IT assets, organization capital and market power: Contributions to business value

How much IT capital contributes to the economic value of firms is a relevant but complex issue, since the contribution may come from different sources that are difficult to separate. In this paper, we model the determinants of the economic value of multi‐asset firms with market power when the adjustment costs of investing in IT capital turn into organization capital, increasing the future cash flow of the firm. The resulting valuation equation, new in the literature, has four simultaneous sources of economic value: (i) purchase costs of the assets, (ii) adjustment costs, (iii) organization capital, and (iv) rents from market power. The model is tested with a unique data base from Spanish banks in a time period when these banks invested heavily in IT capital. We find that 54% of the economic value of the representative bank corresponds to the purchase cost of material and immaterial assets, including IT capital. The remaining 46% corresponds to the contributions of: adjustment costs (17%), organization capital (7%) and rents from market power (22%).