“What is new, driving the recent (since the mid-1980s) surge in intangibles, is the unique combination of two related economic forces.   One is intensified business competition, brought about by the globalization of trade and deregulation in key economic sectors (for example, telecommunications, electricity, transportation, financial services).   The second is the advent of information technologies, most recently exemplified by the Internet.   These two fundamental developments—one economic and political, the other technological— have dramatically changed the structure of corporations and have catapulted intangibles to the role of the major value driver of business in developed economies.”

-- Baruch Lev, Intangibles