Effect of investments on training and advertising on the market value relevance of intangibles

Resumen

This paper seeks to analyse the influence that the spending on intangible resources, specifically training and advertising, has on the corporate market value. Expenditure on intangibles is an investment in business management terms. A sample of the main Spanish companies, those quoted on the IBEX-35, was selected and the relationship was analysed between investment in intangible resources (training being representative of Human Capital and advertising of Relational Capital) and the market value relevance of the company's intangibles (measured using Tobin's Q) in two periods: 2006-2009 and 2008-2011. We thus obtain that both investing in training and investing in advertising separately have a positive impact on Tobin's Q. Regarding the joint effect, there is a positive and significant relationship with Tobin's Q in the first period analysed and no significant relation in the second period analysed. That is, investment in intellectual capital dimensions generates increases in the future market value of the firm. The results are similar using different rates of depreciation.