Intangible Assets and Internal Controls in Global Companies

Abstract

The effectiveness of corporate governance processes on global markets entails the adoption of ramified internal control systems, and the adaptation of the variables that are significant to this end to respond to the evolution of surrounding conditions. Analysis of the changes that have taken place in the main variables on which global companies concentrate their attention and their controls reveals, in particular, a growing need to evolve from the dominance of tangible components to a situation that takes intangible assets into due consideration. We refer to the corporate culture and the information system which represent both elements on which the effectiveness of governance processes is based and factors to be monitored with suitable internal control procedures.