Intangible assets and business results of large companies

Purpose: To analyze the main types of intangible assets as sources of economic and social outcomes in large corporations. Design/methodology: We create a sample of large corporations with data from two secondary databases: Fortune Most Admired Companies and Interbrand. We study business’ legitimacy through their presence on Google.com. We perform quantitative analysis by testing the proposed hypotheses against a structural equation model built using the PLS method. Findings: We confirm the value of brands and legitimacy as sources of economic outcomes. We observe that perceived quality and brand equity influence social results. We conclude that perceived quality alone does not improve brand or market value. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation is related to the characteristics of the companies in the sample: large, highly institutionalized multinational corporations. Practical implications: The results offer several considerations for managers seeking to improve organizational outcomes. Intangible assets must be managed along with tangible assets in order for organizations to survive and thrive in the marketplace. Originality/value: The principal contribution of this study is to demonstrate the importance of managing intangible assets so that the organization can maintain or improve its legitimacy and its economic outcomes.