Grasping the impalpable: critical appraisal of the role of public policy for intangibles

Intangibles assets have long been an important component of the global economic systems. Although there are a number of policies to support the build-up and use of different components of intangible assets, policies for intangibles as a whole are often missing. On the one hand, intangible assets often play a central role in gaining competitive advantage. On the other hand, from a systemic point of view, individual ownership of intangible assets can limit the sharing and exchange of intangibles that is indispensable for what we call in this paper ‘intangibles commons’. Policy makers must balance the tensions between supporting firm-specific intangibles and ensuring growing ‘intangibles commons’. This paper conceptualizes the ‘intangible commons’ and subsequently explores the tensions arising, examines the gaps in our knowledge needed for effective policy making and presents a set of recommendations as to more appropriate policy making for intangibles.