Intangibles

The term intangibles is most commonly used to describe things that are recognized but not easily quantified; a common example are economic intangibles which describes something not easily quantified within a given theory of economics. See capital asset for intangibles issues that arise in accounting and micro-economics, including a more detailed example from a particularly complex activity (professional sports). See capital (economics) for issues that arise in macro-economics, including a more detailed breakdown of types of assets. In general theories of economics seek to reduce or eliminate the number of intangible factors.

Intangibles are difficult-to-measure quantities or factors, generally regarded as pertaining to:

• Customer good will, employee morale, increased bureaucracy, and aesthetic appeal (i.e. negative reaction to a billboard).
• A colloquial expression for qualities in an individual or group of individuals, especially those organized in an official group (e.g. a sports team or office) which affect performance but are not readily observable. They are often cited as a reason for performance which is surprisingly better or worse than expected.
• An expenditure of time on an activity by a person (such as leveraging know-how, knowledge, collaboration, relationships, systems, and process)
• A defensible legal property right conferred by a Legal Act (copyright, trademarks, patents, designs, customer lists), or financial transactions (R&D, goodwill, intellectual capital)

Intangibles also have different meaning depending on the context:

• In arts, intangibles commonly refer to the artists unique embodiment of substance and form.
• In business, intangibles are commonly referred to as intangible assets or intellectual capital.
• In financial analysis, intangibles refer to the difference between the book value per share and the share price, or the firm's accounting value and its publicly traded market value (established through the Stock Market, or through mergers, acquisitions, etc).
• In government, intangibles typically refer to social capital and standard of living
• In law, legally created intangibles are referred to as intellectual property and include trademarks, patents, customer lists, and copyright.
• In sports, intangibles typically refer to non-physical abilities of a player or team such as leadership, maturity, team chemistry, and so on.