Different meanings of intangible assets and knowledge: and their implications for management and innovation

‘Intangible assets’, ‘knowledge’ and other similar terms (together: ‘non-tangible assets) are being widely used in several approaches in business studies and other social sciences. Non-tangible assets can be defined very differently and, hence, have very different meanings. In this sense, the objects of reasoning as well as the implications for their management and innovation are also very different. In this paper, the main definitions and meanings of the terms most commonly used in the wide area of knowledge management, their embeddedness in different strands and modes of reasoning are being investigated and discussed. Special attention is drawn to their different, positive as well as negative implications for the management of ‘non-tangible assets’ and to how innovation consequently is understood.