In line with the Resource-based view, intangibles have become the key resource for generating competitive advantages in a firm. This is particularly significant in the case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) whose competitive advantage is frequently based on intangible resources. However, there has been little attempt to assess and measure the role of intangible resources in firms' performance, and the motives driving their valuation process. Besides, most of the studies have been carried out in large firms. This article, combining theoretical contributions and empirical evidence, aims to analyze the relationship between the motives, external or internal, driving the valuation process of intangibles and the performance obtained by SMEs. Considering the recognized hypotheses and based on a survey of a representative sample of 369 Spanish SMEs' managers, in addition to the financial data collected from these firms, we explore whether the different motives driving the companies to perform a financial valuation of their intangibles are reflected in the business performance, and conditioned by financial structure and the level of intangibles. Results indicate that SMEs consider important to report intangibles value to external stakeholders as they depict a higher level of borrowing, as well as a higher level of intangibles accounted in the balance sheet. Furthermore, SMEs that consider the financial valuation of their intangibles for internal reasons achieve better performance. The implications of these results and suggestions for future research are dicussed as well.

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Este trabajo pretende, en primer lugar, conocer la percepción de las empresas del País Vasco sobre la importancia y motivos para la valoración de los intangibles, en segundo lugar, constatar la tipología de intangibles predominantes en estas empresas; y finalmente verificar el grado de aplicabilidad del método de valoración financiera desarrollado por Rodríguez-Castellanos et al. (2006a, 2007). Para el logro de estos objetivos se han realizado 517 encuestas a directores financieros de empresas del País Vasco. Los resultados muestran el alto interés de las empresas por la valoración de los intangibles, siendo los intangibles asociados a competencias su principal factor de competitividad. Aún siendo posible la aplicación del método de valoración financiera contrastado, debe destacarse la necesidad de realizar esfuerzos previos para mejorar el conocimiento que las empresas tienen sobre sus intangibles.