دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی مطالعه تطبیقی سرمایه گذاری نامشهود در مصر و آفریقای جنوبی - امرالد 2018

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the recent developments and trends of intangible investment in Egypt and South Africa. Design/methodology/approach – This paper follows the framework pioneered by Corrado, Hulten and Sichel (2005, 2009) and measures investments in scientific R&D, organizational capital, and brand equity using the expenditure-based approach. Findings – The main findings are that South Africa invests consistently and considerably more in intangible assets than Egypt. Among the three intangible assets examined, namely, scientific R&D, organizational capital, and brand equity, South Africa seems to invest more evenly across these assets, whereas intangible investment in Egypt is predominantly driven by investment in brand equity and very little in R&D. Originality/value – This is the first paper to formally examine intangible investment in African countries. The ballpark estimate provided in this study is a useful step forward in understanding the trends of intangible investment in Egypt and South Africa.

5. Conclusions and discussions

As a key driver of future economic growth, investments in knowledge-based intangible assets have become increasingly more important over time (OECD, 2013). This paper seeks to provide the first estimates on intangible investment for two African countries, namely, Egypt and South Africa, over the period 1995-2011. Based on the cost approach for measurement and relying on various international databases, this paper finds that intangible investment in South Africa is consistently and substantially higher than in Egypt, both in absolute terms and as a portion of GDP; the intangible investment share in South Africa grew from 1.9 percent of GDP to over 2.8 percent, while it remained stagnant in Egypt at roughly 0.5 percent; if the analysis is split by asset types, evidence shows that the increase in the investment share of intangibles in South Africa is mainly driven by investment in organizational capital, which accounts for merely 0.6 percent of GDP at the start of observation to over 1.2 percent in 2011. Lastly, by looking into investment composition this paper further shows that business investment in R&D accounts for a negligible share of merely 3.5 percent in Egypt, while over 75 percent of intangible investment come from investment in brand equity. From a comparative point of view, South Africa seems to invest more evenly across intangible assets with none of the investment items accounting for more than 50 percent of total intangible investment.