Intangible assets (IA) play an increasing role in determining the growth prospects of advanced economies. IA contribute to production and productivity both within the firm (through human and organizational capital, intellectual assets, brand name etc.) and outside it (through local externalities, the legal and institutional framework, the education system, property rights protection, social capital, among others). This growing reliance on IA has far reaching implications on firms’ location choices, on the modes and effects of local interaction and externalities and, through these channels, on regional growth.

A main problem when considering IA is that traditional management systems have been designed for tangible assets, which can be easily measured and valued within the company and at regional economic level. However, since it is not so straightforward in the case of IA, and given their increasing importance, regional administrations, firms and public organisms require new evidence on the processes through which IA influence economic growth in order to foster theirs drivers and monitor their impact on economic growth.

The Lisbon European Council set the goal of becoming "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion by 2010”. In order to achieve the ambitious goal set up in the Lisbon Agenda, regional policymakers should promote the investment in Intangible Assets in the economy. However, for doing so it is necessary to identify the IA that are contributing with more value creation to economic growth and the processes followed.

The current situation regarding IA presents some key barriers which have to be faced by regional policy makers. Among others, these are:

• Traditional management systems are not adequately designed to measure IA. An effort is therefore needed to collect information on indicators that proxy adequately all their dimensions.
• Lack of empirical evidence on the processes through which IA have an impact on innovation and on regional productivity and growth. In this sense, the impact of IA on economic performance does not go directly to the national level but through the regional one, and this regional dimension has not been explored in depth so far.
• Lack of theoretical and empirical models that consider the increasing importance of geographical linkages among regions when analyzing and monitoring the effect of IA on regional economic growth.