Classification of Intangible Assets in Turkey: The Case of Borsa Istanbul (BIST)

This study aims to analyze the development of intangible assets in Turkey for the period of 2005-2013 by using Borsa Istanbul (BIST) database. There has not been any study dealing with intangible assets and their role in the economic growth or firm productivity in Turkey due to the lack of data and classification in this field. In this study, we apply the classification introduced by Corrado et al. (2004) to fill this research gap in the literature. According to this, intangible assets could be decomposed into three parts namely, economic competency, innovative property, andcomputerized information and database. Economic competency is comprised of advances given, comptation agreements, and special costs. Computerised information and database, on the other hand, is closely related to computer software, information systems, computer programs, and customer database. Innovative property includes assets such as patents, licenses, films, and research and development activities. According to our results, the share of intangible assets in the economy is less than that of tangible assets. The evidence, however, suggests that the share of intangibles tends to increase in recent years. As far as the subcomponents of intangible assets are considered, the share of innovative property in total assets is much higher than the share of other subcomponents. The share of computerised information and database, on the other hand, is expected to increase in following years.