Intellectual Capital and Value Creation in the Machinery and Equipment Industry

Economists have concluded that the intangible assets growth have exceeded expectations in the last years. Although there is no general agreement on its conceptualization the intangible assets's effects in the company's statements have been widely recognized, raising interest from researchers and economic agents on methods of appraisal. The purpose of this paper is to provide ideas for discussion by testing Pulic's theory of Value Added Intellectual Capital - VAIC, for manufacturing industries operating in Brazil, in the period of 2000 to 2006. Pulic's Theory was selected mainly because it is applicable based on public data gathered from company's financial statements. The sample is comprised of Brazilian non listed and listed companies with more than 100 employees belonging to the Annual Industrial Research (Pesquisa Industrial Annual - PIA) annually undertaken by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE). Research was undertaken in the field of quantitative methodology. Static and dynamic regression models were applied to a data panel. In general, the results achieved indicate that the VAIC model is relevant to explain value creation by the Brazilian companies.