Digital Goodwill Valuation

Introduction: Goodwill is slippery, and many interdisciplinary\r\napproaches require coordination. While it still represents a problem for accountants,\r\nits economic valuation is often flawed by inconsistent appraisal of its expected value.\r\nThis valuation is even more important when evaluating digital goodwill.\r\nJustification: This research is justified by the growing importance of digitalization,\r\nwhich concerns not only digitally native firms but also evolving “brick-andmortar”\r\ncompanies.\r\nObjectives: This study aims to provide an analogic application of traditional\r\ngoodwill valuation patterns to digitized businesses.\r\nMethodology: The research methods consider a comparative analysis with\r\ntraditional valuation approaches, then extend to digital applications.\r\nResults: Empirical analysis using “with-or-without” differential approaches\r\nshows the incremental value of digital solutions and their impact on goodwill.\r\nLimitations of the study: This preliminary study does not consider artificial\r\nintelligence or machine learning applications where digitized ecosystems evolve\r\nfollowing self-learning patterns. Networked ecosystems ignited by scalable digitalization\r\nare also not considered, albeit deserving further investigation.