Le capital immatériel - Un enjeu primordial pour la pérennité à long terme des entreprises de l'ère post-industrielle

Abstract

This end-of-course thesis aims to demonstrate that the intangible capital of a firm is a long-term survival challenge for enterprises in the post-industrial era. Taking care of the intangible capital and developing it should be the Trojan horse of tomorrow's firms. In order to test the validity of our assumption, we reviewed the doctrine of the last twenty years on this topic. The authors who wrote on the concept of “intangible capital” allowed us to contextualize our subject with regard to the recent upheavals in our ways of living, working, consuming and thinking about time, space and the economy itself. It is more necessary than ever for all firms to adapt their business and way of working to the acceleration of all these changes. The firm’s resources that would enable an accurate and timely response to our changing world are precisely the intangible assets. In the last century, the intangible capital was like an iceberg, most scholars and valuation experts only perceived a small fraction of it. In the last decades, authors started to publish studies on the intangible capital, trying to define this concept, approach its key features and provide detailed overview of its main elements. Thanks to this theoretical progress, the intangible capital significantly gained in visibility. At the same time, new non-financial reporting obligations emerged and investments in intangible assets had the wind in their sails. The empirical research we carried out aimed at collecting the view of professionals active in the accounting, consulting or finance departments of their respective firms (company managers, auditors, consultants and financial controllers). We wanted to find out if they were aware of the immaterial capital issue, the difficulties to value this capital and the (potential) benefits a firm may trigger from investments in intangible assets. Our research revealed the growing importance of the development of the intangible capital of the firms. For 75% of the professionals interviewed, human capital is currently the most relevant criterion to ensure the sustainability of a company. 90% of the interviewees stressed that a company’s responsiveness to change is key for its long-term survival. Having a qualitative communication system and a well-qualified personnel are crucial for a company to improve its responsiveness to change. Both from our theoretical and empirical researches, it appears that the development of a company’s intangible capital is essential to ensure its sustainability in the post-industrial era.