Digital goodwill of enterprise: concept and possibility of assessment

Abstract

The article deals with the problems of determining the concept of goodwill in terms of digital transformation. There has been proposed a new concept of digital goodwill and studied the problems of determining its content and evaluation. Digital transformation in modern conditions has been found to determine both the pace of economic development and efficient activities and the creation of a successful business reputation. A comparative analysis of the methods for evaluating the results of digitalization was carried out and it was revealed that the performance indicators are similar in many methods, but the number of indicators and the reliability of their assessment is questionable. The analysis of the definitions of the concept of goodwill showed that there is no single, generally accepted definition, goodwill improperly comprises only business reputation. It has been assumed that the concept of goodwill is broader, it comprises a set of characteristics of an organization (business reputation, product quality, technological culture, digital culture, a certain level of production organization, partnerships, market prospects). In the context of digitalization, new types of factors of production appear, which include digital capital; an analysis of the existing definitions of digital capital was carried out and its own was proposed: tangible and intangible identifiable assets and unidentifiable digital assets (digital goodwill and digital competencies of employees), which allow implementing digital technologies and contribute to increasing labor productivity. For the first time the concept of digital goodwill was proposed, under which is meant a good name of the company including the company’s reputation, prestige, customer relations, location, product range, and other things based on the active use of digital technologies in management and having a significant impact on its future income. Key factors of digitalization have been identified, which can serve as targets for the formation of digital goodwill. The problems of evaluating digital goodwill are considered: invisibility (absence in accounting objects), lack of a clear assessment methodology, unavailability of objective information for developing the cash flows.