Veröffentlichter Bericht einer Hochschule/Institution,
Main Theories and Concepts
Amsterdam 1999: OECD Work on Measuring Intangible Investment, OECD, (1999)
Zusammenfassung
In order to explain, and more importantly, to achieve economic growth, more attention should be devoted to the less tangible forms of capital accumulation (e.g. R&D, training and various forms of organisation). The term 'intangible investment' was coined to describe such activities in the mid-1980s by analogy with the tangible investments which they complement or even replace. At least to begin with, no special conceptual framework was set up but rather the stress was on adapting the established framework for capital analysis, notably in the framework of the revision of the System of National Accounts.
From a theoretical and empirical point of view, it has long been recognised that the accumulation of physical capital is not the only factor influencing economic growth and development. In fact, long before the 'renaissance' (or renewed interest) in 'intangible investment', some aspects of it were already taken into account in industrial, economic and organisational change theories.
Presenting a complete review of the theoretical literature would go much beyond the scope of this set of practical guidelines. This paper, which is intended more to provide a broad picture of the main approaches for the reader who is mainly interested in practical matters, runs through four kinds of theories, namely: human capital theory, innovation theory, the theory of 'intellectual investment' and the new growth theories (endogenous growth theory and the evolutionary theory) and their links with intangible investment.
