Intangibles from intangible capital work : their valuation and technological change

Piekkola, Hannu (author), Bloch, Carter (author), Rybalka, Marina (author), Redek, Tjaša (author)

The paper explores the relationship between intangibles, technological change, and multifactor productivity (MFP) in four coun- tries: Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Slovenia, between 2007 and 2019. An innovative approach using linked employer–employee data is employed to measure firm-level intangible assets within the areas of research and development (R&D), organizational capital (OC), and information and communication technology (ICT). Building on this, we introduce an Intangible-Biased Techno- logical Change (IBTC) approach that measures the effective use and quality of R&D and organizational capital work. The results show that both intangibles and industry-specific IBTC contribute to higher MFP in the Nordic countries. IBTC is associated with growing productivity disparities among firms within the same industry. Nevertheless, we also find that R&D enhances absorp- tive capacity, leading to positive spillovers in inter-industry relationships, and that R&D-IBTC can also narrow differences in productivity between various industries.

• Language: English
• Keywords: technological development, organizational structures, intangible capital, organizational change, productivity dispersion, R&D, technological change
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 21 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 71, iss. 2, article no. 70017
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-172666
• UDC: 658.152
• ISSN on article: 0034-6586
• DOI: 10.1111/roiw.70017
• COBISS.SI-ID: 234726147
• Publication date in RUL: 10.09.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Review of income and wealth
• Shortened title: Rev. income wealth
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0034-6586
• COBISS.SI-ID: 26280192

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: tehnološki razvoj, nematerialne naložbe, organizacijske strukture

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Project number: 822259
• Name: Capturing the value of intangible assets in micro data to promote the EU's growth and competitiveness
• Acronym: GLOBALINTO