The investment activity of Spanish firms with tangible and intangible assets

There are several studies that show the importance of intangible assets in the value of a company. Nevertheless, there are few that consider the influence of their existence on tangible assets. This paper attempts to demonstrate how the existence of the intangible assets of a company affects its decisions to invest in tangible goods. To do so, an investment model based on Tobin’s q is developed. It considers the investment possibilities than companies have in both tangible and intangible assets. The proposed model is used to analyse the investment decisions on Spanish firms for a sample of Spanish, non-financial companies that were quoted on the stock market between 1991 and 1999.