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The governance of intangibles: Rethinking financial reporting and the Board of directors

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  • Yuri Biondi
  • Antoine Rebérioux

Abstract

When capital markets are assumed to be (informationally) efficient and the firm a mere collection of marketable resources, corporate governance and accounting are expected to be primarily concerned with making corporate insiders sensitive to external pressure: financial reporting and the board should replicate the market in the context of the firm. In particular, no firm-specific information is required to perform an effective control: independence of board members is the best quality to assure the monitoring of corporate insiders. However, whenever intangibles become significant, firm-specific information becomes as important as market prices to gauge the past and future performance of the business firm. Specific knowledge of the firm is then required to both disclose high-quality information and monitor corporate executives. This argues for the role of improved historical-cost accounting systems coupled with non-independent, proficient board members.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuri Biondi & Antoine Rebérioux, 2008. "The governance of intangibles: Rethinking financial reporting and the Board of directors," EconomiX Working Papers 2008-36, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    • Handle: RePEc:drm:wpaper:2008-36
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    Cited by:

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    2. Tsunogaya Noriyuki & Okada Hiromasa & Patel Chris, 2011. "The Case for Economic and Accounting Dualism: Towards Reconciling the Japanese Accounting System with the Global Trend of Fair Value Accounting," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 1(2), pages 1-56, October.
    3. Y. Biondi & P. Giannoccolo & A. Reberioux, 2009. "Efficient monitoring and control in intangibles-driven economies: is full independence always required?," Working Papers 664, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    4. Baker C. Richard & Yuri Biondi & Qiusheng Zhang, 2009. "Résistance Et Confusion Dans L'Harmonization Des Normes Comptables Internationales : L'Approche Chinoise Aux Fusions Et Acquistions," Post-Print halshs-00458944, HAL.
    5. Sandro Montresor & Antonio Vezzani, 2022. "Financial constraints to investing in intangibles: Do innovative and non-innovative firms differ?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 1-32, February.
    6. Richard Barker & Alan Teixeira, 2018. "Gaps in the IFRS Conceptual Framework," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 153-166, May.
    7. Biondi Yuri, 2015. "An Economic Analysis of ‘Comply or Explain Principle’ under a Review Panel Regime," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 5(3), pages 295-300, November.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General

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