ABSTRACT
This chapter represents an attempt to at least outline the shape of the problem and to point to the very beginnings of a possible solution. It provides a tentative critique of accounting and its understanding of new forms of value. The contemporary challenge of accounting and corporate reporting more generally is no longer limited to robustly capturing and reassuring investors as to the value of their holdings in listed firms. Value, at least certainly value of the enduring kind, is an elusive concept. Firms who generate their intangible value are doubly penalised by not being able to offset the investment in developing their own intangible value nor book its value on the balance sheet as an internally constructed asset has never been ‘priced’ by the market. Governance plays a key role in determining not just the when of financial reporting, but the what of the value being reported.
