The impact of intangible assets on financial and governance policies: a univariate analysis

Abstract

This study analyses the impact of the level and the type of the intangible assets on six major financial and governance policies: financial structure, dividend pay-outs, managerial share ownership, external ownership concentration, board of directors’ structure and auditing. These policies directly depend on the interactions between managers, shareholders and debt holders. Using a UK cross-sectional sample (374 firms for the year 2000), the results suggest that the bundles of financial and governance policies differ between levels of overall intangible asset intensity, levels of all intangible assets other than research and development (RD), categories of intangible assets (RD versus non-RD) and levels of stock of RD. Hence, the level and type of intangible assets seem to have significant impact on financial and governance policies. Different levels and/or types of intangible assets seem to require different portfolios of financial and governance policies.