Social Value

A framework for evaluating a company's performance across environmental impact, social responsibility, and corporate governance practices. ESG factors are increasingly material to valuation, investor mandates, and regulatory compliance, and intersect with intangible asset categories such as reputation and organisational capital.

A quantitative rating assessing a company's performance and risk exposure across environmental, social, and governance criteria, typically assigned by specialist rating agencies such as MSCI, Sustainalytics, and S&P Global. ESG scores increasingly influence investment decisions, cost of capital, and regulatory compliance, and are becoming a material factor in business valuations and due diligence.

The effect a brand has on how customers think and behave: their awareness of it, the associations and perceived quality they attach to it, and their loyalty to it (the Aaker and Keller models). Brand equity is a consumer and marketing concept, measured with surveys, tracking studies, retention and price premium data, and it influences pricing power, customer loyalty and market share.

The economic value of a workforce's collective experience, skills, knowledge, creativity, and health. Investment in human capital through recruitment, training, development, and retention is a key intangible asset category and a primary driver of productivity growth.

The collective economic benefit created by the network of partners, developers, suppliers, and complementary businesses that surround a platform or company. Ecosystem value is an increasingly important intangible asset for technology firms, where the strength and breadth of the surrounding ecosystem drives adoption, innovation, and customer retention.

In a business context, the natural environment and the regulatory, social, and market conditions within which organisations operate. Environmental considerations have become increasingly material to intangible asset valuation as ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks gain prominence among investors, regulators, and customers.

The EU regulatory framework for insurance and reinsurance companies, establishing risk-based capital requirements, governance standards, and supervisory reporting obligations. Solvency II uses a three-pillar structure: quantitative requirements (Pillar 1), governance and risk management (Pillar 2), and disclosure and transparency (Pillar 3).

A customer loyalty metric derived from a single survey question asking respondents how likely they are to recommend a company, product, or service on a scale of zero to ten. NPS is widely used as a proxy for customer relationship quality and brand strength, both of which are critical intangible assets influencing long-term enterprise value.

Brand Valuation: Methods, a Worked Example and Brand Equity vs Brand Value

Brand valuation turns a brand's market strength into a defensible number. This guide separates brand equity from brand value, works a relief from royalty example through to the pound, compares the other methods against IVS 210 and ISO 10668, and explains when a brand is recognised in the accounts.

How do you measure brand value?

Brand value is most commonly measured using the Relief from Royalty method, which estimates what the business would pay to licence its brand if it didn't own it, discounted to present value.

How much of a company's value is intangible?

For S&P 500 companies, over 90% of market capitalisation is attributed to intangible assets. For typical SMEs, the proportion ranges from 50-85% depending on the industry and business model.

How can intangible assets drive revenue growth?

Intangible assets drive growth through brand premium pricing, customer retention, technology differentiation, proprietary data advantages, and scalable IP licensing — all generating returns without proportional capital expenditure.