service restaurant industry are compared. The sample of this study includes 13 casual dining restaurant firms and 12 quick service restaurant firms. Compustat North America is the primary data source for this study. The annual data for casual dining restaurant firms from 1980 to 2011 is collected from this database. There are 238 firm-years in total. Two firm-years are excluded due to systematic missing values, and 15 firm-years are excluded due to missing share price information. Thus, the final count of data points for casual dining restaurant firms usable for analysis purposes is 221. The annual data for quick service restaurant firms from 1980 to 2011 is also collected from the Compustat North America database. There are 251 firm-years in total. Eight firm-years are excluded due to systematic missing values, and 47 firm-years are excluded due to missing share price information. Thus, the final count of data points for quick service restaurant firms usable for analysis purposes is 196. Pearson correlation and multivariate analyses are performed to answer the four research questions in this study. Two hypotheses are supported while one hypothesis is not supported and one hypothesis remains unanswered due to Multicollinearity issues identified in multiple regression models. The results of this study show that 1) R&D, training, advertising, labor and pension are all important valuation constructs in the hospitality industry, and 2) there are some differences, however, between casual dining restaurant firms and quick service restaurant firms. This study fills the gap in the current literature by providing a quantitative method to value intangible assets in the hospitality industry that uses the valuation constructs identified in previous hospitality research. The practical implications of this study will provide managers in the hospitality industry with helpful insights for strategic decision making, specifically in regards to research and development, advertising and employee compensation. / Ph. D.

The world and its economy is going through countless and significant changes. Intangible assets are one of these changes due to the economy and the society have a higher demand for information than before. Nevertheless, tangible assets are still important assets within the economy since no economy will function without tangible assets. Intangible assets and tangible assets can contribute to that a business is gaining competitive advantages and thereby, increasing the level of profits. The focal study has been performed at Sweco Environment AB and aims to investigate how intangible assets and tangible assets contribute to increased gross profits within a specific service industry, where a modular product can be implemented. A modular product wasinvestigated in order to find differences and similarities which can affect a business’ opportunities to generate increased gross profit. The focal study is limited to a modular product and a specific industry, where it can be applied. In order to perform the focal study, scientific articles, books and reports have been utilised to form a foundation of the theoretical framework. The theoretical framework consists of sustainability, modularity and economics. Subsequently, a combination of a qualitative and quantitative research has been conducted. The qualitative research included observations and semi-structured interviews with experienced participants within the field. The quantitative research contained archival records with annual financial statements and balance sheets of private corporations within the Swedish market. The archival records were used in order to perform the econometric analysis. The results from the observations and interviews demonstrated a holistic picture of the nonmodular product and the modular product. The main differences were found within the process from customer order to utilisation and the leasing option for the modular product. The econometric analysis which was performed in the specific service industry indicated that tangible assets were not statistically significant meanwhile, intangible assets were statistically significant. A 1 % increase in intangible assets contribute to 0.088 % increase in gross profit per employee. By investing in intangible assets does not only contribute to increased gross profits, it can also lead to competitive advantages.

For those interested in studying the effects of stakeholder theory on organizational performance, the establishment of measures that represent both explicit and implicit claims on the firm’s outputs is vital. While net organizational capital (NOC) has been shown to represent the value of the firm after honouring implicit claims of stakeholder groups, practical application requires the use of surrogates such as net intangible assets (NIA). Attempts to extend research in this area by establishing additional surrogates, segment sales (SS) and research and development intensity (RD), which can be easily calculated and reflect operating characteristics of the organization being observed. Concludes that RD is a reasonable indicator of the firm’s NIA for both bond upgrade and downgrade situations, but that SS can be viewed as a surrogate for NIA during upgrade situations. Both, however, can provide great insights to the researcher and can be used to assist in classifying firms with respect to stakeholder group influence.

The importance of intangible assets like brands, customer relationships, knowledge or organisational capabilities is increasing in most western economies. Recent concepts like knowledge management or intellectual capital underline the growing importance of these "soft" production factors. The financial as well as the managerial accounting are still focusing on "hard" production factors, especially the production area with their typically physical and tangible assets and the finance and investment area with financial assets. This paper is focusing on possibilities and limits of reporting on intangible resources seen from the companies point of view. We examined 343 German listed corporations of the German C-DAX indices for industries where intangible resources play a significant role for the business models of the companies (Pharmaceuticals & Health, Software, Technology, Media and Telecommunications).Using a pre-tested questionnaire the sample finally consits of 54 companies (response rate = 16 %),that could be used for the analysis.

Background/Problem: As languages are powerful tools of communication, they play a vitalrole in shaping our perception of reality, influence our understanding of the world and determine how we interpret and make sense of it. Thus, changing the accounting languagealso affects the way financial reality can be expressed, interpreted, and perceived. However, the interpretive nature of language forms various problems connected to its components. Intangible assets (IAs) have long been an ever-difficult defined concept within the accounting language, leaving room for preparers and users of financial accounting to form individual interpretations of the concept and financial reality. Regulatory changes created to clarify these difficult defined concepts within the accounting language, such as IAs, change the accounting language, and may thus affect the interpretation of the concept as well as financial reality. It is therefore of interest to understand how these interpretations of IAs and financial reality are affected by a regulatory change. Research on this area has been left unexplored to our knowledge. Instead, previous research has been performed on the various components of the area, such as IAs and the accounting language in themselves, but does not appear to have been examined together. Additionally, previous research fails to connect the issue of interpretations with how the interpretations are affected through a regulatory change and ultimately influences our understanding of financial reality. Therefore, this thesis aims to fill this research gap and provide an understanding of how interpretations are made, along with an explanation of how interpretations are affected through accounting language change and how it affects our understanding of financial reality. This is done by examining the effects of a regulatory change on users and preparers’ interpretation of IA. The regulatory change consists of two IFRIC decisions concerning the accounting of SaaS arrangements. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how changes in the accounting languagecaused by a regulatory change affects the interpretation of IAs for preparers and users offinancial accounting, which in turn can provide an understanding of how changes in theaccounting language affect the interpretation of financial reality. Method: A qualitative method was used to examine the topic of this thesis. The empirical data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and further analyzed through ethnographic content analysis (ECA). Data were collected from 9 respondents with either programmer, auditor, investor, investment adviser, business adviser, or preparer of financial accounting as an organizational role. Main results: Users and preparers make general interpretations in different manners, interpretations concerning financial reality. Preparers who work closely with accounting regulation base their interpretations on the regulatory pillar as the institutional logics of the corresponding profession guide their decisions and actions. While users that work further from the accounting regulation do not share the institutional logics of the preparers, insteadbase their interpretations on the cultural-cognitive pillar. These differences are connected tothe normative pillar as the institutional logics of their corresponding professions shape the interpretations of financial reality. Interpretations are thus made in accordance with the normative pillar and institutional logics of each profession with either the regulatory or the cultural-cognitive pillar as the main emphasis.

This thesis is concerned with accounting for the brand management function. Two distinct perspectives are taken: the first derives from aspects of organisational and behavioural accounting research, and the second concerns organisational implications of brand valuation. Both perspectives were initially approached by means of exploratory interviews and a literature review. Hypotheses pertaining to the first perspective were analysed via survey data collected in nine strongly-branded, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. Propositions concerned with the implications of brand valuation were developed and used as the basis for measuring attitudes to brand valuation. A questionnaire concerned with brand valuation attitudes was administered to senior-ranking officials in strongly-branded, FMCG companies. The final methodological phase, for both perspectives, involved a case study conducted in a strongly-branded, FMCG company. Significant findings arising from this study include: 1) Managers who see their company as being short-termist, hold more positive attitudes to brand valuation. 2) Marketing-orientated managers are more favourably disposed to brand valuation than accounting-orientated managers. 3) Organisational benefits arising from brand valuation are more strategically, than operationally, orientated. 4) Brand manager budget participation is significantly negatively-related to job-related tension, and positivelyrelated to trust in superior and attitude to reliance on accounting performance measures. 5) Budget participation is more effective in reducing jobrelated tension in situations of high, compared to low, task uncertainty situations. 6) Reliance on a brand manager's accounting performance is positively related to brand manager performance and motivation, and negatively associated with job-related tension.

自從1991年美國總統柯林頓提出以創新冒險為知識產業揭開序幕以來，歷經20世紀末網路泡沫化的刺激，探討無形資產的論文與各類文獻如雨後春筍， 而努力找出企業無形資產與該公司市場價值的評量工具更是專家學者的急迫任務。 與無形資產息息相關的學說，以智慧資本討論最具有代表性，自從1969年John Kenne Galbraith首度提出智慧資本的定義到今日為止，已有數十位知名學者以不同的觀點、領域探討著智慧資本的定義；然而智慧資本的相關課題、學說及論述雖然歸納出無形資產的全貌，卻仍無法做為評量各產業企業價值的基礎，更遑論能讓投資方，融資機構及無形資產企業有一個評量無形資產價值的參考指標。 無形資產價值因企業範疇與生產流程具有專屬特性，本研究期望透過研究者本身產業背景、專家問卷及業界訪談進行彙整、歸納出遊戲企業無形資產之價值驅動因子。再以彙整之無形資產價值驅動因子，進行遊戲產業關鍵成功因素的探討。在研究者與專家討論及訪談確認的關鍵成功因素基礎上進行問卷設計，進而對五家遊戲公司進行調研。 最後將調研進行統計整理， 歸納出遊戲產業成功關鍵因素以相對重要性而言有「團隊質量」、「競爭優勢」及「市場影響力」，而此三種關鍵因素應可做為評價遊戲企業價值的參考指標。 / Since US President Clinton proposed regarding innovating and taking risks as the prelude of opening of knowledge industry in 1991， go through the stimulus of the internet bubble in the end of the 20th century， there are lots of papers and documents studying about the intangible assets， and It become the more urgent issue for experts and scholars to make full efforts to find out the valuation tool for measuring the intangible assets and the market value of enterprises. The Intelligence Capital(IC) is the most representative theory which is closely linked with intangible assets， since John Kenne Galbraith proposed the definition of the intelligence capital up to today for the first time in 1969， there have been several dozens of famous scholars with different views and fields discussing the definition of intelligence capital already; However， the relevant subjects and theory about intelligence capital sum up the general situation of the intangible assets， but still not yet to become the standard valuation method to evaluate the value of every industry as well as enterprise， even can not to be the reference indicator to evaluate the intangible assets for the investor、financing organization and those enterprises with intangible assets . The value of the intangible assets has specific characteristics due to the different business model and production procedure of the company. Researcher expects to sum up the the intangible assets value drivers of enterprises in the game industry through her own industry background as well as gathering expert questionnaire and industry interview. Researcher has collected the most value drivers of intangible assets from relevant papers and interviews， also make discussions with the key person from game company on KSF. After designing the questionnaire based on the confirmed KSF， the study has surveyed five game companies to get primary data. Through the whole explored process ， finally got the conclusion that the most important KSF of the game industry are ' the group's quality ' ， ' the competition advantage ' and ' the marketing power '， which are educed from the stat. data， and this three kinds of KSF could be run for the reference indicators of measuring game company value.

In 1979 Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky created the prospect theory. It became an accepted and appropriate theory in explaining decision making under risk. The prospect theory has been one of the most cited articles in economics and Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences as a result of the creation and development of the theory. Therefore the prospect theory is considered to be more suitable compared to the previously accepted theory, the expected utility theory. Following the prospect theory, researchers have utilized it to describe individual but also corporate management decision making when faced with risk. In this thesis the authors will focus on the latter. Despite the prospect theory being a well-accepted theory, there have been several critics due to its limitations and Audia and Greve (2006) are one of these critics. Their study suggested that corporations under threat, i.e. small firms with low returns, act risk averse. The findings of Audia and Greve (2006) violate the prospect theory when considering small firms that have below target returns. They tested the theory on an industry that has the characteristics of having relatively high proportions of tangible assets. Audia and Greve (2006) also proposed that a similar conclusion could be drawn if tested on an industry characterized by having a high level of intangible assets. This thesis examines the applicability of the prospect theory in the Swedish automotive industry and staffing and recruitment industry. The characteristics of the two industries are that the automotive industry has a high proportion of tangible assets and the staffing and recruitment industry has a high level of intangibles. The authors test if the prospect theory can be used to describe the decision making of both industries but also test the theory on small and large firms. Following the results of this paper we show that the prospect theory can be applied to the Swedish automotive industry and staffing and recruitment industry, characterized by having high levels of tangible assets and intangible assets respectively. The theory can also be used to explain decision making under risk for small firms within both industries and large firms within the automotive industry. Even though the prospect theory was originally tested on individuals, the conclusion can be drawn that the prospect theory once again prevails as an explanation of the decision making in the management of corporations. It can describe the decision making of firms in the two industries having characteristics of different asset tangibility and for firms of different size.

An accounting issue that has received attention is the issue of identification of intangible assets in acquisitions. This is because the company's result can be different depending on how much the company chooses to identify intangible assets separated from goodwill. As the practice for identification of intangible assets lacks clarity, companies are able to account for this in different ways. In this study, the manner in which identification of intangible assets are managed by companies listed on Swedish multilateral trading facilities and the manner in which companies distribute the purchase sum on net tangible assets, intangible assets and goodwill in comparison with listed companies is examined. The study emanates from a systems approach and is descriptive. It seeks to describe the concerns relating to identification of intangible assets in acquisitions rather than creating general conclusions. It alos emanates from a quantitative method where data is gathered from annual reports from the companies in question for the year 2012. The result showed that listed companies identified more intangible assets separated from goodwill. At the same time it was not possible to determine if this depended on whether or not the companies listed on multilateral trading facilities were better or worse than listed companies in the accounting of acquisitions. It also emerged that the information concerning acquisitions in annual reports left much to be desired. To improve the identification of intangible assets, clearer practice is required as well as auditors speaking up on the issue. / Ett uppmärksammat redovisningsproblem är identifiering av immateriella tillgångar vid företagsförvärv. Företagets resultat kan bli annorlunda beroende på hur företaget väljer att identifiera immateriella tillgångar skilt från goodwill. Då praxis kring identifiering av immateriella tillgångar saknar tydlighet lämnas utrymme för företag att redovisa immateriella tillgångar på olika sätt. I studien undersöks hur identifiering av immateriella tillgångar hanteras av företag på svenska Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTF) och hur dessa företag fördelar köpeskillingen på netto materiella tillgångar, immateriella tillgångar och goodwill i jämförelse med börsnoterade företag. Studien utgår ifrån ett systemsynsätt och är deskriptiv. Uppsatsen syftar därför till att beskriva problematiken kring identifiering av immateriella tillgångar vid ett företagsförvärv snarare än att skapa generella slutsatser. Studien utgår från en kvantitativ metod där data samlas in från årsredovisningar för de aktuella företagen för år 2012. Resultatet visade att börsnoterade företag identifierade mer immateriella tillgångar skilt från goodwill. Samtidigt gick det inte att avgöra om det berodde på att företag på MTF:er var bättre eller sämre än börsnoterade företag i redovisningen av företagsförvärv. Utöver detta framkom dessutom att informationen kring företagsförvärv i årsredovisningen lämnar mycket att önska. För att förbättra identifieringen av immateriella tillgångar krävs tydligare praxis samt att revisorerna vågar säga ifrån.

Verksamheters ekonomi styrs genom ekonomistyrning, vilken även kan ske utifrån medarbetarskap. Ledares beslut påverkar dagligen hur immateriellt kapital såsom exempelvis personalens motivation samt yrkeskunskap utvecklas. Långsiktig hållbarhet är ett aktuellt ämne, samt kan gynna en verksamhet. Begreppet hållbarhet innefattar att exempelvis långsiktigt tillvarata alla personalresurser, även ledare. Ny lagstiftning har utökat arbetsgivares ansvar för psykosocial arbetsmiljö, och härigenom har framkommit att ledares medarbetarskap samt egna psykosociala arbetsmiljö är mindre belyst. En kvalitativ studie med djupintervjuer genomfördes i syfte att bidra till ökad kunskap i ämnet humankapital samt immateriellt kapital, utifrån hållbart ledarskap. Forskningsfråga var: Kan verksamheters immateriella kapital samt humankapital stärkas utifrån ledares psykosociala arbetsmiljö, och i så fall hur? Respondentgrupp var fjorton högre skolledare, vilka i empiriskt material gav personlig upplevelse av egen arbetsmiljö samt självskattad psykosocial hälsa. Studiens empiri, teori samt analys har belyst fyra teman: ledarskap, strategi och struktur, ledarskap och förändring, ledarskap och ekonomisk styrning utifrån medarbetarskap, samt ledarskapets organisatoriska hållbarhet. Resultatet visade att verksamheten genom påverkan av kultur kan ges ökad möjlighet till information och kunskap. Även stöd i olika former sågs kunna stärka, exempelvis i form av självreflektion över egen psykosocial arbetsmiljö, samt utökade verktyg att hantera vardag. Mentorskap, handledning i grupp, samt samverkande ledarskap sågs även det kunna stärka immateriellt kapital samt motivation. Ändrad administration, kommunikationsvägar samt mötesstruktur, menades kunna frigöra tid och resurser att arbeta med kommunikation och samverkan för kunskapsutbyte. Detta ansågs gynna motivation och produktivitet, samt förstärka kunskap. Studien visade att immateriellt kapital kunde stärkas utifrån ledares psykosociala hälsa. Fynd sågs även överförbara på andra verksamhetsområden. / Operations are controlled by financials, which also may be based on coworkers. Leader's decisions daily affect intangible assets such as staff motivation and professional skills development. Long-term sustainability is a hot topic, and can benefit a business. The concept of sustainability includes, for example, long-term safeguarding of human resources, also leaders. New legislation has expanded employer's responsibility for psychosocial work environment, and thus has emerged that the leader's empowerment and own psychosocial work is less illuminated. A qualitative study using in-depth interviews was conducted in order to contribute to increased knowledge of the subject human capital and intellectual capital, on basis of sustainable leadership. Research question was: Can operations intellectual and human capital be strengthened based on leaders psychosocial work environment, and if so, how? Respondents were fourteen high school principals, which in empirical material gave personal experience of own work and self-rated psychosocial health. The study's empirical data, theory and analysis has highlighted four themes: leadership, strategy and structure, leadership and change, leadership and economic governance on the basis of teamwork, leadership, and organizational sustainability. Result showed that activity by influencing culture can be given greater access to information and knowledge. Also various forms of support were seen to strengthen, for example in form of self-reflection about psychosocial work environment, as well as enhanced tools to manage everyday life. Mentoring, tutoring in groups, and collaborative leadership were also seen strengthen intangible assets, and motivation. Changed management, communication channels and meeting structure, could free up time and resources to work with communication and collaboration for knowledge sharing. This was considered promote motivation and productivity, and strengthen knowledge. The study showed that intangible assets and goodwill could be strengthened on basis of leaders' psychosocial health. The findings were also seen transferable to other areas of activity.